How Light Switch Dimmers Can Save Money

Light Switch Dimmers

Introduction:

If you have an old rheostat (a variable potentiometer) light dimmer it will not save you money on electrical power just because you turned it to a lower light setting. Turning the light dimmer to a lower setting will just change the extra power into heat right at the dimmer switch when you turn the lights down. That is why old dimmer light switches get hot. However, the newer dimmer switches do reduce the electrical power when you set the dimmer at a lower setting.

The newer light dimmers that operate on a modern light dimmer are built from silicon controlled rectifiers (SCR) instead of the old potentiometers variable resistor. A variable resistor will dissipate power by heat. By switching on and off, theoretically a silicon-controlled rectifier dimmer does not heat up because there is no excess power to dissipate.

The big advantage of a light dimmer is that you can change the amount of light you use to a bright for reading and reduce it to set a more subtle mood. Another good feature of modern light dimmers is that they also extend the life of the light bulb. Those difficult to reach ceiling light bulbs will not burn out as soon if you use a dimmer to tone them down a bit.

When a light is dimmer is turned down to approximately 25%, the dimmer switch saves about 20% of the electricity that the circuit would normally use. When dimmer is turned down to approximately 50% it saves about 40% of the electricity. To be prudent with your electrical energy use you should only use what you need and save money by not wasting it.

Problems with dimmers are that fluorescent lights don’t like to be dimmed, even those marketed as dimmable. When you use dimmable fluorescent bulbs on a dimmer switch it actually shortens the life of the lamp. Manufactures suggest that you use the old type light dimmers for florescent light bulbs.

Light dimmers are not recommended for Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFL’s). Dimmers are inexpensive and are easy to install by most DIY home owners. As more and more homeowners switch to the CFL light bulbs they will find out that their light dimmers are not effective with the new CFL’s.

If you have a modern light dimmer in your home dimming the lights and save some money. It may not be a good investment to install dimmers if you are going to change your light bulbs to CFLs as they may not work with them.

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