Dimmer doubling up?

[deltaleader]

So here's my issue:

I have limited circuits, and in my show i have 3 areas where we have squares with parchment paper to make a translucent background... anyways, I have 6 Colortran Cyc strips and have them set at 2 per area directly behind the squares. The cyc strips are 1kW and there are 2 lamps per strip = 4kW draw when I daisy chain the two together right? SO is there any way i could pair 2 2.4kW dimmers into 1 channel? i only have enough floor pockets for 3 channels per position, and not enough cable to reach other circuits... thanks!

 

[JD]

If you are asking if you can pair two 2.4kw dimmers through one cable to power a 4kw load, the answer is no. You need to keep the load divided up and run additional cables. 4kw is a near 40 amp load, so even if it could be done, your cable and connectors would have to be rated above 40 amps.

 

[gcpsoundlight]

The best solution would be to group them to the limit of the dimmer, as many dimmers as needed, then soft patch IE:

Cyc 1 - dimmer 1 - channel 1
Cyc 2 - dimmer 2 - CHANNEL1
etc

 

[Malabaristo]

If I'm following correctly, it sounds like you have two 2kW fixtures and three 2.4kW circuits for each of the three areas. If you only plug one fixture into each circuit, then you won't overload anything. You would just need a total of 6 circuits with 2.4kW dimmers to cover all three areas.

If you want the two circuits/fixtures in each area to be controlled together, you just need to patch those two dimmers to the same control channel on your console. If you're not sure how to do that, then let us know what kind of console you have. Whatever it is, there's likely someone here who knows enough about it to provide guidance.