how bright or dim a light is, is the intensity of light. Take an instrument out of that dimmer and put it somewhere else. If the breakers click off, you're running too much wattage through the dimmers. A good rule of thumb is to allow about ten percent under capacity for any dimmer, old or new, that are left running for an extended period of time. If your dimmers are older, it's a good idea not to push their capacities. If it's over, use a bigger dimmer or split the load over another dimmer. If it's under the dimmer capacity, you're in great shape. To keep from overloading your dimmers, add up the watts of all your lighting instruments you want to put into a dimmer to get your dimmer load. If you overload a dimmer, it will trip the circuit breaker, and it won't work.Ī circuit breaker is a safety measure to keep people from overloading dimmers and starting electrical fires. The dimmer capacity is the maximum number of watts you can plug into a dimmer.
SMALL STAGE LIGHTING DESIGN SKIN
If you touch the glass part of a lamp and leave even a partial fingerprint, the oil from your skin will bubble up and cause the lamp to fail when it's turned on.Įvery dimmer has a dimmer capacity. Dry it off with more clean dry lotion-free tissue. If you do accidentally touch the glass part of a lamp, get some tissue that doesn't contain lotion, wet it with rubbing alcohol, and wipe down the lamp while it is still unplugged and turned off. If you have to take a lamp out of an instrument to check the wattage, turn off and unplug the instrument, and be careful not to touch the glass part of the lamp. When you add up all the wattage of your lamps, that is the dimmer load. A lighting instrument will eat up every it of electricity that is sent to it. One thing you have to be careful of, is not overloading your dimmers. When the controller is at 100 percent, the dimmer is sending out, and the instrument is eating up, or drawing, all 500 watts the lamp is capable of receiving, and the instrument will be putting out every bit of light it is capable of producing. When the controller is at 0, no electricity is being sent to the lighting instrument, and no light comes out of it. We measure electricity in watts and amps.
SMALL STAGE LIGHTING DESIGN MANUAL
Some are manual controllers, requiring you to run the faders by hand, while other controllers are fully computerized. We can control the intensity of light by using dimmers and lighting controllers. Intensity is how bright or dim the light is.