Why are all these external dimmers all for regular and halogen

>>1077710
leds dont work like that, and even if an led is dimmable it will be dimmable like regular bulbs but at a lower wattage which is lower than the usual ranges these dimmers operate with

>>1077714
what does that even mean? when I buy an E27 LED bulb which comes advertised as "dimmable", how am I to dim it?

>>1077716
holy shit, are you mistaking that socket to be where you put in your light bulb? that is a mains socket you dumbass you can plug in whatever the fuck lamp you want

>>1077725
>holy shit, are you mistaking that socket to be where you put in your light bulb
no, I want to use it to plug in my vloorlamp (uplight) which has a E27 fitting with a dimmable LED

>>1077732
so just plug it in and it should dim, you rotate the knob to adjust the brightness i.e. dim it

>>1077734
but many dimmers have a minimal of 40watt, meaning most LEDs won't be dimmed or would flicker

>>1077739
put bigger LEDs

>>1077739
kek
They not only make dimmable LED bulbs, but dimmer switches meant for LED bulbs. I have that in my bedroom.

>>1077710
>Why are all these external dimmers all for regular and halogen bulbs?

Because of some inherent technical issues with the kind of load the power supply for an LED bulb actually is.


Most dimmers are triac-based. Triacs, as a rule, cannot be turned off once they've been turned on until current through them falls below a certain point. In normal dimmers, the triac turns on partway through the half-cycle. How late it turns on determines the brightness; the later in the cycle it turns on, the dimmer it is, and, likewise, the earlier it turns on, the brighter.

This isn't an issue for resistive loads, as they conduct current directly proportionately to voltage. It doesn't matter when the triac turns on or off.

Fluorescent bulbs present an inductive load. I'll spare the "why", but such loads can be flipped on at any time, but should only be switched off at zero current. As triacs need to be at effectively zero current to turn off in the first place, dimmers for incandescents also work fine for fluorescents.

LED bulbs, however, have a filtering stage on their input that's usually little more than a rectifier to convert the AC to DC, and some capacitors to smooth the voltage. If you switch these on suddenly, after the voltage of the AC waveform has risen, you have, at that instant, what is effectively a dead short. An extreme level of current rushes in to charge the capacitor, until the voltage falls off, and the triac again waits for the voltage to rise to do it all over. This repeated high surge current generally isn't good either for the power supply of the bulb, or the dimmer itself.

LED-specific dimmers turn OFF partway through the half-cycle, rather than on. Switching at this zero voltage crossing means the capacitor will charge much more slowly, keeping current within reasonable limits.

As to why they're so god damn expensive, welcome to the intersection of "semi-luxury product, regulation, and price-gouging".