Written by: Newton C. Braga

 

 

“ Why can not you use common electronic fluorescent lamps with dimmers?”

 

Electronic lamps have an electronic inverter circuit that raises the grid voltage and at the same time changes their operating frequency, to a much higher frequency. Unlike ordinary incandescent bulbs where the amount of light depends simply on the voltage applied, the electronic circuitry is sensitive to voltage. When the voltage drops below a certain value it simply stops working and with that the lamp goes out. Thus, it is not possible to control the brightness of these lamps simply by controlling the input voltage as is the case with the dimmers. Likewise, the brightness of fluorescent lamps does not just depend on the voltage. If we lower the voltage too much with the dimmer the lamp does not ionize and with that it totally extinguishes. So we do not have a brightness control. In addition, there is the danger of the electronic lamp inverter circuit burning by the action of the dimmer.