Silly question!?

Steamhead (in transit)

to get compact fluorescent bulbs that work with ordinary dimmers. Anyone ever tracked the efficiency on one of these when dimmed?

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adambuild

Silly question!?

If a dimmer controls lighting that is using 500watts at full on is it only using a fraction of that at lower dimmed levels or is it always using that 500watts no matter what?!

Rich W

How old is the dimmer?

Here is the info and where it came from. Ain't technology grand?

Using dimmers to get just the right amount of light

Modern dimmer switches use a transistor to rapidly turn a light on and off so that current flows through the light on only part of the A/C cycle. This is significantly more efficient than old dimmers which used resistors, and it generates a lot less heat in the switch itself. The use of a modern dimmer switch on an incandescent light will reduce the power used by the light, decrease the temperature of the bulb, and extend the bulb life. However, such a light operating at decreased power will be less efficient at generating light than it would be at full power (e.g. at 50% power, you might output 30% of the lumens you would generate at full power). This reduction in efficiency is due primarily to the efficiency effect in the light bulb itself, with the dimmer contributing only a small amount to the reduction in efficiency

http://automation.hmtech.info/lighting.html

jim lockard

nope

but I know that if you snap an amp meter on the circuit you can watch the power comsuption increase as you turn the dimmer up to full brightness. you can then do the math Volts x Amps= Watts