Hot Dimmers

[Adams14]

I have been working at a 92 year old church. The dimmer for some two 300 watt incandescent lamps next to the alter, about 100 feet from the 600 watt dimmer are heating up. Will replacing with a 1000 watt dimmer be the cure for the overheating problem?

 

[Dennis Alwon]

Yes the fins on the 1000 watt dimmer will help dissipate the heat but the heat has to go somewhere

 

[luckylerado]

I have been working at a 92 year old church. The dimmer for some two 300 watt incandescent lamps next to the alter, about 100 feet from the 600 watt dimmer are heating up. Will replacing with a 1000 watt dimmer be the cure for the overheating problem?

The heat sync will be larger and do a better job of dissipating the heat but it will still heat up to the touch as this is normal for incandescent dimmers.

 

[GoldDigger]

The heat sync will be larger and do a better job of dissipating the heat but it will still heat up to the touch as this is normal for incandescent dimmers.

To the extent that the 1000W dimmer uses larger semiconductor elements with lower internal resistance the power dissipated at the same load will be somewhat lower.
If all the 1000W dimmer does is improve the heat sink you will be pushing out the same amount of waste heat but at a lower temperature.

 

[JFletcher]

A 600W dimmer is maxed out by 2 300W bulbs. Yes, it will be warm/hot to the touch. Even if you go with different, lower wattage lamps, check the dimmer - all it takes it for one to overheat/run hot once to start self destructing. The last 1000W models I looked at had a rather large faceplate heatsink and were 3-5x the cost of a 600W dimmer, but they will last.