Amps (Ampere): The available electricty in a system to be used. Volts (Voltage): The pressure pushing electricity to each circuit. Watts (Wattage): The amount of electricity an ojbect needs to work (or how much energy it emits when running). Lucky for filmmakers, we don't have to master the science behind electrons, protons, and neutrons in order to use lights. We can simply do a simple equation to figure out how many lights we can plug in to each circuit! What's a Circuit?Notice in this image above that wires run to every room in the house. Some rooms are grouped together on the same (colored) circuit and share the same power supply. This means that if someone trips the circuit (drawing too much power) in one room then all the rooms will lose power. A circuit is where electricity enters and loops through an electrical system. In a circuit, electricity enters and loops through an electrical system. In the image on the left, electricity is entering and existing the light bulb. The image on the right explains that the electricity exiting out of the light bulb is equal to the amount of electricity going in. For example:
These images above show the same setup for a breaker box; a main line entering at the top, 120v and 240v breakers for a variety of circuits, a ground line, and a neutral line. IMPORTANT NOTE: The circuit breaker box is important to filmmakers because it tells us which rooms are grouped together and which rooms share the same 20 amps of power.So...where do we plug in our lights?Here's where the math comes in... Watts = Volts x AmpsMock Scenario
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