Planning, installing and troubleshooting circuits using electrical dimmer switches for controlling the brightness of lighting.
Dimmer switches are electrical devices used to control the power in an electrical circuit, typically used to dim or brighten lighting. Early dimmers used variable resistors to do this, but that causes a lot of heat dissipation within the switch. Modern dimmers use solid state electronics and are a lot more energy-efficient. Recent improvements to the technology allow LED and CFL bulbs to be dimmed effectively.
When to use this tag
Use dimmer-switch tag for any question about an electrical circuit that uses a dimmer. The electrical and lighting tags will probably be appropriate as well. For questions about planning a circuit using them, the wiring tag may be useful. Finally, cfl, halogen or led specifies the lighting technology.
Related tags
- cfl — lighting using CFL (Compact Fluorescent Lamp) bulbs.
- electrical — all about the electrical subsystem in the house.
- halogen — lighting using halogen (incandescent) bulbs
- led — lighting using LED (Light-Emitting Diode) bulbs.
- lighting — general tag for questions about lighting.
- wiring — for planning and installing wiring to carry electrical power.
External resources
- Wikipedia article on dimmers
