John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum Archive

Does using low voltage track lighting give any reduction in hum and buzz relating to dimming (because of transformers in the light fictures) than full voltage (110) lighting. I understand about using variacs for dimming 110 lights but have not found a difinitive answer about using variacs with low voltage. My choices are off the shelf low voltage track lighting with the best lutron wall dimmers or 110v track lighting with variacs. I am getting ready to wire the lighting and need to make this decision. I would like to have controls for lighting in both the live rooms and the control room. This is more difficult with the variacs. I think that with them I would only have on/off switches in both locations and the variac in the control room.

By the way the studio in Rhode Island and will have 2 live rooms and 1 control room plus a lobby and a bathroom. The power is fed from a sub panel with all audio AC feeding off one leg and lighting and non audio ac on the other.

Hello,

You will probably want to use the 110 w/ variac/dimmer. I haven't seen anything that you can use w/ low voltage, unless the MFG makes a special dimmer for them.

In reference to

I would like to have controls for lighting in both the live rooms and the control room. This is more difficult with the variacs.

Are you referring to a 3 way system here? Yes this would be difficult. There are lighting systems that you can buy that will do this, but they are $$$. And I don't know how their isolation is with buzz/hum.

Low voltage light dimming is not the same as regular lighting. There are 2 types: magnetic and electronic. You must use the correct dimmer with either kind of setup. Lutron ( http://www.lutron.com ) has a large selection of the correct dimmer and can answer any questions you might have about them. Make sure to check with the lighting manufacture for which type of light you are going to use. I had 2 from a company, one was a 5 light that was magnetic and one was a 3 light electronic eventhough it was the same model type.

Thanks for the replys. Does anyone Know what the hum and buzz difference between low voltage lighting with the proper dimmer ie lutron maestro and line voltage with variac and line voltage with high quality dimmer. I realize that the variac is probably the best but by how much??

Variac w/ line voltage IS your best bet. You can find some used Staco Variacs on ebay. Search for Staco 501. Used they go for $20 to $60. New they are about $110+.

Hi Carl,

So is the Staco 501 actually the Dimmer?

Breaker box-Cables-Staco 501-lights....??

Thanks!!
John

Exactly!

Cool!

1.does the Staco 501 work for Hallogen and incandesents?

2.What type of box do you mount it in?

3. Are there face plates for the Staco 501?

4. If I am going to have four seperate light runs..do I need four Staco 501's?

5. About how large is the Staco 501? Like a normal rotory dimmer?

Thanks again!!!
John

http://www.variac.com/staco_variable_tr ... _500_s.htm
http://instrumentation-central.com/Stac ... /vt500.pdf

Thanks Carl,

Not to bug ya to much, I still did not find this out or maybe i don't understand the litature completely. I still want to make sure before I make the purchase:

does the Staco 501 work for Hallogen and incandesents?

If I am going to have four seperate light runs..do I need four Staco 501's?

John

I have 4 staco 501's and I mounted them in a 2' peice of 6" electrical trough (6" X 6" X 2') the 501's are approx 4" x 4" x 4".

They will work for normal 120V lighting, not for low voltage lights (those are a specific dimmers). You would place them on the specific lights you want to dim. If you want all of them in the room to dim at once, use one dimmer. If you want 4 lights to dim as 2 and 2 then you need 2 dimmers.

Would the staco 511's work the same or as well?

As far as cabling....12/3 or Romex?

thanks guys!
John

Yes, the 511 is a smaller in size, that's about it. Romex I am unsure of. I believe the one I got was a 12/3.

Great!

Thanks Carl,
John