Dimmer Switches! A Good Choice

Dimmer switches are considered to be excellent for setting mood in a dining room or home theater. Their installation is also not very difficult. However there are a few things to keep in mind before going out and buying a dimmer switch.

You can use 120V incandescent bulbs and halogen bulbs along with these dimmer switches but you can't use fluorescent bulbs and most compact fluorescent bulbs.

The basic reason behind this is that dimmer switches are meant to work with bulbs with wire filaments, which are present in 120V incandescent and halogen bulbs. On the other hand, fluorescent bulbs and compact fluorescent bulbs contain a gas that requires certain amount of voltage to operate the light. Also for low voltage halogen bulbs, a special dimmer switch should be used.

Dimmer switches can be of two types- single pole and 3-way dimmer switches. In case you'require a switch that you need to on/off from a single point then go for single pole switches and if you want to access the light through different switches then go for 3 way switch. But out of these switches only one will be dimmer switch.

Years back, dimmer switches work on concept of varying voltage of light fixture like when you move down the dimmer switch voltage also go down and when you move up the dimmer switch, voltage also go up. This was generally handled by a rheostat that was considered to be energy inefficient.

However, now dimmer switches are operated using a TRIAC which effectively switches the power on and off to the light bulb at a high frequency. The rate of switching is so quick that you can not determine the bulb is ever off.

As the light bulbs used with dimmer switches are turned off in between its course, they save a lot of electric unit from your monthly electricity bills and the life time of such bulbs also increases. By dimming a light to nearly half of its normal output, you can conserve 40% power and can enhance the life span of that bulb by 5-20 times.

Dimmer switches are one among the excellent accessories that can beautify your dining room, living room and especially a home theater room.