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Home Repair - - If it ain't broken, don't fix it. Otherwise look here.
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Posted by mm on May 19, 2006, 10:41 pm
Which uses more electricity, a 75 watt light bulb, or a 150 with a
dimmer so that it is only as bright as the 75?
If one uses more, does it use much more?
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Posted by kevin on May 19, 2006, 11:04 pm
Hi mm, me again...
Most dimmers (esp the reasonably priced ones) just stick a resistance
in the line. So, they get hot (hence need a little ventilation, esp the
high power ones). This consumes a fair bit of electricity. The smaller
bulb w/ no dimmer is definitely more efficient. I think there are fancy
dimmers that are electronic and chop the phases or something, but these
still won't be 100% efficient.
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Posted by Art Todesco on May 19, 2006, 11:52 pm
Well, every dimmer I've seen in the last
25 years is electronic.
Resisntance dimmers are a thing of the
past .... long, long past.
Modern dimmers use a triac to "chop" the
waveform and they do
produce some heat. Also, when a higher
wattage lamp is dimmed,
the color changes and they become somewhat
less efficient. I don't know exact
numbers, but my guess is that it would
probably cost more to run a dimmed 150
watt lamp to give the same light
output of a 75 wat lamp
kevin wrote:
> Hi mm, me again...
>
> Most dimmers (esp the reasonably priced ones) just stick a resistance
> in the line. So, they get hot (hence need a little ventilation, esp the
> high power ones). This consumes a fair bit of electricity. The smaller
> bulb w/ no dimmer is definitely more efficient. I think there are fancy
> dimmers that are electronic and chop the phases or something, but these
> still won't be 100% efficient.
>
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Posted by mm on May 20, 2006, 12:25 am
>Hi mm, me again...
This must mean you read my other post just now. I wanted them to
appear together, but I wanted this one to be first. So I waited a
full 45 seconds from posting this one until I posted the other one.
But still I think you got the other one first. I'm learning more and
more about Usenet every month.
>Most dimmers (esp the reasonably priced ones) just stick a resistance
>in the line. So, they get hot (hence need a little ventilation, esp the
>high power ones). This consumes a fair bit of electricity. The smaller
>bulb w/ no dimmer is definitely more efficient. I think there are fancy
>dimmers that are electronic and chop the phases or something, but these
>still won't be 100% efficient.
Still reading posts....
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Posted by Don Klipstein on May 20, 2006, 1:06 am
>Hi mm, me again...
>
>Most dimmers (esp the reasonably priced ones) just stick a resistance
>in the line. So, they get hot (hence need a little ventilation, esp the
>high power ones). This consumes a fair bit of electricity. The smaller
>bulb w/ no dimmer is definitely more efficient. I think there are fancy
>dimmers that are electronic and chop the phases or something, but these
>still won't be 100% efficient.
The latter (phase choppers) as opposed to the former (resistors) are
something like well over 99.9% of light dimmers in use, and 100% of light
dimmers that you can buy at home centers and nearly all hardware stores
and nearly all electrical/lighting supply shops.
- Don Klipstein (don@misty.com)
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