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[Tim Weaver]

Go with the 375's.

Thats a small room and they will get hot.

[Don T. Williams]

+1 on Tim's post.  I had a client that had 20 amp circuits with commercial grade quality brand 20A breakers.  The breakers would not tolerate four 575W lamps, even though they should have.  The dimming was 4 Leviton portable 4 channel packs.  575 X 4 = 2300 watts.  20 Amps at 120V = 2400 watts, so it should work, but those breakers wouldn't last 5 minutes.  Switching to 375 watt lamps saved the day and there was a barely perceptible difference in the illumination in this situation.

[Jeff Lelko]

I had a client that had 20 amp circuits with commercial grade quality brand 20A breakers...

Two things come to mind with this - my guess is that the inrush current is what was causing the breakers to trip much sooner than expected, and the other has to do with “continuous duty” loading on a breaker.  Best practice is not to exceed 80% of a breaker’s rated capacity if the load will be applied in a “continuous” fashion - 3+hrs if I remember correctly unless the breaker is specifically designated for full-capacity duty cycle.  More than that can cause nuisance tripping, and my guess is that a combination of these factors (high momentary inrush plus near full capacity sustained) is what caused the problem. 

I saw the new LED retrofits as well.  Hopefully they’ll look good in person without any teething issues!

[Nathan Riddle]

Fwiw, most breakers will work at 1x ampacity forever.

There is a curve for anything past that.

Don, I agree with Jeff it was either inrush or bad breakers.

https://download.schneider-electric.com/files?&p_enDocType=Catalog&p_File_Name=0730CT9801.pdf&p_Doc_Ref=0730CT9801

[ProSoundWeb Community]