Muppet Wall Electrical Help!

[The Wampire]

Hey guys,

I'm knew to this forum and you guys are my only hope. I am working on building a replica or close to replica of the Muppet Arches from the Muppet Show. In the image below you see a bunch of lights along the arches. I want to do that exact thing. My replica will have a total of 3 rows of arches equaling 139 total bulbs. I am in the US and there are 4 outlets that I can plug into. I do not have access to hard-wiring my project if that makes sense. All I do know is the gold sockets used are porcelain sign receptacles painted metallic gold. How would I start? Where do I start? I could use any help I can find. Thanks guys.

 

[misterT]

You need to find out how much current (power) you can get out of the 4 outlets. Are the 4 outlet behind the same fuse, or do every one of them have its own fuse etc. The main concern here is that 139 light bulbs consume lots of power. You need to carefully choose the type of bulb you will use. Maybe you will need to go with a LED bulb.

Here is one example. I don't know if it is visually (or technically) what you are looking for, but it has a nice classic light-bulb look. It is a 5 watt bulb, so 139 of them would need at least 700 watts of power.

 

[MikeMl]

A 15A 120V branch circuit can deliver 1800W

 

[The Wampire]

A 15A 120V branch circuit can deliver 1800W

Thanks MikeMI and misterT for helping me start the ball rolling on what kind of info I need to know.

Mike. Does that mean each outlet supplying 1800 W gives me a total of 7200 W to power all 139 of the bulbs?

MisterT. One problem I have is the price of each of those LED bulbs will break my bank. Maybe CFL bulbs?

The next question is what would the diagram look like for how the wires go from each bulb to the outlet?

 

[misterT]

MisterT. One problem I have is the price of each of those LED bulbs will break my bank. Maybe CFL bulbs?

Sure, 13 watt CFL times 139 makes 1807 watts. So you could just barely power all of them even if the outlets are behind the same 15A fuse. And the price is quite cheap:
https://www.amazon.com/GE-13-Watt-E...1?s=lamps-light&ie=UTF8&qid=1382512712&sr=1-1

But, still, you need to check how much power you can get from the outlets. Don't make assumptions. Can you get 1800 watts from each of the outlets, or can you only get 1800 total (all four combined).

 

[picbits]

Also consider the surge of turning on 139 CFL lamps at the same time - you may find you blow the fuse straight away but I'm not an expert on CFL operating currents.

You might want to switch them on maybe 5 or 10 at a time.

 

[MikeMl]

Thanks MikeMI and misterT for helping me start the ball rolling on what kind of info I need to know.
Mike. Does that mean each outlet supplying 1800 W gives me a total of 7200 W to power all 139 of the bulbs?...

Not necessarily. If all four outlets are connected (inside the walls) to one 15A circuit breaker in the electrical panel, then you can only draw 1800W total for the four outlets.

If you luck out, and any of the outlets are wired to different branch circuits (different breakers), then you might be able to get 3600W or 5400W.

You will have to go the panel, turn off breakers one at a time to see which outlets they go to.

 

[The Wampire]

Thanks again guys! I'm in the process of finding out from facilities how the outlets are wired. Looking carefully, there is another outlet as well which gives me 5 now. I'll let you guys know what I find out as soon as I get the info.

 

[dr pepper]

When you consider a 13w cfl is nearly as bright as a 65w bulb, 139 of them will be extremely bright, if thats what you want them fine, however maybe 7w cfl's might be a little better and cheaper.
Had you considered a sequencer, if you only lit one row at at time current draw would be a lot less.
Might not be as impressive, but how about putting 6 foot fluorescent tubes in the archways and drilling holes, or holes with lenses over to let the light out, one tube would cover a few holes.

 

[The Wampire]

When you consider a 13w cfl is nearly as bright as a 65w bulb, 139 of them will be extremely bright, if thats what you want them fine, however maybe 7w cfl's might be a little better and cheaper.
Had you considered a sequencer, if you only lit one row at at time current draw would be a lot less.
Might not be as impressive, but how about putting 6 foot fluorescent tubes in the archways and drilling holes, or holes with lenses over to let the light out, one tube would cover a few holes.

Hey Dr Pepper!

Yeah I think 7w CFL's should do. I don't know what a sequencer is but that could be a great option because it's not essential for the lights to come on at the same time. I've thought about having a light source inside the arches and having fake bulbs but I have been so wanting to make an authentic replica of it that I ditched that idea. For all of those helping out, here is a front view of my plans.

UPDATE: The facilities guys here at work gave me more info on those outlets. The studio runs 20 amp outlets instead of the 15 amps. 4 outlets and each of those are wired to their own circuit breakers according to my source. He is going to look at the building plans to find out exactly what is going on especially if they are sharing circuits with the offices on the other side of the wall.

plans.

 

[tronitech]

It's just an idea but maybe you can use groups of 10 x 12Vac lamps in series, a little like christmas tree lights of old, to reduce the wiring and maybe the power requirement?

 

[dr pepper]

Thats a good idea, a car battery charger or even a re-purposed pc power supply would light a couple of hundred small bulbs, the kind of thing you see lighting the scales in old valve radio's, the bulbs and holders are also much cheaper, if theres enough light from this its something to look at, also if everything runs at 12v its a lot safer, esp if one or more of the bulb glass's get broken.

 

[The Wampire]

I'm really set on doing this as authentically as I can. I'm not familiar with what the 10 x 12 Vac lamps look like. Can you send a link of what you're thinking of?

I think I can build this true to the original specs with less wattage bulbs albeit.

 

[dr pepper]

In hindsight these are probably too small, they hold mes type torch bulbs.

 

[The Wampire]

In hindsight these are probably too small, they hold mes type torch bulbs.

Thanks for the suggestion though!

 

[The Wampire]

 

[The Wampire]

The above picture is the receptacle for the bulb. What gauge wire do I need to get and how would I daisy chain all the receptacles together? And what kind of a plug will I then connect all the receptacles too? 2 prong? 3 prong?

Thanks guys.