For my edification, would "
ACL"s be aircraft landing lights? (I'm reading Gilette's
Designing With Light cover to
cover, and it was
in one of the first chapters.). I was actually thinking about utilizing some of these lights for a shop-made strip-light. Where do you suppose you'd get these lamps?
ACLs are yes, Aircraft Landing Lights. You see them being used for their true purpose on airfields set atop towers
point up into the air for aircraft to find the
runway more easily. However, they have been adopted for theatrical/concert use because of their standard PAR64 size and unique output/beam characteristics.
As you probably know, ACLs are low
voltage (28v to be precise). 4 must be wired in SERIES to produce 112v, as close to 115v or 120v as possible. The produce a very narrow beam, close to 3 degrees I believe but have tremendous output. A 600w lamp can produce 500,000
candlepower. One of the downsides of ACLs is their lamp life, only about 25 hours. However, they are typically just used for effects or bumps and do not remain on for any serious amount of time so the lamp-life issue doesn't tend to be an issue.
The lamps themselves, which have screw terminals as opposed to the standard
PAR 64 two-prong arrangement (so that you don't inadvertently feed a 28v lamp 120v) can cost up to $45.00 depending on where you
purchase them from. I have had great luck on ebay finding them however, $24.95 per lamp. The code for the lamp is GE 4552 (250w) and GE 4559 (600w).
Typically, they are built into a lightbar that has the fixtures prewired in series so that you can't screw up the wiring. However, this locks you into the "4 instruments in a
line" deal that you always see ACLs doing. My personal solution, which I know
Altman's rental
house employs as well, was to
build a "wired in series" 4-fer that allows me to arrange the lamps in any configuration, and any distance, but still have all four being
fed the correct amount
voltage. If you decide to go this route, be VERY careful to label the ACLs as LOW
VOLTAGE. The last thing you want is someone taking one of your ACLs, putting it into a standard
voltage outlet, and watching the thing put off fireworks.
Good luck!