Gregory Fraser <Gregory.Fraser@pwgsc.gc.ca> writes: > I understand that the suggested way of adjusting the light level of hot lights would be to move the light, use a reflector or diffusion material etc. but I was wondering about just using a household dimmer. I bought some old 650 watt movie lights and I looked in the local hardware store where it seems all the dimmer switches were rated at 600 watts. > > >From my probably incorrect understanding of electricity, a 650 watt lamp at 110v will draw 5.9 amps. A 600 watt dimmer will safely allow 5.5 amps of current. Is that .4 amps the light wants to force through the dimmer going to add a lot of excitement to my shoot, just make the dimmer very warm or not have any noticeable effect? In the good old days, when cameras had lenses, a dimmer was an ohmic device - basically you stick a resistor in series with the load. But I imagine that a "household dimmer" nowadays is a semiconductor switching device, that effectively switches the power on only n% of the time. (If it's light, it's not ohmic.) In which case it's likely to go Bang! at some point, rather than get gradually hotter. But prolly unlikely to pop at less than 10% over rated? Take this advice at your own risk! Brian Chandler ---------------- geo://Sano.Japan.Planet_3 Jigsaw puzzles from Japan at: http://imaginatorium.org/shop/
