Portable power supply for light kit

[Jeremy Garchow]

You would need 5 or 6 of those to power 500 watts for four hours. Where are you shooting, and can you do a cable run from an outside generator to your equipment? If you do get a genny, make sure it’s crystal controlled. Honda makes a little brief case generator that is relatively small and light, quiet, efficient and I think, is rated for 3000W. I have used them before on outside shoots with HMIs and they work fantastically. Look to rent.

Jeremy

[Shawn Bockoven]

I use the 3000is for camping and field shoots, with the economy mode engaged it is very quite. If you rent make sure yet get one with wheels, the 3000is weighs over 100 pounds.

Extension cords:
16 gauge, 25 or 50 feet, 13 amps, 1625 watts
16 gauge, 100 feet, 10 amps, 1250 watts

14 gauge, 25 or 50 feet, 15 amps, 1875 watts
14 gauge, 100 feet, 13 amps, 1625 watts

12 gauge, 25, 50 or 100 feet, 15 amps, 1875 watts

The Honda Inverter Technology makes this generator ideally suited for use with sensitive electronics (e.g., computer, fax, printer, telephone, stereo) because the generator produces a clean sine wave of energy that results in no surging.

[Tony]

Don’t use the Xantrex as it does not have the power or run time needs for your applications. Also the last I checked it does not put out the proper sine wave for some electronic gear. (disclaimer check this out as I could be thinking about their previous model).

The Honda generator is the best solution as I have used it to power my HD gear on location with no problems.

Just place the generator outside and run ac cord ideally 12 or 14 gauge to minimize voltage lost to your lights indoors.

If I may ask why can’t you use AC for your lights if you are shooting indoors. Does the location not have AC power?

Tony Salgado

[Zander]

ok, well ive done a bunch of electrick wok at my time in film school, and here’s my advice:

if you have 500 wattsmake surre you have atleast 550 to 600 watts of power coming from your source, as each light turns on, it draws roughly 110% of it’s power, so if you have a 250 watt light, you’ll end up drawing 275watts of power, so first off, never turn on both lights at once, give it 30 seconds, and B if you only had 500 watts of power available at your generator, you would draw 525 watts at the turning on of your second light.

Now, as far as extension cords go, your average heavy duty cords will work fine, just remember more than 100 feet and your color temperature will bein to change, not giving you a precise calibrated color that you may not be able to see.

on top of this all, be aware that 500 watts of light is a very small region of strong light. If you’ve ever been on a movie shoot, the smallest light generally used is 650 watts,

thats not to say that you can’t use these lights, in a small studio they will be awsome to light a SMALL greenscrean, like 8′ 12′ MAX

Aaron Zander-Student editor
If it’s out there and it does somethign to something,
teach me how to use it
Powerbook g4 1.5 GHz (it might not be big, but i can take it on set
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[Zander]

something else i failed to mention, is home outlets

here the deal with power and outlets

step 1: Find your circuit braker
step 2: open it up and map it out, which curcuit goes where, this is good for general use anyways.
step 3: if you have switch fuses (which you should have in anyplace built aftre 1960 or so) look at the numbers on the switches themselves, they refer to amps, numbers like 5, 10, and 20 are common place, they refer to total amp loads, i.e. how many amps each curcuit can handle. here’s a rough fudgeit calculation for saftey sake, 5 amps can support a 500 watt light, but as i said before theres the overload value, so fudgeit, say instead of 500 say 450

so same numbers, if you have a 10 on your switch yo can handle roughly 900 watts of power

just make sure you got eddison plugs (or matching plugs if in other countries)

Aaron Zander-Student editor
If it’s out there and it does somethign to something,
teach me how to use it
Powerbook g4 1.5 GHz (it might not be big, but i can take it on set
fcp 5, ae 6.5pro adobe cs2

[Kerry Brown]

If possible use fluorescent lights. Way less power required.

KB

[Zander]

well no, use kinoflows or profesional florescant lights, normal florescants fluctaute in color and “strobe” so be cautius of this

Aaron Zander-Student editor
If it’s out there and it does somethign to something,
teach me how to use it
Powerbook g4 1.5 GHz (it might not be big, but i can take it on set
fcp 5, ae 6.5pro adobe cs2

[Tony]

Zander,

Minor correction it’s Kinoflo’s.

Tony Salgado

[Kerry Brown]

I was not being brand specific on purpose but wrongly assumed that everyone would
only look at proffesional type fluorescent lights.

KB