What Types Of Dimmers Are There?

Dimmers can be classified by control method and application.According to the control method, it can be divided into resistance dimmer, voltage regulation dimmer, magnetic amplifier reactance dimmer and electronic dimmer; and daylight integrated control system.

The resistance dimmer connects the resistance in series between the incandescent light source and the power supply, and changing the resistance value can adjust the current in the light source to achieve the purpose of dimming. Its disadvantages are high energy consumption, low efficiency, large size, and inconvenient control. The advantages are that both AC and DC power sources can be used, and there is no radio interference. It can be used in the lighting of laboratories, audio-visual demonstrations and ship navigation equipment.

A voltage regulator dimmer is an autotransformer. The secondary voltage is changed by adjusting the contact position of the brush with the coil wound outside the transformer yoke. It has the advantages of less energy consumption, high efficiency, and increasing the load within the rated power does not affect the original dimming degree. The disadvantage is that it is only suitable for AC power, heavy, non-ferrous and ferrous metals that consume more, and cannot be controlled remotely.

The magnetic amplification reactance dimmer changes the inductive reactance of the AC winding by changing the magnitude of the current in the DC winding wound on the iron yoke. It has good dimming performance and easy control, but is bulky and bulky and has been replaced by electronic dimmers.

Electronic dimmer

In the early days, thyristors were used as switching elements, and later thyristors were used. This dimmer has the advantages of light weight, small size, high efficiency, and easy remote manipulation, and is widely used. Its disadvantage is that if no effective filtering measures are taken, radio interference will occur, and dimming is troublesome for gas discharge light sources such as fluorescent lamps and high-intensity gas discharge lamps. Dimmers using high-power transistors or FETs can overcome this shortcoming.

Civil dimmer

For home, office, conference room, school, corridor and other occasions. The line is simple, the price is low, and the performance requirements are not high. Common dimmers such as table lamps and chandeliers can meet people's needs for light in different work, and achieve the purpose of comfort, hygiene and energy saving.

Film and television stage dimmer

There are two types of single-circuit and multi-circuit, and each circuit has a larger capacity. It is also called dimming device with multiple circuits, large capacity, and constitutes a system. It is characterized by multiple circuits, complete functions, and consistent dimming performance of each circuit. There are two control methods: manual control and microcomputer control. Manual control methods include automatic control, centralized control, cross control, sub-master control, master control, and pre-selection of scenes, etc.; in addition to all the above-mentioned functions, the computer-controlled ones can also control the stage lighting according to the different scenes and the order of time. The light and dark information is stored in the microcomputer, and the program is automatically executed according to the sequence. According to the special requirements of the film and television stage for lighting, new varieties such as sound-controlled and program-controlled dimmers have appeared. The airport light dimmer is a device for adjusting the brightness of high-intensity airport lights and lighting systems on airports. Under various weather conditions, the airport lights should be able to guide the take-off and landing of the aircraft, and the dimmer must meet the adjustment requirements of the brightness level stipulated in the "International Civil Aviation Convention". The complete lighting system of the airport is installed in a large range and has a long transmission distance. The required level of brightness cannot be affected by the power supply voltage, the load (including the burnout of individual light sources) and the length of the line, and can be centrally controlled on the tower. Therefore, the airport light dimmer is a current-adjustable constant-current dimmer that outputs a high voltage. Each light source is connected to the secondary of its own isolation transformer, and then the primary is connected in series to the high-voltage output terminal of the dimmer, and the output current of the output terminal is adjusted to achieve the purpose of dimming.

Daylight integrated control system is an automatic dimming system with a microcomputer system. It is used to centrally control and control many lights in many offices or similar places in the building, which is synchronized with the intensity of daylight and is related to the indoor working time schedule, so as to achieve the purpose of unmanned operation and energy saving. It uses photoelectric control, time program and computer technology to control the indoor illumination at the required level. The system includes daylight dimming, time program control dimming and alarm control dimming. Most of the dimmer loads are incandescent lamps, and a few are fluorescent lamps.