Powering a light grid

holymexicobatman

holymexicobatman

Well-known member
So I'm builing a small webcast studio in a basement. I've got between 6 to 9 40w CFL clamp lights hung up on a basic overhead grid. There are plenty of outlets down in the basement but I don't know what they're rated for or how to find out. Sine this is a permanent setup, I wont be doing any dimming--just diffusion and placement techniques.

What's the cheapest but safe way to wire all of this and what kind of equipment do i need to make sure i don't blow anything up? I basically just want to find a way to centralize a main switch.

Also, keep in mind I'll have a are main desktop editing suite down there as well as the camera. There is also, a washer/drayer down there and a bathroom, plus 4 existing 60w incandescent overhead room lights. I assume all of that is on the same breaker but of course the w/d won't be running during our shoots.

Thanks!
 
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You should be fine. As a safe estimate, I'd say the breaker down in your basement is 15amps. To get the amperage you divide watts by volts, so 9 x 150 is 1,350 watts, divided by 120 is 11.25 amps.

As a safety precaution you should do what they call paper amps, which is dividing it by 100 instead of 120, that way you factor in a bit of a safety margin, but even with that you're still at 13.5 amps. Just make sure you're not plugging in too much more stuff down there, as with another 150 watts you'll start to push it.

I'll let someone else take the dimmer question though, obviously you could just make something that holds 9 inline dimmers and then just label each one, but I'm not sure if there's anything you can do that would be nicer.
 
Ok, per Potato42's advice, I've decided to switch this whole setup to CFL's and scratch dimming since this is a permanent setup and space is very limited and therefore heat is an issue. OP has been edited.
 
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