Dopey question of the day....

Are mains halogen lights dimmable (using a standard light dimmer)?

The message
from "Grumps" contains these words:

Are mains halogen lights dimmable (using a standard light dimmer)?

Yes - but.

Halogen lamps rely on being quite hot to stop them blackening inside. If
you run them at very low dimth for a long time they may darken. However,
by how much and how soon I have no idea - suck it and see.

--
Skipweasel
Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.

Guy King wrote:

Halogen lamps rely on being quite hot to stop them blackening inside. If
you run them at very low dimth for a long time they may darken.

I have a 5x50W ceiling fitting that is too bright for normal use, so it
spends most of the time on ~30-40% brightness, I've not had a single
bulb blow in it so far, unlike the usual tales of frequent replacement,
I just took a bulb out to inspect it, and no "soot" visible ...

On Wed, 1 Mar 2006 06:58:06 -0000, "Grumps"
wrote:

Dopey question of the day....

Are mains halogen lights dimmable (using a standard light dimmer)?


Yes you can, but make sure you leave plenty of headroom on rating -
e.g. don't run 5x50W lamps from a 250W dimmer - use a 400W dimmer
instead.

Even better, use a quality dimmer with soft start such as an MK4500
series and the bulb lives will be increased substantially.


--

..andy

Andy Hall wrote:
On Wed, 1 Mar 2006 06:58:06 -0000, "Grumps"
wrote:

Dopey question of the day....

Are mains halogen lights dimmable (using a standard light dimmer)?


Yes you can, but make sure you leave plenty of headroom on rating -
e.g. don't run 5x50W lamps from a 250W dimmer - use a 400W dimmer
instead.

Even better, use a quality dimmer with soft start such as an MK4500
series and the bulb lives will be increased substantially.

Thanks.
It's early days, but we're trying to find a pair of wall lights. So far we
have found two that we like. Both have 4x40W bulbs. One uses halogens
(mains), the other uses normal filament bulbs. Obviously, this is going to
be bright at a total of 320W, so will need a dimmer.
Is a halogen brighter than a normal bulb (Watt for Watt)?

On Wed, 1 Mar 2006 09:52:53 -0000, "Grumps"
wrote:

Andy Hall wrote:
On Wed, 1 Mar 2006 06:58:06 -0000, "Grumps"
wrote:

Dopey question of the day....

Are mains halogen lights dimmable (using a standard light dimmer)?


Yes you can, but make sure you leave plenty of headroom on rating -
e.g. don't run 5x50W lamps from a 250W dimmer - use a 400W dimmer
instead.

Even better, use a quality dimmer with soft start such as an MK4500
series and the bulb lives will be increased substantially.

Thanks.
It's early days, but we're trying to find a pair of wall lights. So far we
have found two that we like. Both have 4x40W bulbs. One uses halogens
(mains), the other uses normal filament bulbs. Obviously, this is going to
be bright at a total of 320W, so will need a dimmer.
Is a halogen brighter than a normal bulb (Watt for Watt)?



Have a look at the comments on olour temperature at

http://www.lightbulbs-direct.com/art...sp?ArticleID=7


--

..andy

Grumps wrote:
Dopey question of the day....

Are mains halogen lights dimmable (using a standard light dimmer)?


Yes. They have a slightly higher switch-on surge, so a higher rated
dimmer is preferable.