Dimmers

Thought I'd try this question with the ASF brains trust.
If you have a dimmer on a light and you wind it down, are you saving electricity?

Ferret said:

Thought I'd try this question with the ASF brains trust.
If you have a dimmer on a light and you wind it down, are you saving electricity?

Click to expand...

Yes, you reduce the current flow and as Power = V*I, if I is reduced so is the power consumption.

Ferret said:

Thought I'd try this question with the ASF brains trust.
If you have a dimmer on a light and you wind it down, are you saving electricity?

Click to expand...

It'd cost around $40 to $60 for a good dimmer. Buy a cheapy $25 one and will have to put up with the zeeezeeee and maybe a fire or two.

Maybe try a lower W bulb? Or those efficient ones?

Thanks guys.
I thought maybe the power got turned into heat by resistors.
I'll wind down when I can.

It definitely will reduce the amount of electricity used however it's not a linear relationship between light output and power consumption since the efficiency of the light source will in most cases decrease at lower output.

So reducing the light output by 50% will save power, but the saving will be less than the 50% reduction in light output particularly if the lamps being dimmed are incandescent (including halogen).

For incandescent or LED lamps, dimming will increase lifespan that's pretty straightforward.

For fluorescent lamps, dimming is inherently somewhat problematic and how it affects lifespan is an "it depends" question.

For halogen lamps, in theory dimming will actually decrease lamp life. Consumer grade halogen lamps, particularly 240V ones, are however always something of a gamble in terms of lifespan and the halogen cycle isn't necessarily of any value to start with such that dimming may either increase or decrease lamp life in practice.

LED is the best source to dim.
You pretty much get all the savings.
Flouro is the worst. You only get roughly half.

You'll find detailed discussions about this on the Whirlpool forums.

Knobby22 said:

LED is the best source to dim.
You pretty much get all the savings.
Flouro is the worst. You only get roughly half.

Click to expand...

Just a helper thought. I bought some "dimmable" led lights but they don't dim. I googled the problem and apparently the dimmer switch has to be compatible with the led light.