LOR in 230V countries, and light fixures

[Andost]

Hi all, this is the first time I'm posting question here.

Background:
I recently traveled to Italy for a show using LOR. Since Italy is on 230v, I changed the LOR setting. But unfortunately the light bulbs I had are US standard 110v, so they blew up during test. Afterwards, I edited the LOR sequence to 50% intensity and worked out fine.

My work involves a number of regular color lightbulbs, but it seems like they don't sell much variety of color lightbulbs in 230v

Question:
Would you recommend me get a voltage converter to convert 230v to 110v?
Or simply set all intensity to 50%?
Does setting intensity at 50% equal to 115v output?
Any other alternatives?
If setting intensity can change voltage, what's the difference between a voltage converter and a light dimmer?

Thanks
Andost

[wmilkie]

Andost wrote:

Hi all, this is the first time I'm posting question here.

Background:
I recently traveled to Italy for a show using LOR. Since Italy is on 230v, I changed the LOR setting. But unfortunately the light bulbs I had are US standard 110v, so they blew up during test. Afterwards, I edited the LOR sequence to 50% intensity and worked out fine.

My work involves a number of regular color lightbulbs, but it seems like they don't sell much variety of color lightbulbs in 230v

Question:
Would you recommend me get a voltage converter to convert 230v to 110v?
Or simply set all intensity to 50%?
Does setting intensity at 50% equal to 115v output?
Any other alternatives?
If setting intensity can change voltage, what's the difference between a voltage converter and a light dimmer?

Thanks
Andost

Put the strings in series? May have to adjust your sequences some though.

Or, put another 120v bulb as a load in series and hide it, the voltage drop across each will be 120 v, and the sequences won't have to be changed, just won't see the other bulb.

[Steven]

Andost wrote:

Does setting intensity at 50% equal to 115v output?

Not exactly. Setting the intensity to 50% actually turns the light on and off, really fast, so that it's on only 50% of the time.

It will probably still burn out eventually, and here is why: (Incandescent) lights burn out because they get too hot, for too long. They get hot roughly in proportion to average amount of power that is delivered to them. They are approximately a resistive load, so the power is proportional to the square of the voltage. This means that if the voltage is twice as much (230 vs 115), they will get 4 times the power, and run 4 times as hot. Running them an 50% only cuts the average power by 2, so they are still getting too much. You may want to drop that even further.

If setting intensity can change voltage, what's the difference between a voltage converter and a light dimmer?

A voltage converter is a transformer that changes the voltage. A light dimmer works by turning the light on and off really fast so that the average power is reduced. It only works for lights because turning other things, like transformers and motors, on and off really fast will damage them.

wmilkie wrote:

Put the strings in series?

This will work, but you have to make sure the 2 strings you put in series are identical. Otherwise, the lower-wattage string in the series will get more of the voltage.

[Andost]

Thanks for the reply.
It's good to know the intensity doesn't really change the voltage. I did more looking online to learn the voltage wave and RMS voltage. But between voltage, power, RMS, sine wave, etc... I got lost.

I would like to know if I'm at 230v country, what should I set the intensity to output the same power(heat) as if I'm in US with 110v at 100%?

PS: I think I under the concept correctly, but get lost when trying to calculate the area under a sine wave

[Steven]

Andost wrote:

I would like to know if I'm at 230v country, what should I set the intensity to output the same power(heat) as if I'm in US with 110v at 100%?

I don't know the answer, but I suspect it's close to 25%.

Here's a way to determine the answer experimentally:

1. Take 3 identical lights or strings.
2. Wire 2 of them them in series and connect them to channel 1.
3. Set channel 1 to 100%. This is not the baseline 110v intensity.
4. Plug the 3rd light or string into channel 2. Set it to 25%.
5. Match the brightness. When matched, write the number down.