Can industrial bulbs work for stage lighting?

[huzzy]

Hi,

I am involved with a play to be staged the next week. I have a few pieces about 6 or 7 of bulbs from wonderfullights.co.uk/product-category/bulbs/ that I used for an interior project. My question is can these work well with dimmers? I mean how do industrial bulbs perform with controlling devices?

Thanks

 

[Les]

They'll work fine. Since you say you have pieces with about 6 or 7 lamps it sounds like they'll all be wired together, so you should have no problems.

Some dimmers won't completely dim a load under a certain threshold - usually around 50w, so you might have to add a ghost load if you wanted to run each lamp separately. Either way, no harm will be done as these are really just fancy incandescent lamps.

 

[JD]

One note- the site you linked is in the UK. Not sure of your own location, but worth noting that the lamps may be 240 volt as compared to 120. If you are in the UK, well then, no problem. If you are in the US and running 240 volt lamps off of 120 volt dimmer circuits, then they are going to be pretty dim! Those replica lamps aren't to bright to begin with

 

[ship]

One note- the site you linked is in the UK. Not sure of your own location, but worth noting that the lamps may be 240 volt as compared to 120. If you are in the UK, well then, no problem. If you are in the US and running 240 volt lamps off of 120 volt dimmer circuits, then they are going to be pretty dim! Those replica lamps aren't to bright to begin with

If in the US companies like Bulbrite, Feit and Halco in addition to FerroWatt / AAMSCO have wide selections of these types and more of nostalgic lamps. I supply them often for shows, very popular is Bulbrite's smoked lamp line and FerroWatt's "Ball of Fire."

http://www.aamsco.com/
http://www.halcolighting.com/
http://www.bulbrite.com/
http://www.feit.com/


Many versions are available in home centers or lamp parts companies like http://www.grandbrass.com/ but there is a lot more on the market growing every year. Today I bought the 1890 smoked Bulbrite version to bulk up my example stock http://www.bulbrite.com/products_en_5_155_508_0_1-154018.php in otherwise hairpin or squarrel filament 1910 lamps.

Yes replica lamps are dimmer than normal A-lamps, but consider first these are 2,000 hour lamps so in long life should be considered that for output. Have been using one version in the "Execuitive Dining Room" for about eight years now and rarely have to change lamps. Second due to the long filament, it's not going to be as point source in lumens. Specifications on the lamps I have not really checked because when someone wants the long filament or filament design, this is often more important than actual output for lighting. But wattage up to 60W is currently available that I'm seeing. Love the G-40 and G-30 versions as with the tube lamps.

Caution about FerroWatt/AAMSCO, they list dual voltage but are 240v lamps. As mentioned you will have some serious amber shift, but otherwise great styles of lamp available and the Ball of Fire works just fine at 120V.