[SML] Dimming Cooling

[Ford Sellers]

-----Original Message-----
Steve Litterst said…



An interesting issue that just occurred to me.  Sure, you can run an entire position of LED fixtures off of 2-3 20A circuits, but is it really wise to gang that many fixtures together?  Say you need to cycle power during a rehearsal or show, do you want the entire system to shut down, or just the troublesome fixtures?  G-d forbid a rat chews the wrong wire in the wall -- how much of the position do you want to lose?



Consultants on the list?  How many circuits do you spec for a position in an all-LED facility?



Steve L.



--

Stephen Litterst            Technical Operations Supervisor



From a manufacturer’s point of view, a common number that we recommend (of course depending on the power draw of the fixtures) is about 10 units at 120v.

Little LED units may have 20 or more on a circuit without popping a breaker, and larger Production units may limit you to as few as 3 or 4.

Most of our fixtures have power linking (a power passthrough on the unit), and the maximum number of those same fixtures that can be linked are in our specs.

We include a hefty buffer, and have it certified as a part of our UL/ETLc/MET testing.



Specifically to Steve’s point…

[WARNING, potential commercial post]

We do make a cool little product for Power and Data distribution called the Synapse 4.

It has a single 20amp power input, and 4 individually controllable outputs (also a built-in 4 port opto splitter).

The outputs can be triggered via DMX, or internal clock, or DMX sensing (when the console is turned off, the unit waits a predetermined amount of time, and then cuts the power).

It’s basically a 4 heavy duty 4 channel relay pack on steroids.



We made this because we found that some of our customers never turned their LED fixtures off.

This basically negates all of the power savings, as a LED fixture which is powered on, but has the LEDs at 0% still uses anywhere from a couple of watts up to over 20 watts.

The PSU, and all of the electronics are always running, if the thing is plugged in.

Killing the power not only saves on the electric bill, but makes your units last a lot longer too.

If you’re going to spend more on the LED version of a fixture, you certainly don’t want to have to replace the PSU after 1000 “working hours” because the PSU and all of the other electronics ran 20,000 hrs in that same period.



Anyway, we make the Synapse-4, and it solves a bunch of problems… and it’s cool…and chicks dig it…just ask my wife.



-Ford


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://theatrical.net/pipermail/stagecraft_theatrical.net/attachments/20150903/41122a67/attachment.html>