L5-20s on ETC Par EAs?

[MightyRedDevil]

I work at a high school and I need to repair/replace some of our lights. Our system (at least the electrics) are pretty old. They all fit an L5-20 twist-lock plug. We have a bunch of ETC Par EAs that are missing their lamp burner assembly, and I plan on ordering some, but I'll also need to order the plugs to attach to them.

So here's my question: Can I put an L5-20 on a Par EA? Whoever set up our system (before I got here) put L5-15s on all of our lights, and to connect them to the electrics, they bought a ton of Dimmer Doublers with a male L5-20 on one end and two female L5-15s on the the other. This is a pain to use and we don't use the independent control feature, so I'd prefer to just plug my lights straight into the electric.

But is there something that I'm missing? I pulled an L5-20 off one of the old Lekos in my classroom and it seemed like the Leko had a thicker gauge wire than the ETCs did. Am I going to fry my lights or my system? Was the Doubler acting as some sort of adapter/buffer?

I'm relatively inexperienced in a lot of this stuff so I hope that I haven't said anything really stupid or use confusing terminology.

Thanks for your help!

 

[STEVETERRY]

I work at a high school and I need to repair/replace some of our lights. Our system (at least the electrics) are pretty old. They all fit an L5-20 twist-lock plug. We have a bunch of ETC Par EAs that are missing their lamp burner assembly, and I plan on ordering some, but I'll also need to order the plugs to attach to them.

So here's my question: Can I put an L5-20 on a Par EA? Whoever set up our system (before I got here) put L5-15s on all of our lights, and to connect them to the electrics, they bought a ton of Dimmer Doublers with a male L5-20 on one end and two female L5-15s on the the other. This is a pain to use and we don't use the independent control feature, so I'd prefer to just plug my lights straight into the electric.

But is there something that I'm missing? I pulled an L5-20 off one of the old Lekos in my classroom and it seemed like the Leko had a thicker gauge wire than the ETCs did. Am I going to fry my lights or my system? Was the Doubler acting as some sort of adapter/buffer?

I'm relatively inexperienced in a lot of this stuff so I hope that I haven't said anything really stupid or use confusing terminology.

Thanks for your help!

The dimmer doublers have two functions:

1. Using diodes, split the sine wave into the positive and negative half cycle which are independently controlled from the Sensor dimmer rack.
2. Because of (1), reduce the voltage at each fixture to 77 volts instead of 120 volts.

So, if you want to get rid of dimmer doublers, you would need to do the following:

A. Replace all your 77 volt HPL lamps with 120 volt HPL lamps
B. Change the male connectors on the fixtures to match the females on your outlets (L5-20).
C. Change the CEM configuration to eliminate dimmer doubling.

Of course, you will now have half the number of individually controllable circuits. Out of curiosity, why would you want to do that?

BTW, the reason for the L5-15 connectors is to prevent plugging a 77V lamp into a 120V circuit and letting the smoke out!

Steve Terry
VP R&D
ETC