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Dimmable LED and Dimmer Switches

Dimmable LED and Dimmer Switches

Dimmable LED and Dimmer Switches

Dimmable LED lamps can save energy and can ultimately change the visual appearance of a room. Dimmable LED’s can be used in a non-dimmable circuit however you cannot use non-dimmable lamps in a dimmable circuit as this can damage the lamp and the circuit. LED lamps are always marked as ‘dimmable’ or ‘non dimmable’ on the packaging so always pay attention to this!

dimmer or dimmer switch is used to control the amount of power being supplied to a LED light which in turn controls the brightness. The dimmer can be controlled in a number of ways such as manually or by a remote to adjust the level of lighting in a room.

A dimmer could have a switch plate with a bar that can be moved up and down to adjust the lighting. Quite often the switch will be either numbered or it will be shown as high, medium and low. The other type of dimmer is a knob that is turned either to the right or left to either brighten or dim the light. Again this dimmer is often marked with numbers or it may simply click when turned to indicate the change.

The most popular is phase control dimmers (also known as phase cut dimmers) and there are two types available known as ‘trailing edge’ and leading edge. Both these dimmers work in different ways which is explained below.

Leading edge

Leading edge dimmers are typically cheaper than trailing edge and were used to dim incandescent and halogen bulb. They use a ‘TRIAC (Triode for Alternating Current) switch to control power.

Most leading edge dimmers have a high minimum load which means they often cannot be used with modest LED or CFL lighting circuits.

Trailing edge

Trailing edge is seen as more sophisticated than leading edge dimmers. They most commonly use a metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistor switch rather than a TRIAC. This has benefits for the home owner as the dimmer is virtually silent therefore there is no annoying buzzing noise.

A trailing-edge dimmer has a lower minimum load (often 10W) than leading-edge dimmers, making it a better choice for dimming modestly sized low-powered lighting circuits. The trailing edge dimmers are beneficial for incandescent and halogen bulbs as they prevent filaments from exploding when switched on.

How to avoid LED dimmer compatibility issues

For an LED lamp to work with a dimmer the driver electronics has to be compatibly adapted.  Leading-edge dimmer switches are sometimes called ‘incandescent dimmers’, because they were originally designed to handle the resistive load of incandescent light. To improve chances of compatibility, trailing edge dimmer switches work better with the capacitive load of an LED driver.