Switches, Dimmers, Plugs

Lamp dimmers

The use of lamp dimmers and LED dimmers in lighting has been revolutionary in creating mood and practicality within the same light source. Electrical dimmers are a lighting component that adjusts the brightness of a lamp or light. Lowering the intensity of a light’s brightness involves adjusting the voltage. A lamp dimmer can do this by adjusting the voltage waveform that enters a light. By lowering the voltage, you create a low voltage waveform that create a low light output. This is very useful when wanting to create a moody atmosphere for dinner parties, while listening to music, relaxing in the bath or dimming the light to read in bed. They are especially important when using Edison style filament lightbulbs. This enables the glowing filament to be a feature in itself. We all love it when naked bulb pendant sets are hung in cafes and restaurants and the beautiful filament glows lightly creating a warm hue. Not only will you create an atmosphere for any lighting situation in your home or restaurant, but you will also save on your energy bills! In this day and age with sustainability and eco developments or purely just saving money the consideration of what components and bulbs you use in your renovation is important. Also replacing bulbs less often will further your output costs. ... Dimmers can range in sizes and an be on the electrical cable or built into lamp holders. Here at Creative Cables Australia and New Zealand we stock both. We specialize in the small lamp dimmers that sit on the lamp fabric cable. This is ideally used in the situation of dimming lights next to bedside where the dimmer needs to be reached from a seated position. Your electrician will easily be able to add a dimmer to any current lamp that you might have. Single-pole dimmers are used to dim as well as to turn a lamp on and off. A plug-in dimmer will dim only and the switch on the light itself or at the wall will turn the lamp on and off. We also have a wide range of lamp holders with built in dimmers that are related to this category. This can be in the form of a switch, decorative dial or a vintage style pull switch. Ask us to help you find the dimmer or lamp holder to suit your needs. Dimmers can also have the added feature of being able to turn a light completely off and on. So not only can you adjust the brightness of your lamp with the dimmer, but you can turn the lamp off completely. This is useful when the wall plug is somewhere very awkward, and you can’t reach it easily. As mentioned before this relates to the specific dimmer type you purchase. Look at single pole dimmers for this use. Depending on the type of lightbulb you have it’s important to match the dimmer accordingly. In the case of LED lights you need an electrical component that matches this. Here at Creative Cables we stock LED dimmers to match the LED light globes that we sell. If you connect a LED lamp to a traditional dimmer this can result in an irregular flickering of the light which is very annoying! This also is very dangerous as it can increase the risk of burning out your light. We stock inline dimmers that are specially designed for any kind of dimmable light bulb. This includes the vintage style carbon bulbs, energy saving lights or LED lightbulbs. Our LED dimmers will allow you to adjust the brightness of your light is a safe and fast manner. How has the history of the dimmer improved modern dimmers today? Early dimmers would divert energy from of the lights power into a resistor. This meant the light had less power entering it and therefore didn’t shine as brightly. The problem with this is that the energy that went into the resistor is wasted energy which is not very sustainable. Secondary is that heat is generated in the process. The more heat the more dangerous an electrical situation can be. Modern lamp dimmers change the total amount of electricity traveling through the circuit. Depending on where you have the dimmer set at will depend on how often the circuit is on or off and thus decreasing the amount of power moving into your light source. The simple explanation is that the source is turned on and off quickly to allow the requested amount of power to get to the light bulb. Obviously, it’s a little more complicated than this but for non-electricians hopefully this makes general sense! This ‘flickering’ is not detectable to the human eye as it pulses’ at a faster rate. Due to our biology, our eyes just ‘even out’ the amount of light creating an illusion of a constant lighting source. As a note: not all LED bulbs can be dimmed. They use different technology thus you need to purchase a dimmable Led bulb in which Creative Cables Australia and New Zealand stocks. A dimmable light bulb however will work just fine without a dimmer- it just won’t dim! If you are still unsure as to which dimmer will go with your light, please give us a call. Our product descriptions of the light bulbs should give a detailed description of what type of bulb you are buying and therefore which dimmer you would need. To see the full range of single pole, in-line dimmers please visit out website under components – dimmers, switches and plugs. Within this category you’ll find a wide range of dimmers to suit your needs. In addition, you can purchase in-line switches and foot light switches to complete your lighting lamp project. We hope this gives you an overall perspective on dimmer types and functions to help with your lamp lighting project. Navigating electrical component purchases can be difficult and confusing. When in doubt always consult the electrician, who is doing you electrical work.

Read more