Dimmers

Dimming is a technique that helps control the lighting levels in a space. In the long run, your light bulb can last up to ten years because of dimming. Dimming is one of the simplest, greenest, most cost-effective things to do for your home. It can be controlled with remote, pre-programmed settings, and manually. Automatic dimmers are another option that control light levels by time and with outside light levels. Portable lamps are also available with dimming options as well.

How long does it take to install dimmers?
What are the typical sizes of Fluorescent Lamps?
What types of luminaries/bulbs are compatible with a dimmer switch?
Why are some of my lights dimmer than others?

How long does it take to install dimmers?

Installing a dimmer is a one-step process. It takes a maximum of fifteen minutes to replace your regular light switch with a dimmer switch.

Dimmer Styles

• Rotary Dimmer Style: Contains a push-on/push-off dial to control your preset levels of light
  
• Slide Dimmer Style: The slide dimmer contains a variety of options to control your dimming in a space. Your dimming presets can be controlled by a rocker switch, a push-on/push off switch, or a touch switch with a separate dimmer slide.
  
• Preset Dimming: A device that helps create a lighting scene that is preset by you. At a push of a button the dimming lighting levels is adjusted according to your preset levels. This is great for spaces that need adjustments of lighting levels. Most common preset dimming devices are a four-dimmer, four-scene controller, and a three-dimmer.

What types of luminaries/bulbs are compatible with a dimmer switch?

Remember dimmers need enough load to support the amount of wattage/lamps that are going to be connected to it. If there is too much wattage supplied to the dimmer then problems of over heating and over loading will damage the dimmer. So make sure that you know the total amount of wattage being used and find out how much load the dimmer can support before making a purchase.

Incandescent:

• become warmer in color when dimmed
• minimum dimmer rating is 600 watts - 2000 watts
• simple to use and inexpensive

• special dimmers are required to handle fluorescence
• the fluorescent ballast must be a dimming type connected to a compatible dimmer switch
• FL is usually more expensive to dim and might not have the full capacity to do so. FL will dim only from 100-50%, but will not dim below 50%

• Low-voltage lights/low-voltage track lights:
• also can dim regular and mixed loads of incandescent lamps, and low voltage lighting
• these types are rated in volt-amps (VA) which are similar to watts
• magnetic-rated dimmers are 600 VA
• electronic rated dimmers are 325 VA (at least)
• Dimming is also available for neon and cathode lights

Why are some of my lights dimmer than others?

There are a few things to keep in mind when you noticed that some of your lamps are dimmer than others. One reason why this might be occurring is because the lamp light source is depreciating. In other words the lamp is running out of energy to supply a light source, thus it will need to be replaced. Another reason your lights might be dimmer than others could be because your source of power is too far from the lamp source. This doesn’t mean your lamp is going to expire.  This simply is telling you that the power/supply source of your lighting systems is not being provided enough power along the line to each individual lamp. It’s good to figure out if either the power source is too far away from your lighting system or if it has reached its maximum level of support for your lighting system. (see types of ballast/transformer)