Somebody please explain...

[zac850]

It shouldn't even matter what power coming into the dimmer is. If each dimmer is rated for 20 amps, and your putting 33.3 amps on it, your not overloading the dimmer pack, your overloading the individual dimmer. It doesn't matter if there all on the same 120 volt leg. The dimmer pack has power, the issue is not so much the dimmer pack pulling more then it should, it is the lights pulling more then they should on the dimmer. The falt is in the dimmer, and it should get fixed ASAP, or else you have some very mislabeled lamps.

Come to think of it, are you sure that your drawing 4kw? Perhaps there 300 watt lamps?

 

[kingfisher1]

zap, zap, zap- and another on bites the dust

(sorry, i had to add a sound bite to this dicussion. it sounds like a situation where electrocution is probable)

 

[tadawson]

zap, zap, zap- and another on bites the dust

(sorry, i had to add a sound bite to this dicussion. it sounds like a situation where electrocution is probable)

Ah, no . . . . it sounds like a situation where a dimmer failure is probable, nothing more . . .

- Tim

 

[propmonkey]

doubt it but....

are there acl lamps for scoops?

 

[jwl868]

My electrical/electrical design knowledge is minimal at best. I had always assumed that circuit breakers were "fail-safe" types of devices, such that if they failed, the contacts would be open. Apparently that is not the case, although the failure rate of reputable circuit breakers is very low (I'm still have trouble with the concept of a "bad circuit breaker", but corrosion or broken mechanism like a spring or latch, I suppose, could lead to a closed-contact failure).

But, in searching on the web for how circuit breakers work and fail, I stumbled across several articles describing the unreliable circuit breakers manufactured by Federal Pacific Electrical (FPE). (Maybe this is common knowledge…) If the circuit breaker in question is their product, maybe that is the problem.

See this site for a start (or search on your own):

http://www.inspect-ny.com/fpe/fpepanel.htm



Joe

 

[hbchad]

I still find it hard to believe that 3 dimmer packs with 3 seperate breakers would have the same problem...that three 20a breakers would each allow 33a is almost statisically impossible...it would seem that it has to be something else