Surge Protector as a light board, bad idea?

[silenteyes33]

Okay, im in a band and we play shows and we'd like to add lights to our set and have one of our friends control them,
light boards are kind of expensive, so i thought maybe temporarily
until we can buy or just to see if it would work. Say i get 5 surge
protectors, 1 i plug into the wall-being the “main” one, the other 4 i
plug into the surge protector that is plugged in to the wall, each surge
protector will have 1 light plugged into it. Our friend will have control
over the surge protectors and cut them on and off to the music, flicking
some off and on together and at the same time and separatly, hince making the lights turn on and off. Would this work? Is this a bad idea? We were worried about him sweating and it
dripping, so we thought, electrician gloves. Could he get
electrocuted/shocked? Can this cause any of our lights to bust/etc or
even mess up the circuit that the main surge protector is pluged into at
the wall. Or possibly flip the breaker, any of that.  Any feedback, better ideas -etc will be appreicated. Thank you. Sarah

[_Andrew_]

Hello Sarah

 

I am assuming that the lights you are using are either incandescent or halogen.

Surge arrestors can have quite a high leakage current and using 5 surge arresters is more lightly to cause an RCD to nuisance trip.

 

You would be better to use a simple lighting controller that has everything need to do the switching built in to one box. You do not mention which country you are from, I’m in the UK and a simple NJD Electronics EURO 4E lighting controller can be picked up new for under £40.

 

This 4 channel microprocessor based controller will handle a load of 920W resistive or 600W inductive per channel. It will either run a number of pre-programmed patters, do sound to light patterns or can be manually controlled.

 

NJD is just one manufacture from a number of companies out there that make entry lighting controllers.

 

If you do a search on ebay under “DJ Equipment” for “lighting controller” you will find plenty. Just remember that you want the type of controller that handles all the power switching internally.  

 

i.e. Lighting controller — to — normal mains powered lights

 

This next bit is just so you are aware of a difference.

 

There is also a digital lighting control standard known as DMX which is more involved than what I have previously mentioned above. A DMX controller can only send commands to DMX enabled equipment.

 

i.e. DMX controller — to — DMX switcher and /or Dimmer — to — normal mains powered lights

(this setup using your existing lights would start from £100 for the DMX controller and DMX dimmer)

 

or DMX controller — to — DMX lights

(this setup would start from £300 for the DMX controller and DMX lights)

 

Regards

 

Andrew

[Anonymous]

Simple lighting controller is better to use it has everything need to do the switching built in to one box.

 

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