What kind of regulations are there on
dimmer patching? Where would I find what those are?
Thanks,
PC
Where are you ?.
I'm suspecting the UK and would recommend moving the questions to the Blue Room
www.blue-room.org/uk, a pretty much UK oriented forum, as they are more knowledgeable about UK and Euro issues.
It sounds like you need totally new
dimmer system and your going to get a dimmer-per-circuit
system, for however many dimmers you can afford. You *might* be able to
hookup the new dimmers to the existing 36 circuits, if the powers-that-be are of the opinion that the existing wiring is in good enough condition to keep in use. That saves money. Having an Existing
Express is a good thing as it's a good, serviceable
console. If budget allows, maybe upgrade to Emphasis for the additional
channel capacity as well as many additional features.
Not sure of the UK, but here in the states, the National Electrical Code (which is not mandated for local jurisdictions to follow !, though most do) allows you to install a
ETC Sensor 96x2400kw
dimmer rack on 10 amps ! - I.E., the way the code is written is you do not have a "Connected Load"
power requirement, but instead can use a "Demand Load" to factor in
power feeds.
The reason for this is that having a theater with 600 x 2.4kw dimmers @ 120v - 3
phase would need a feed of 4,000 amps per
phase, if Connected Load were used (600 dimmers @20 amps ea. across a 3
phase feed
system). The Theater/Entertainment folks on the US Nat'l Code Committee realized this was generally impractical, as very few facilities loaded every
dimmer to near max. Usually it was many fewer circuits actually in use with single
unit loads @ 575 watts or so. Thus the code became more
practical and essentially tells you to plan for demand load.
So you need to check on what your local codes require, as well as is there supplemental
power available, of sufficient quantities to feed the dimmers planned.
SB