I’m from Knots, and thought it best to post this on Breaktime.
I’m planning to use 120V 20 watt dimmable xenon puck lights (about 18 – 20 of them) as accent lighting in my kitchen. However, the manufacturer states on his web site that no special dimmer is required, but to link only up to ten units.
Why is this? The lights are wired in paralell, there’s no transformer involved, and the total wattage of ten lights would be 200, whereas a basic dimmer is rated at 600 watts.
kreuzie
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Replies
"but to link only up to ten units."
I am not sure exactly how that is worded. And if was written in Chinenlish then it can mean almost anything.
Could it mean that any one string should be limited to 10 lamps because the they can only feed through a limited amount of current.
But that would not prevent you from hooking up 5 different strings of 10 seach.
William the Geezer, the sequel to Billy the Kid - Shoe
Bill--
The actual wording is: "Link up to ten units together." I sent American (I'll bet!) Lighting an e-mail asking for clarification, but haven't received a reply as yet.
Edited 1/29/2009 9:09 pm ET by kreuzie
What Bill said. Plus the standard 600W dimmer shouldn't be used to dim more than about 400W. If you want to dim more use a 1000W dimmer.
Dan--
If I used 20 lights, I'd be at your 400 watts. Probably better to go with a higher-rated dimmer.