Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Kristian Stevenson]

Hello all,
I am installing 6 par56 fixtures with wide flood bulbs to use as house lighting in the youth room at my church. They will plug into 3 open channels on my dimmer packs (2 lights per channel). I briefly talked to an electrician about cabling to use and he said since it was festival lighting I would not need to run the cable through conduit and to use festival cabling. My question is the type of cable to use. SOOW is what is standard for our industry but since this cable is going to be installed in open ceiling (see picture), I shouldn't need to oil or water resistance. Correct? Also, I should just need 14/3 SJ (300v). Also attached is a diagram of my plan.

[TJ (Tom) Cornish]

SO cord is generally acceptable for exposed wiring as you suggest as long as it doesn't pass through walls or any enclosed spaces.  This is usually classified as "temporary" wiring, even if it's there for multiple years, as it's not attached to the structure.  The SO/SJ distinction has some grey area.  Normally SO is required for mechanical ruggedness in this industry, which has nothing to do with voltage capacity.  Since the cost difference is minimal and you won't care about the OD of the cable, I would use SOOW to eliminate something the inspector could complain about.  You generally get the oil and water ratings with the extra-hard service rating.

Where are the dimmer packs going to live and how are they fed?  How are you planning to split the dimmer channel into two lights?

[Kristian Stevenson]

Where are the dimmer packs going to live and how are they fed?  How are you planning to split the dimmer channel into two lights?

Thanks for the reply. I actually found a price for SJOOW cable for $.61 per foot so I'll probably go with that.

 The dimmer packs are on the front truss as seen in the second picture. I have 3 packs right now and each one has its own 15 amp circuit. For this house light I plan on using three channels on the 3rd dimmer. The packs are only rated at 15 amps total (max 5 amps per channel) so if I put 5 amps on 3 channels (2.5 amps per light), I'll loose one channel.

To limit the amount of cable used. I planned on going from the dimmer to the female edison plug at the first light then jump out of the plug to the second light. Basically exactly how I diagrammed it.

[duane massey]

It might be cheaper to use a single steel box with a duplex outlet at each location. I am constantly amazed at how much cable-end connectors cost. Depending upon where you are, a box w/ duplex outlet and steel cover (plus connectors) should cost $3-4, and I find this method a lot easier to wire.
Of course, you could separate 2 of the lights (one per channel) without changing your load, and gain individual control of each of these two fixtures.

[TJ (Tom) Cornish]

Thanks for the reply. I actually found a price for SJOOW cable for $.61 per foot so I'll probably go with that.

 The dimmer packs are on the front truss as seen in the second picture. I have 3 packs right now and each one has its own 15 amp circuit. For this house light I plan on using three channels on the 3rd dimmer. The packs are only rated at 15 amps total (max 5 amps per channel) so if I put 5 amps on 3 channels (2.5 amps per light), I'll loose one channel.

To limit the amount of cable used. I planned on going from the dimmer to the female edison plug at the first light then jump out of the plug to the second light. Basically exactly how I diagrammed it.

Jumping out of a plug into another one isn't a good way to do this and will likely raise a lot more ire than SO vs SJ. 

[Kristian Stevenson]

Jumping out of a plug into another one isn't a good way to do this and will likely raise a lot more ire than SO vs SJ.

Is there a reason why this is a bad method? Ideally I would do home runs for each light but for the sake of saving $$ on cable and connectors, this seems to be the best way. I wouldn't be exceeding the load capacity on 14/3 SJOOW cable. I plan on buying beefy Hubble connectors or the steel box method mentioned by duane.

[TJ (Tom) Cornish]

Is there a reason why this is a bad method? Ideally I would do home runs for each light but for the sake of saving $$ on cable and connectors, this seems to be the best way. I wouldn't be exceeding the load capacity on 14/3 SJOOW cable. I plan on buying beefy Hubble connectors or the steel box method mentioned by duane.

The plug is not designed for that use.  Neither the strain relief or the screw terminals are designed to receive more than one wire.

[duane massey]

I with TJ about the Hubbel connector, but the steel box/duplex method should be perfectly acceptable, and a lot easier to physically wire.

[Kristian Stevenson]

Alrighty that's fine with me. Whether or not it is correct I have used looms made for 2 Meyer subs to take two L5-20 plugs to an L14-30 plug. Hmm.

My electrician also said to go with the 600v wire for added protection. I'll get pictures up when I'm done with the project.

[Kristian Stevenson]

I know it's been a while but we finally gathered all the materials and setup scaffolding today to find the best positioning for the lights. After hanging a row of 3 of them I discovered even the wide flood bulbs I bought aren't wide enough. I don't A) have enough par cans or bulbs and B) don't have enough channels on my dimmers to power any more 300 watt fixtures. Luckily the bulbs and receptacles I bought can be returned. Now to drop back and punt.

 I need to do something fairly cheap and I have a 15 amp maximum on my dimmer. I was looking at Lowes at standard outdoor security lights that you'd mount on the outside of a house (less than $10 per fixture). My question is would standard 65 watt flood bulbs provide enough light for my room (24'Wx50'Lx17'H)? If so, about how many would it take (an estimation). Luckily, I bought enough wire to change the configuration if needed. Any other suggestions?

[Ray Cerwinski]

Did you think about trying diffusion?

[duane massey]

I have used these security fixtures for low-budget washes in the past, and they are cost-effective. Performance is similar to low-$ strip or cyc lights, I'd put as many as you can safely power up. I used 150w or 300w.

[Kristian Stevenson]

Ray,
I thought about diffusion filters but I wasn't sure how much it would actually spread the light. I'd prefer something that would behave like a wash light. I've got a few trouble lights I'm going to put some flood bulbs in and hang those to see what they look like.

[duane massey]

Something like this has worked well for me in similar situations:
http://www.amazon.com/Heath-Zenith-SL-5571-BZ-Floodlight-Backplate/dp/B005MI41V4/ref=sr_1_95?s=lamps-light&ie=UTF8&qid=1340723208&sr=1-95

or this:
http://www.amazon.com/Eterna-Energy-Floodlight-Black-ETH120L/dp/B006SYIF4U/ref=sr_1_98?s=lamps-light&ie=UTF8&qid=1340723318&sr=1-98

[Kristian Stevenson]

We ended up making a trip to Lowes today and found everything we needed to get the job done:
We used 90 watt outdoor Halogen bulbs, 6 per side. We only got one side of the room done today. Will finish the other side tomorrow. Extremely pleased with how these lit the room. They will probably never be used at full brightness. 12 Bulbs, fixtures, boxes & hardware was all $120 out the door. SOOW wire was not bad either with an electrician's discount  .



And yes, those ugly gym lights are coming down tomorrow 




This isn't the final adjustment either. Once we get all 12 wired up we will aim them a little better. Hoping to have this done in time for the youth service tomorrow night.Thanks for the help and recommendations everyone! I'll post a finished product pic once its all finished.

edit: Finished

[ProSoundWeb Community]