Working with Dimmers

 

Often replacing a set of halogen lamps in a room with LEDs will result in the impossibility to dim it or the minimum dimmed light is still too high.

There can be multiple reasons but here are the most common ones:

 

- each dimmer has a minimum and maximum load power consmption limit. If the load is below the minimum power consumption level value (too light ) the dimmer won't work.  By replacing the old lamp which had a high power consumption with a low power consumption LED lamps, the consumtion drops,and often gets below the minimum level that the dimmer needs in order to operate. Check the dimmer specifications to see what is the minimum load consumption power needed to operate it and compare that with the total consumption power of the installed LEDs on that dimmer circuit. If the total consumption power of the  LEDs is below the minimum value needed for the dimmer, it will not work, and you will have to replace the dimmer.

 

- the dimmer is the wrong type. LED lights can only be dimmed with a TRIAC type of dimmer

 

- the LED lamp is not dimmable. An LED lamp is not always dimmable. It must be explicitely written on it that it is a dimmable version, otherwise it is not. If you try to dim a non dimmable LED lamp, usually it will make a specific noise and most likely it will also flicker.