5 Tips on Buying Best LED Dimmer Switch
5 Tips on Buying Best LED Dimmer Switch
As technology keeps advancing and the need for comfort and a general desire for a good life keeps on increasing, the light industry has provided us with a new form of lighting technology in the form of LED lights.
In the search for further convenience of using s LED light, the concept of having dimmers and dimmable LEDs lights was considered by industry scientist.
I am not like LED light brought about the discovery of light dimmers. It is not a hidden fact that light dimmers have been in existence for many years alongside other lighting systems.
With LED technology bossing the lighting industry, the focus has to be shifted to what is trending(LED Lighting).
Over the years, LED light has shown a high level of superiority over other lighting systems. Using dimmer technology, light can simply be used with the flexibility of adjusting light intensity and output.
You also achieve better energy efficiency at little cost while the LED bulbs and luminaires are afforded a longer lifespan. Using a good LED light dimmer offers a smooth dimming from your fixtures highest lighting capacity to its lowest with a little or no stress. Below are six tips that will effectively make buying a LED light Dimmer a walk in the park.
Tips on Buying Best LED Dimmers
1. Use a Tested Dimmer
When fixing a dimmable LED circuit for the first time, it is best practice to make up your mind on the LED bulb you are going to use and then find a dimmer switch that has been tested with the bulb of your choice. If you do a quick search, it is common to see a list of tested dimmers that light bulb manufacturers recommend for their product.
Additionally, when working on a fresh light installation, Its best you figure out the number of bulbs or fixture the dimmer will work with as this will help calculate the expected load for dimmer. If you can, you can also carry out the simple test on your own before making purchases
Some red flags to look out for when testing a dimmer include:
1. Very audible noise coming from the bulb.
2. Flicker before low dim is achieved.
3. Unstable dimming curve.
2. Ensure Dimmer and Luminaire have Compatible Drivers
Ensuring that the electronic driver a dimmer uses is compatible with your chosen LED fixture or bulb is a step too important to ignore. To a regular user, This may be too technical to check. But this is how it works.
Lighting control systems communicate with the drivers and bulbs with an electronic language which the dimmer and the bulb understand.
If both devices do not understand each other, you will observe a poor performance. This is because bulbs will not deliver the required light due to its inability to translate signals from the driver into an appropriate state of light.
The simplest way around it is to read a detailed product description possibly on the manufacturer’s website. This will give you important clues on the possibility of having the dimmer work seamlessly with your lighting system.
3. Patronize a Known Brand
As a rule of thumb, You should choose luminaire from popular and well-established lighting manufacturers. Let us Keep aside the need for best the dimmers, buying a product from an established brand in most cases offer product warranty, good quality, and a longer product life span.
There are a lot of copycats counterfeiting original and trusted brands in the market today, identifying product like this can be a daunting task. So to save yourself the hassle, it is best you have a physical check of the product before paying. or if you are buying online, its a safer bet not buying from just any random site.
Go to a manufacturers website and see if they can sell directly to you. If they do not have that provision, they in most cases will recommend trusted dealers or distributors of their product.
So stick to good brands that can give you confidence and don’t be tempted to go for cheap options that won’t satisfy your light dimming need.
3. Avoid Standard Dimmers
Do not use standard dimmers on your LED light. It is as simple as that. Standard dimmers are built differently and are best put to use with other lighting types other than LED lights. Standard dimmers will be underloaded in most LED applications, and this scenario will cause flickering and will shorten the life span of the lighting unit.
It is due to their higher minimum voltage requirement that they are best suited for Halogen and CFL bulbs.
So Instead of buying a standard dimmer, it better you go for the best smart light dimmers that work across the board. Smart dimmers like the Insteon smart dimmers will serve the dimming requirement of your smart light.
With a smart dimmer, you can remotely control the state of the light in your living room while on vacation, as well as switch OFF and ON your outdoor security light while you are away from home.
4. Do not Combine LED Bulbs or Light Fixture of Different Brand
The Gamble of having one dimmer control light bulbs from different manufacturers can be dangerous. Always Remember this, LED technology is complex and is a lot more complicated than CFLs and incandescent.
It is not ideal to solid-state lighting of different brands on the same dimming circuit. This is because every LED will tend to function based on its design, driver and electronic circuitry. If combined, they might not communicate properly and they are likely going to interpret electronic signals differently.
This based on my observation is one of the root causes of humming and flickering in LED light. So it is best that once you find a winning formula or product, figure out what works, and have everything working; then the many benefits that come with LED dimming will become apparent to you.
5. Use Dimmers Rated at least 150W
My final tip on this section is that whatever choices you might make when it comes to LED dimming, It is best you choose a dimmer that can control the total wattage of bulbs or luminaire the dimmer switch will control. This is because not long ago, most dimmers in the market had a tough time controlling LED lights that were above 100W.
To avoid such challenges, carefully write out the individual wattage of your bulbs, and sum them up. This will give you a clear cut idea of the overall electricity demand of your lighting system.
If the system will run on one dimmer, then compare your figures with the Watt rating on your dimmer to see if your dimmer can carry the load. This will save you a lot of stress later.
