150 Watt Rheostat Application

Rheostats have been used in dozens of applications over the years. The APR 150 rheostat is rated at 150 watts and has proven to be very reliable in applications in many industries. The lighting industry has used high power rheostats in dimming applications where traditional switch mode light dimming technology is not appropriate due to the need for absolute simplicity and long term reliability of operation.

Recent Application In Agriculture in remote N.S.W.

A fairly unusual request from a client was received early this year. The client has a large property in central N.S.W. and needed a simple, cost effective and efficient way of controlling a large bank of d.c. lighting in an out house where mains electricity was not available. The 24 volt direct current lamps needed to be dimmed periodically to ensure light conditions remained optimal for the battery hens that were housed in the out house.

Correct Wattage and Resistance Calculations Mean Correct Rheostat Selection

The client supplied us with electrical drawings of their lighting circuitry and from those details we were able to determine the most appropriate rheostat wattage required – in this case 130 watts, making the APR 150, 150 watt rheostat the ‘best fit’ rheostat for this application. We determined that 47 ohms was the optimal resistance for the rheostat. The client ordered the APR 150, 47 ohm rheostat and duly installed the rheostat into the out house and reported back that they are now able to dim the lights smoothly and achieve the desired light output . Full data on the APR series rheostats can be found here.