Dimming lights with built-in transformers
Dimming lights with built-in transformers
Fully loaded halogen transformers usually dim quite well. If you are planning to dim halogen light transformers, try only dim traditional transformes, because toroidal core transformer do not usully dim well. Most of the cheap halogen light transformers belong to this category as well as the transformer in for example PAR36 pinspot lights. For this kind of transformer it is necessary that the current after the dimmer is still symmetric, so that there is no DC component formed to the transformer which can cause the transformer cire to aturate (and lead to overload and finaly destruction of transformer). Some of the cheapest light dimmers might not be very good on symmetry, but good quality light dimmers designed for also inductive loads should not have symmetry problems.
When dimming transformers with in any way questionable type do dimmer for inductive loads, it is a good idea to put a fuse in series with the transformer primary so that it will blow when transfromer tries to get too much power from the line. This will protect the transformer from overheating which might be caused because of transformer core saturation (which might be caused by small DC bias caused by not very well operating dimmer). A proper fuse will save transformers from burning out.
Anyway a normal transformers which feed light loads are dimmable with good quality dimmer which can handle at least some amount of inductive load usually without much problems. Anyway it should be mentioned that when a transformer is dimmed in this way, it can heat somewhat more than in normal operation (full power without dimming). Other thing worth to mention is that when a tranformer is dimmed, it usually produces noticably more audible noise than in normal operation (noise depends on used transformer).
If your halogen light system uses an electronic transformer then you must very carefully check if it can be dimmed. Some of the electronic transformers are made dimmable and work well with traditional light dimmers. The ones which are not ment to be dimmed can be damaged by the dimming and even damage your dimmer.
Fully loaded halogen transformers usually dim quite well. If you are planning to dim halogen light transformers, try only dim traditional transformes, because toroidal core transformer do not usully dim well. Most of the cheap halogen light transformers belong to this category as well as the transformer in for example PAR36 pinspot lights. For this kind of transformer it is necessary that the current after the dimmer is still symmetric, so that there is no DC component formed to the transformer which can cause the transformer cire to aturate (and lead to overload and finaly destruction of transformer). Some of the cheapest light dimmers might not be very good on symmetry, but good quality light dimmers designed for also inductive loads should not have symmetry problems.
When dimming transformers with in any way questionable type do dimmer for inductive loads, it is a good idea to put a fuse in series with the transformer primary so that it will blow when transfromer tries to get too much power from the line. This will protect the transformer from overheating which might be caused because of transformer core saturation (which might be caused by small DC bias caused by not very well operating dimmer). A proper fuse will save transformers from burning out.
Anyway a normal transformers which feed light loads are dimmable with good quality dimmer which can handle at least some amount of inductive load usually without much problems. Anyway it should be mentioned that when a transformer is dimmed in this way, it can heat somewhat more than in normal operation (full power without dimming). Other thing worth to mention is that when a tranformer is dimmed, it usually produces noticably more audible noise than in normal operation (noise depends on used transformer).
If your halogen light system uses an electronic transformer then you must very carefully check if it can be dimmed. Some of the electronic transformers are made dimmable and work well with traditional light dimmers. The ones which are not ment to be dimmed can be damaged by the dimming and even damage your dimmer.
BCD Electric RSS feed