light bulb limiter question?

[Curranproducer]

if I am using a lightbulb limiter on a new build, should the DC voltage build super slow? the bulb is not lighting up, I am using a 250 watt spot bulb for the limiter per uncle doug on the you tube pages for a 50watt marshall 800. the heaters are working with the tubes in it nothing is smoking BUT it is taking way to long to get to even 250vDC on the 1st filter stage

[martin manning]

A 250W bulb will not limit current very much at all, as it will pass 2A into a dead short. I would recommend using a 60W. Sounds like you have something wrong there.

[Littlewyan]

Yeah swap that bulb out. I live in the UK and with our voltage over here (240VAC) I use a 100W bulb which gets very bright when I first turn the amp on but then just glows at idle. The DC voltage is a bit lower than normal when using the bulb which is normal but it doesn't take any longer to start up.

[martin manning]

... I live in the UK and with our voltage over here (240VAC) I use a 100W bulb ...

Ryan, you should use the same wattage as we do over here for the same current limiting. The maximum primary current will be half as much, but then the maximum secondary current will be the same since your primary-to-secondary voltage ratio is also halved.

[Littlewyan]

Ah I see. Thanks for clearing that up. My brain hadn't engaged when I wrote the other message so couldn't think