DIMMER SWITCHES - HOW THEY WORK - AN EASY INTRODUCTION TO HOW THEY CONTROL & VARY THE LIGHT OUTPUT
We’ve had many questions about dimmer switches and asking how they work.
In this video we will look at the more common type of dimmer switch that is used with standard domestic filament lamps. This will be the type of dimmer switch that is normally suitable for halogen and incandescent lamps with a load of between about 40 watts and 250 watts.
When we see a dimmer switch on the wall, what is actually going on inside the switch itself?
Gone are the days when a simple wire-wound variable resistor did the job.
If you remember those devices, you may also recall that they started to become warm in use, as the wire-wound resistor dropped the voltage to the lamp.
It’s all different now. The switches use semi-conductor technology, they are safer and more reliable.
We will look inside these dimmer switches and find out what happens in the control circuit as we adjust the brightness of the lamps
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I'm here again. Thanks for sharing it with us
Thanks for coming Daniel, always welcome.
We appreciate you
Thank you Albert, and thanks for watching. Dave.
there's a whole world of dimming technology out there and retro fitting these things can be a nightmare sometimes, good shout Dave 👍
Thank you Brian, great comments. Dave.
After installing yet another dimmer plate earlier today, I thought I would test the voltage at min and max control knob position. I understand a current draw determines a resistive output light but the max voltage was only 160v at 100% dimmer on position, despite uk 230v supply. This seems to be inherent to the manufacturer/product design perhaps?
The voltage will be divided across the dimmer and the lamps, but you should get a constant 230V-ish at the breaker.
Great video again, Dave. Should the lamp be on the other side of de dimmer switsch?
As I said in the first couple of slides, I was keeping it very simple so that everybody can follow. I will be doing a video soon on the actual wiring of different circuits. Thanks for watching. Dave.
Ok. Thanks for your answer. I look forward to that video and also the one about LED dimmers.
There are some kind of new dimmer switches on the market compared to these old TRIAC ones, claiming to be able to dim LED lights too... I don't know how that would work. Because I have an old type dimmer, with a dimmable led ceiling light which works just fine. The new ones are pretty expensive switches ~30 USD or so, compared to the old ones which are around 3-5USD Can you maybe a do a video on those too? It could be that they are mainly the same circuit but with a better marketing.
Its on the list now, thanks for the input and thank you for watching. Dave.
Sir our frequency is 50 or 60 hz. But sir after grounding nutral how the freqancy showing sinewave. Because after grounding nutral becaome zero volt. Please
The phase voltage, the up and down bit is either side of the neutral and earth. It is the phase voltage in relation to the neutral. have another look at the video, sometimes a second or third viewing helps. Thanks for watching and stick with it, all will make sense.
We should have only 1 dimmer switch in each lighting circuit? Great content as usual 👌
Absolutely. If you have a room with two switches, only one of them should be a dimmer. Thanks for watching, appreciated.
You can have more than one rotary button, touch button, retractable switch dimmer controls in master-slave dimmer configuration in one circuit.
So was that a trailing edge dimmer? Looking forward to the video on dimming leds. Charles
Once the triac fires it will keep conducting until a zero crossing, which is why we cannot trigger at the beginning of the cycle.. I've not forgotten the next video. Thanks.
Precaution: This guy doesn't like to be meggered @500 V.
Absolutely right. We are putting a video together on testing devices like this. Thanks for the input. Dave.