Control/Dimming Dimmer power draw when lights off

hemismith

Active Member
I'm sorry for this dumb question but I haven't been able to find a definitive explanation on how conventional theatrical dimmer packs work. Do they draw much power when the lights are down? I assume they don't or there would be heat issues.

Specifically we have some of the cheap DP-415 4 channel dimmer packs and some 500W par cans. This weekend we lost a circuit shortly after we plugged in and brought up just one of the lights.

It was weird though as it didn't actually trip the breaker. We reset the breaker anyway and the same thing happened again. An outlet tester shows a wiring issue. The dimmer and lights work fine on another circuit. But I just want to make sure I understand how much power it's drawing when.

Thanks.
 
Most lunch box dimmers draw 10s of watts at quiescence. If you're tripping breakers or blowing fuses just plugging the pack into the AC line something is wrong with the outlet or dimmer.

What result is your 'tester' showing?
 
Thanks. Someone else tested it and said the neutral is open, but first he said both were showing 120 to ground. So I don’t know for sure. The dimmer works fine on other outlets. Hopefully they’ll have someone look at it before I need to do something there again.
 
Thanks. Someone else tested it and said the neutral is open, but first he said both were showing 120 to ground. So I don’t know for sure. The dimmer works fine on other outlets. Hopefully they’ll have someone look at it before I need to do something there again.
The outlet is wired for 240V service. That's why your dimmer is not happy.
 
It's not actually, all these outlets are standard 120 and we've been using them for years and I've measured the voltage before. My only thought is that maybe it's shorted.
It's clearly defective in some manner, call the electrician.
 
If the outlet is "shorted" then the circuit breaker in the breaker panel would be tripped. Loss of the neutral is a more reasonable explanation.
Thanks, true. It's just odd, it was fine until they plugged in the cable for the lighting controller/mixer/etc along with the lights. Lasted about 15 seconds, only 1 light was brought up. The next day same thing, except only the lights were plugged in; it was fine again with one light up for 15 seconds. After it went out the hot still showed 120V. Anyway, we've beat this enough, the show's over now anyway, hopefully they'll fix it before next time.

Thanks everyone.
 

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