Par 56 Lamp Replacement

Call Support since it appears nobody has answers.

There are multiple types of bulbs available from the parts department, but none of them even bothered to address ANY of the questions you are asking.

Just keep in mind that 300X16 = 4800 watts
500X16=8000 watts.

That's a lot of extra circuits.

Thank you Chris for your reply. I am a trained lighting guy myself but all my training is in residential, commercial and industrial applications and familiar with voltage and fixture ratings in those fixtures.

I would have thought these were very simple questions to answer by someone within the company or at least point me in the right direction to find the answers. Apparently information from American DJ is about as weak as their owner manuals.

What you really need to be doing is looking at your dimmer pack power ratings to know what output they can support.

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A 120 volt dimmer pack rated for 15 amps maximum can drive up to a maximum of 1800 watts.

If it has four channels, then you can have up to 450 watts per channel.

You may be able to push it to two 250 watt lamps per channel (500w) but this may blow fuses in the dimmer pack.

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A 120 volt dimmer pack rated for 20 amps can handle 2400 watts.

If it has four channels, this is five amps or 600 watts per channel, permitting:
- 2 250 watt lamps
- 2 300 watt lamps
- 1 500 watt lamp

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The fixture itself will likely handle whatever will fit into it. Just take a look inside.

The lamp connector is probably porcelain/ceramic so it can take the heat, and the wires are probably high-temp with braided fiber insulation (not plastic) that won't melt.

Most incandescent PAR cans have huge holes around the lamp for convection cooling of the lamp.

- Dale

A bit of clarification:

An ADJ dimmer pack can handle 15 amps of current, but up to a maxiumum of 10 amps per channel. 1200 watts, roughly, or 2 500-watt Par64's going FULL out on a single channel.

But other than that, yes, a dimmer pack rated at 15 amps can take/output/draw 15 amps of current through it, but ensure no SINGLE channel draws more than 10 amps or you'll blow the fuze on that channel only. The rest of the channels should behave normally.

And hence, you CAN still blow a breaker and your fuses stay fine by "balancing" your overload on the dimmer pack across the 4 channels. Say, 4 500-watt Par64's on a single dimmer would pop a 15-amp circuit(but not a 20 amp, but the plug and cable are rated for 15) and your fuses would be left alone. I'm not sure if there is a master breaker on the dimmer packs. I am fairly sure on mine, which are a few years old, DO NOT have a master breaker or fuse on them. Newer ones may have this. I know that my Furman will pop before the wall panel will, which is fine and let's me retain some control and sepparation from venue operators.

As far as ADJ manuals: they aren't any better or worse than others. Well, actually, they tend to be better. As far as "incadescent or quartz", well, I can't answer becuase I honestly don't know. I would ASSUME incadescent, but that is just that, assumption. I figure "Hey, if I need a Par64 or Par56 or Par46 or even a Par36 bulb, I'll order the right type of bulb."

Par38's are no biggie. Go to the hardware store and get more. I use 150-watt bulbs but I've been told I can go up to 300 watts. I'd rather have more lights up than higher draw, so I'll stick with 150-watters. I could go 90-watt halogens, but I don't want the cost or the extra heat. What I ideally want are cost-effective Red, Green, Blue and White medium beam LED replacement bulbs, 8 each, to resolve my high current Par38 problems to be more friendly like my64 LED Pros.

What he also needs to look at is "what is the proper rating for the fixture" as just because someone can cram a huge mega bright bulb in it, it may exceed the safety ratings of the fixture. Fumes from burning paint and other components by using a higher rated bulb can be toxic(damn Chinese...) or otherwise pose a other fire and safety hazards.

As far as the bulb types, I don't know squat about the differences between the types.