Converting dimmer raceway to 208?

[avery]

Ok, So I'll go ahead and state up front that I'm not doing any of the work on this. I'm trying to get things figured out enough so that I'll have the info to know what to tell a master electrician.

Basically, our theater as a full dimmer raceway on the backwall that is no longer is use as we have moved to LED pars. What I would like to do is use this raceway to power some 208 movers. Right now it's wired for 120v with L5 connectors. There are about 15 outlets on it. I would only need 4.

I know that we have 3 phase coming into the building, but we just don't use it for lighting right now.

What am I looking at in the way of technical work for converting the current 120 raceway to work with 208 fixtures?

Sorry if I sound stupid. I'm not trying to do this myself at all, I'm just trying to learn it in respects to theater application so I have some idea of what I'm talking about when working with a master electric to do the work.

 

[JChenault]

Just to be clear, a theatrical master electrician probably is not someone who can answer this for you. You need to talk to an electrical contractor and get a quote for getting appropriate power where you want it. You should let him know that there is an existing raceway he could use if it makes sense ( if you are willing to loose it which frankly sounds like a bad idea to me ) - but let him come up with the cheapest solution.

Running conduit and fresh wire will likely be quicker and easier ( and therefore less expensive ) than trying to re-use your existing wiring.

 

[avery]

Just to be clear, a theatrical master electrician probably is not someone who can answer this for you. You need to talk to an electrical contractor and get a quote for getting appropriate power where you want it. You should let him know that there is an existing raceway he could use if it makes sense ( if you are willing to loose it which frankly sounds like a bad idea to me ) - but let him come up with the cheapest solution.

Running conduit and fresh wire will likely be quicker and easier ( and therefore less expensive ) than trying to re-use your existing wiring.

Just to be clear, a theatrical master electrician probably is not someone who can answer this for you. You need to talk to an electrical contractor and get a quote for getting appropriate power where you want it. You should let him know that there is an existing raceway he could use if it makes sense ( if you are willing to loose it which frankly sounds like a bad idea to me ) - but let him come up with the cheapest solution.

Running conduit and fresh wire will likely be quicker and easier ( and therefore less expensive ) than trying to re-use your existing wiring.

Thanks for the reply. The reason I'm looking to convert the raceway is because we don't currently use 208 anywhere else in the theater. So it's not accessible through any existing runs.

I don't mind loosing back raceway due to the fact that it's currently unused and newer black drapes have made lighting the upstage wall unnecessary. Also, the raceway runs exactly where we'd like to power the movers from and thus, I was thinking it made sense to re-use the existing infrastructure of it rather than running new lines.

As for who to ask, I wasn't really sure. We're in a rural area and there aren't a lot of theater electricians around to call up. Naturally we don't have a massive budget so money is a factor. My best source of info right now is audio techs, who are knowledgable in electric, but not when it comes to 208v.

 

[derekleffew]

... I know that we have 3 phase coming into the building, but we just don't use it for lighting right now. ...

Are you sure about that? It's quite likely that the dimmer rack is powered by a 120/208VAC 3Ø Wye-connected feed.

Probably, the most cost effective solution is to install a 120/208 sub-panel containing at least 4 two-pole 20A breakers near the dimmer rack, and move 8 wires from 4 dimmers to the new panel, then change the four L5-20 receptacles to L6-20 on the connector strip.

Even if your dimmer rack is fed by 120/240 single-phase, the above will still work. You'll just have 240V (nominal) rather than 208V, and I don't know of a moving light that cares.

 

[JChenault]

As for who to ask, I wasn't really sure. We're in a rural area and there aren't a lot of theater electricians around to call up. Naturally we don't have a massive budget so money is a factor. My best source of info right now is audio techs, who are knowledgable in electric, but not when it comes to 208v.

I don't think I was clear enough. You don't want a theatre electrician , you want a standard, run of the mill electrical contractor. Have the specs on the fixtures you want to power to show to him. Tell him where you want the outlets, and let him figure out how much it will cost to get the appropriate power to those locations.