Can I Put an LED Light Bulb on a Dimmer Circuit?
LED light bulbs can be put on a dimmer circuit, but they don't dim as smoothly as incandescent bulbs. Incandescent bulbs can be dimmed until they emit almost no light, but LED bulbs can only be dimmed within a certain range. After the electricity is lowered beyond 1.5 bolts, LED bulbs will go completely dark.
Voltage Adjustment
The brightness of LED are determined by the current supplied to them, which is in turn determined by the voltage of their power supply. An incandescent bulb on a dimmer circuit will slowly increase in brightness from completely dark to it's full brightness potential. An LED will stay dark as the voltage increase, until 1.5 volts are supplied, at which point it will jump to a medium level of brightness. Afterward, it will behave similarly to an incandescent bulb.
With most dimmer switches, this will require you to turn rotate the switch about half way around before the LED turns on. You can also find switches designed for LEDs, which will immediately jump from no power to 1.5 volts of power.
You can harm LEDs by supplying too much voltage to them. Many dimmer switches will not go high enough for this to be a problem, but some will. The maximum voltage an LED can handle will vary with each bulb, and can be found on the bulb's packaging.
Pulse Width Modulation
An alternative method of dimming lights is pulse . Instead of actually decreasing the brightness of the light, the light is toggled on and off at high speeds to create the illusion of different brightness levels. For greater brightness, the time that the light stays off is shorter, and for lower brightness, the time that the light stays off is longer. The lights turn on and off quickly enough that your eyes will not be able to perceive any flickering.
Pulse width modulation is particularly well suited for LED lights because they can be turned on instantaneously, unlike bulbs such as compact fluorescents that require time to warm up. Pulse width modulation also solves the problem of LEDs jumping from complete darkness to mid-level brightness, and allows you to emulate very dim lighting.
Most dimmer circuits in your home will use the voltage adjustment method. If you want to use pulse width modulation to adjust the brightness of your LED light bulbs, you will need to install a new dimmer circuit which utilizes this method. You can purchase these circuits from electronics stores, and some hardware stores.
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