5 ms·
There's another issue with stage lighting, which is that they draw enough power to flip most residential circuit breakers and possibly to cause electrical fires
by cauterized 11y ago
There's another issue with stage lighting, which is that they draw enough power to flip most residential circuit breakers and possibly to cause electrical fires as well. You're looking at 500W per lighting unit; 575W for the more modern ones with bluer hue. Most theaters are specially wired from the mains to a bank of "dimmers" that safely provide at least 2000W per circuit.
- Symbiote 11y agoThat should be no problem in Europe, Australia, etc. There are portable 3000W appliances, like kettles, heaters and (Old) vacuum cleaners.
- tallanvor 11y agoIt's certainly an issue in Europe, especially in older buildings. As an example, my apartment has two breakers - one for the oven, and one for everything else. Which means that in terms of appliance use, I can run my washer, dryer, microwave, or vacuum - attempting to run any two of those at once practically guarantees tripping the breaker.
- Symbiote 11y agoI guess it depends if regulations have forced an upgrade of the wiring. My mum's house is from 1905, but had to be required when she bought it in 1980, and there's no problem running everything in the kitchen at once, plus many portable heaters. We did this at Christmas a couple of years ago when the gas heating broke. I can't remember ever tripping a breaker. My apartment's main breaker is rated to 50kW, with the oven and hob and laundry machines on 3-phase power, and several 230V 16A circuits for lights and sockets.
- cauterized 11y agoI had no idea! In most kitchens here you can flip the circuit breaker by running the microwave and toaster at the same time. I've also occasionally done it by turning the oven light on while both (gas) oven and microwave were in use. Sigh. What does a kettle need 3000 watts for?
- pm215 11y agoA kettle wants as many watts as it can reasonably be provided with -- you're heating a fixed volume of water by a fixed temperature rise (from cold to boiling), so the more power the faster the kettle boils (and if you have a lower-power kettle it doesn't use less energy overall, it just takes longer). Thus kettles are typically designed to draw more-or-less the maximum permitted current for the usual UK domestic socket.
- Agathos 11y agoI want my tea water and I want it now! Seriously, mine boils in almost no time. Needs a lot of power to do that.
- andrewaylett 11y agoBoiling water? 3kW isn't a magic number for the kettle, it's just the amount of power you can get away with drawing when you've got a 240V supply rated at 13A. The more power, the faster the water boils. As I understand it, freestanding kettles are much less popular in North America, presumably because a hob can draw more power?
- sliverstorm 11y agoNorth america just doesn't use as much hot water as Asia and Britain. No tea or instant foods. Pasta must be boiled, coffee is usually made in a dedicated device...
- IkmoIkmo 11y agoNot an issue for newly built apartments, perhaps, but I've been living in an old one for the past year and the electricity is just really poorly done. I've had the circuit breaker fail on me while doing laundry (1kw) and warming up some pancakes in the microwave (1kw). And that's without my neighbour being home, as (go figure) we're on the same circuit breaker.
- jessaustin 11y agoI guess those kettles could even work in USA on a 30A circuit. Electric tankless water heaters, which amount to the same thing, also need such circuits.
- superuser2 11y agoMy theater's ETC Source 4s are lamped at 800W. 110V * 15A = 1650W. Room for one, at least. This provides good illimination from at least a hundred feet. You need much less, so can lamp much lower. Dimmers should not be in quotes, they do in fact perform dimming.