5 & 15A Unfused Lighting Plugs

[sawdust]

Hello,

I was asked to clean up some stage lighting, and was wondering if anyone knew of any relevant regulations for stage lighting that I should be aware of?

Was quite interested to find that none of the plugs had fuses in them (being of the 5 and 15A round pin type). While I can appreciate you wouldn't want to have to get a ladder to replace a fuse, I still find it kind of wrong.

 

[telectrix]

unfused plugs work perfectly well in most every other country apart from the UK.

 

[Adam W]

I think you'll find all the dimmers are individually fused at 10A, and RCD protected in groups.

 

[sawdust]

I think you'll find all the dimmers are individually fused at 10A, and RCD protected in groups.

They are indeed.

I notice you can get both fused and unfused plugs in the MK catalogue: 641WHI versus 505WHI~ would you only use the unfused type for stage lighting, and the fused type for interior lighting? I have never really come across them much in my normal work, so I'm curious to find out how they are used.

 

[Adam W]

I'd probably only use unfused ones - 15A for stage lighting and 2A for domestic lighting. As you say it'd be a pain in the backside having to put up a tower to change a fuse only to realise that wasn't the problem, and you don't individually fuse wall or ceiling lights so I don't see why you'd fuse a table lamp if it were on the lighting circuit.

 

[alli]

Right or wrong, I was always told the fuse primary role is to protect the cable and its second fuction is to protect the end device.

 

[Fin170]

I've always wanted to use those 15A plugs for dedicated freezer circuits.....

Not that I don't trust people when it comes to 'Freezer only' labelling and a standard socket being right next to them

 

[thebigcheese]

As someone who occasionally dabbles in theatre you would only really come across 5A plugs and sockets on really old installations such as old village halls.

As a very general rule of thumb some venues will have all their dimmed power on 15A connectors (where the intensity of the light would be adjusted by the voltage going to it) and permanently live power on 16A connectors. Some fixtures don't have tungsten lamps in them and instead use discharge sources, here the intensity of the output is controlled by shutters or paddles blocking the light - these fixtures really do not like being plugged into a dimmed supply hence the very clear distinction between the two types of supply.

As said above the supply will be fused at the source and so long as the cables are sufficiently rated there shouldn't be any problem with safety. Last thing you want is a lamp blowing an hour before the show and once replaced having to hunt down the fuse that also popped somewhere along the 50 odd meter cable run.