Can you use different bulb wattages for multi-socket bulb heads?

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone knows if you have a 4 way bulb head for CFL bulbs like the image below whether you can mix bulb wattages (ie. 45 watt, 45 watt, 100 watt, 120 watt)? If so are there any limitations on how far apart in wattage or what combinations they are? This bulb head has two switches for each pair of the 4 bulb sockets.



Thank you

all are powered in parallel, no?
if they all fit in the fixture
only limitation may be power/heat related ... but that is no† an issue when replacing incandescent with cfl.just be sure to recycle them.

canidoit said:

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone knows if you have a 4 way bulb head for CFL bulbs like the image below whether you can mix bulb wattages (ie. 45 watt, 45 watt, 100 watt, 120 watt)? If so are there any limitations on how far apart in wattage or what combinations they are? This bulb head has two switches for each pair of the 4 bulb sockets.

Thank you

Click to expand...

You can mix and match as you want as long as you don't exceed the rated wattage of the socket. Let's say the whole fixture is rated at 4x60W, you can't use 2x40 and 2x80W. Now generally CFL's don't exceed 42W so you shouldn't worry about that.

Thanks guys for the replies!

I presume they are powered in parallel :/

I am not sure what the socket wattage limits are?? Is there a way to find out?? The Ebay seller sais that it will handle the power wattage but they refuse to give me figures on what each sockets limits are.

I have 150 watts CFL which I will be using. So I could potentially use 600 watts but I am considering mixing some of my other 45 watts into the mix so I can control the power of the light. So it would be like this set up for example:
switch A = 150 & 150
switch B = 150 & 45

canidoit said:

I presume they are powered in parallel :/

Click to expand...

Yes they are. No doubt about it.

I am not sure what the socket wattage limits are?? Is there a way to find out?? The Ebay seller sais that it will handle the power wattage but they refuse to give me figures on what each sockets limits are.

I have 150 watts CFL which I will be using. So I could potentially use 600 watts but I am considering mixing some of my other 45 watts into the mix so I can control the power of the light. So it would be like this set up for example:
switch A = 150 & 150
switch B = 150 & 45

Click to expand...

Wow! 150W CFL's! Are you sure? Never seen any. They must be HUGE! Most CFL's indicate two power ratings, one in small letters that is the actual wattage (the wattage that counts for electrical & thermal limits) and one in big letters, that is a fancy "equivalent".
The electrical limitations are the cable gauge and switch rating, the thermal limitation is simply that too much dissipated heat may damage some  parts, in particular the insulation in the sockets.
If it turned out 150W is the real power rating I would not care much about the electrical limitations (less than 3Amps) but I would be very concerned about the heat and resulting temperature. Most sockets are rated for max. 100W and this figure musbe derated when used in multiple configuration.

I too was suprised at the wattage but they now exists like these:
http://www.amazon.com/CowboyStudio-Daylight-Balanced-Compact-Fluorescent/dp/B001ME7GPU

They are rated at 150 watts which are meant to be equivalent to 750 watts incadescents lights from what I recall what the ad said. Not as bright as I thought it would be when looking at the figures!

And they are huge!

abbey road d enfer said:

canidoit said:

I presume they are powered in parallel :/

Click to expand...

Yes they are. No doubt about it.

I am not sure what the socket wattage limits are?? Is there a way to find out?? The Ebay seller sais that it will handle the power wattage but they refuse to give me figures on what each sockets limits are.

I have 150 watts CFL which I will be using. So I could potentially use 600 watts but I am considering mixing some of my other 45 watts into the mix so I can control the power of the light. So it would be like this set up for example:
switch A = 150 & 150
switch B = 150 & 45

Click to expand...

Wow! 150W CFL's! Are you sure? Never seen any. They must be HUGE! Most CFL's indicate two power ratings, one in small letters that is the actual wattage (the wattage that counts for electrical & thermal limits) and one in big letters, that is a fancy "equivalent".
The electrical limitations are the cable gauge and switch rating, the thermal limitation is simply that too much dissipated heat may damage some  parts, in particular the insulation in the sockets.
If it turned out 150W is the real power rating I would not care much about the electrical limitations (less than 3Amps) but I would be very concerned about the heat and resulting temperature. Most sockets are rated for max. 100W and this figure musbe derated when used in multiple configuration.

Click to expand...

This is the 4 way CFL bulb holder:
http://www.amazon.com/Photography-Lighting-Multi-Holder-Tricolor-Digital/dp/B00BV2WOLO/ref=pd_sim_sbs_e_1

I am using 240 volts by the way.

I have only tried 2 bulbs so far and waiting for my other pair of 150 watt CFL so I can not comment on how it runs on 4 bulbs.

Anyone have any experience with doing 4 bulbs at 150 watt each?

150W Compact Fluorescent? OK. I may have seen such at Home Depot.

I know I have been using a 65W CF-like lamp outdoors since the mid-1990s. Yes, it does blow-away a couple 100W filament floodlights. But the color rendition is awful. (A white dog renders ghostly violet.) And the model I have, the ballast is in the holder, not in the bulb. (If bulb were connected direct to line, something would explode.)

This beast seems to be 8,200 Lumens. Counting on my thumbs, I would expect to need about 800 (maybe 700) Watts traditional incandescent to get there. (And the inky would be redish, not bluish.)

Mogal {should be 'mogul'} screw-in base. The medium-base may be used up to 300w, so there is little demand for Moguls under 300W. Good 1-way porcelain Moguls are rated 1500W 600V. I feel sure that the Mogul sockets and holder can stand 150W load per hole.

Four such lamps is 32,000 Lumens. If you could put all that energy into one square meter you would have 32,000 Lux. This is in the range of direct sunlight. Since that lamp is quasi-omni you can't put it all in a square. Assume a sphere. If the sphere is 0.08m (3 inch) radius you get the 32,000 Lux. Obviously this rig won't fit in a 6" sphere. Inverse Square. A 60" sphere (or anything at the 30" radius) would get 3,200 Lux. "Studio lighting" tends to 1,000 Lux which means 53" radius. At 240" radius you have the 50 Lux of "Family living room lights (Australia, 1998)". That's 20 foot radius so this rig would "living room light" a VERY large living room.

PRR said:

Mogal {should be 'mogul'} screw-in base. The medium-base may be used up to 300w, so there is little demand for Moguls under 300W. Good 1-way porcelain Moguls are rated 1500W 600V. I feel sure that the Mogul sockets and holder can stand 150W load per hole.

Click to expand...

Thank you for attracting my attention to the existence of mogul bases; although they have an "E39" EU reference, they are almost unknown on the market. In the absence of comparison I assumed they were standard Edison ("E27") bases.

> mogul bases

Find the guy growing pot in his attic. I hadn't realized this, but there is a LARGE market in LARGE lamps for "specialty agriculture". Many of the CF Moguls I found were rated, not for photography, but for plant growing. And at these lamp prices, not for growing carrots or winter-squash.

arde> Most sockets are rated for max. 100W
me> medium-base may be used up to 300w

We don't disagree.... lamp socket ratings are tricky.

In the US, lamps greater than 300W may not use the Medium (standard) base.

Many low-price sockets use plastic or cardboard insulation and, as you say, may be limited to 100W incandescent. This is OK because we rarely go over 60W or 75W.

Many of these sockets, even the common cardboard-insulated line, have a *660W* number on them. This is electrical, not heat. In the dawn of time, when there were dozens of plug-types, the one "outlet" *every* home had was a light-socket. Clothes-irons and bread toasters were sold with a screw-base "plug" which you put in a lamp socket. Ideally heat is negligible, and a well-tightened medium-base connection can easily carry 6 Amps (6A@110V= 660W).

The Mogul was once common for schools and factories. I can find them in-stock locally. In the 1950s most such big jobs became fluorescent-tube or vapor-lights because they are far more efficient.

Mogul remained as the base for many of the vapor (sodium etc) lamps because it was cheap and can stand the HIGH voltages needed to excite the vapors. This was confusing because vapor lamps need a ballast, incandescents don't. Confusing again because my old-school 65W CF has the ballast in the fixture and a mogul-base lamp, while the stuff canidoit points to has the ballast in the lamp base and ordinary 120V or 240V in the socket. A 150W CF "could" use a medium-base socket IF it were rated for that (generally all ceramic). I guess they Mogulize them so they can't be put in cheap melt-and-burn medium sockets.

Re. Mogul based light bulbs.  I have a couple of antique (from the 1930's??) "torchiere" floor lamps that used to belong to my Grandparents.  They use a 3-way bulb with a Mogul base, with 100/200/300 Watt choices as selected by the switch on the lamp socket.  The switch sequences from "off" through 100W, 200W, and finally 300W when both filaments are powered.

I actually found some new GE bulbs for those lamps at Walmart (of all places) a few years ago, and bought some spares.  I don't think there will be any CFL or LED replacements for those bulbs <g>.

Bri