Powering large lights in 220-250V countries

Michael Rodin · March 23, 2015

Hi! Since it's a tradition here to introduce oneself in the first post...

I am DP based in Riga, Latvia, doing mostly documentary work and web/TV ads, also making a short and a feature this year. Shooting a lot of HDCAM on F900, some Beta SP and Super-16/35, gaffing as well. Native Russian-speaker, so excuse my English.

Powering moderately big fixtures off household circuits has already been discussed on the forum, but everybody was talking 120V US-standard. Maybe we should have a thread for 220V power?

In Latvia we've got 230V/16A on some of the wall outlets and generally 230V/10A. The wiring is 1,5-2,0mm2 (14-16AWG) of severely overloaded aluminium in flats and 4/0 alu house feeder everywhere but in the newest buildings. 2K tungsten and 1,2K HMIs work fine, but what about the bigger lights? Do I really risk burning the location when doing a tie in for say a 6K, if to take that the wiring is such rubbish?

On the next show I'm going to run an LTM Cinepar 2500W in a Soviet block of flats. The ballast is magnetic Alimarc 2,5K, so no problems with power factor and harmonics. It draws 14A on 220V when running, but what's the usual HMI startup current - 1,5-2x the "paper" amps? No genny this time so we're tying in to a 16A "private" line. I'm quite sure it'll trip the 16A breakers, but will it basically ignite from a 16A circuit? One of my colleagues says yes, should I beleive? What about a 4K off a 25A stove outlet?