>install dimmer switch on my wall to control a light >experiment

>>1183681
>hook up 500watt vacuum to a device designed for a 75watt lightbulb and wonder why it gets not....

Maybe it's because you draw ten times the power the switch is rated for.

Rheostats are designed to only provide enough amperage for lights, not full on appliances. Even something like a hair dryer draws a lot of current. All the current the switch "bleeds off" to dim the light it controls is turned into heat. It can effectively do that for a lightbulb, but not for anything more. Stop doing what you're doing before you burn your house down.

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>>1183685
Also forgot to ask, why do you want to autistically feel the power go up and down?

>>1183681
Try it with your TV or PC, a dimmer screen at night is so much comfier.

>>1183681
OP can no longer post since he burned his house down

RIPIP little nigga

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>>1183682
>>1183684
>>1183685
Ohhh okay I somewhat understand now.

I was lying though I was actually installing the dimmer switch for a yogurt maker.
The specific bacteria I am trying to ferment thrives in 37 degrees celsius but the yogurt maker I bought ferments at 45 degrees celsius, too hot for my bacteria.

I was reading on the amazon page that you could install a dimmer switch to control the temp.
Is this device too much for the dimmer switch I bought or is it fine?
>Volts/Watts - 13 Watts
http://www.eurocuisine.net/manuals/EYM80-1.pdf

https://www.amazon.ca/Euro-Cuisine-Yogurt-Maker/dp/B001KZM4Y4/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1495890324&sr=8-8&keywords=euro+cuisine
similar one:
https://www.amazon.ca/Euro-Cuisine-YM80-Yogurt-Maker/dp/B000EX16RY

>>1183686
>Also forgot to ask, why do you want to autistically feel the power go up and down?
I don't know.
I'm probably on the spectrum and feeling the different power levels of my appliances was very thrilling to me.

I also like putting my hands on different materials and feeling the texture.

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>>1183695
It isn't too much. However starving an electrical load (appliance, lightbulb) of voltage when it isn't designed to be can still cause it to fail. Dimmer switches are made specifically for dimmable lightbulbs.

>>1183696
>can still cause it to fail
fail meaning the yogurt maker stops working?

or fail meaning it starts a fire?


many people on amazon used a dimmer for this device and it worked out fine

>>1183696
hey I've got another question

when I was a kid my parents had dimmable light bulbs and switches all around the house

but when when it wasn't at either full brightness or almost no brightness they all emitted this weird sound
anything in the middle made this sound

why is that?

>>1183697
>many people on amazon
well, that all must be legit then. Think the point anon above was making, you cannot and should not plug in random electrical devices to dimmers, and expect them still to work, albeit, a little slower, colder, whatever. Things with electronic controls, inductive loads, motors - they gonna get fucked up when dimmed, they aint designed for it.

But if literally ALL your yogi maker does it heat shit up (? - idk).., it may indeed work - if it had an electronic timer or shit, be borked tho. i dunno why you cant get something simioar with a temp control, be easier (and prob. cheaper, and def. safer) all round, no?
>>1183701
because they being tortured

>>1183706
>But if literally ALL your yogi maker does it heat shit up
it only heats shit up to 45 deg C
Thats not even that hot.
im trying to get it down to 37 deg C

it has a timer but I always put it on 12 hours. it does work though, I put the dimmer at about 80% and the device is currently on and working
maybe the dimmer might make it last 10 hours instead of 12 i dunno whatever.
I'd keep resetting it because I need it to be constantly fermenting for 36 hours straight.

>>1183706
>because they being tortured
pls explain

At these wattages you could very easily make your own heater from parts off eBay and just add an arduino with a thermistor for temperature control, but the dimmer should be alright, especially if you don't intend to use this setup a lot.

For controlling larger loads, you can use something like http://www.ebay.com/itm/1PCS-2000W-220V-AC-SCR-Electric-Voltage-Regulator-Motor-Speed-Control-Controller-/181586088404
Mind you, even if it says 2kW, you probably shouldn't hook it up to 2kW, but I'm using one like that for a 550W device and it doesn't heat up.

The sound from light bulbs, my uneducated guess is that it's the shitty low frequency pulse width modulation. Better dimmers have higher frequency (and better smoothing maybe?).

>>1183709
>45 to 37
good ole days, that thing maybe had a poti(entiometer) you could have adjusted the set temp with or similar, unlikely now tho - cant you insulate the contetnts slightly, bit of tinfoil or something? You'd prob better be buying something more suitable, but, you'd def. be better of bypassing the timer altogether, save the resets - and if the dimmer works for the temp, hell, why not.

dimmer noise, post above and Google it, you useless fuck - basically starts vibrating from the dimmer chopping up the current, good dimmer buzzes less, for reasons.

>>1183709
if you can set the heating time it obviously means the fermenter has a timer circuit that probably operates a relay. If you dim the whole thing, you "steal" voltage from the timer circuit too, which may fuck it up. What you wrote, that it would heat for 10 instead of 12 hours is absolute nonsense, timers do not work that way. If the official description on Amazon says that the device is tolerant of dimming, meaning the device automatically adjusts supply voltage for the timer part, it will be fine. If you only got this info from the comments, the timer might eventually give in.

>>1183681
>experiment with different things
Are you trying to fuck up your appliances?
>switch gets REALLY hot
Are you trying to burn up your house?

>>1183681
Never, ever use a light dimmer for anything except a light bulb.

To reduce voltage for other things, you need a transformer. If you're trying to dial in something specific, you use a variable transformer, like a Variac.

Even with a proper transformer, you have to be careful, because not every electrical device will respond kindly to simply reducing its voltage. For example, if you have an electric motor designed to operate on ~120V, it might not start or run hot on reduced voltage, and be at risk of melted windings.

>>1183709
Just get a damn cooler. My girl friend makes half a gallon of yogurt a week with a stove and a beer cooler

>>1183731
okay I've been running this thing on half power for 2 hours and the dimmer is perfectly cold and the device is running well.

should I worry?

>>1183732
>bacterial cultures
>fermenting in the cold
wew

>>1183732
He meant 37°C not Kelvin you yuropean fuck.

>>1183743
He meant farenheit I think
If he is european he perfectly knows that you don't need a cooler to get 37°C

>>1183681
Wait, you installed a dimmer to control a light, then stuck a vacum in it?

Also what kind of dimmer do you have what kind of bulb.

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>>1183681
you used the wrong dimmer anon.
Next time get one of these.

>>1183681
This thread gave me an idea - I have some heater wire left over from hot wire foam cutter I built. I could easily turn that into the yogourt maker my wife talks about but never gets around to making.

>>1183749
The goal of the cooler is to not to loose heat to the air. If the yogourt maker is insulated, you waste less electricity and get your temp more stable.

Light bulb dimmers are designed for resistive loads only, motors are inductive loads, google power triangle, different loads cause the current/voltage waveform to lead/lag differently.
Dimmers chop part of the wave off by turning off at the voltage zero crossing and on when it needs to be on, a restive load the current and voltage are at zero at the same time, an inductive load there is current moving when the voltage is zero, don't all me how I only have a degree in electrical engineering I don't understand it or anything. So the dimmer is doing double the work because its switching the load when its on four times per cycle instead of off when its off twice and on when its on twice.

If you correct the power factor with the appropriate capacitance then sure go ahead go wild.
You can rig it with a variac or ideally you use a variable frequency drive which does some pwm shit or something.

It makes noises because changing current produces changing magnetic fields which makes things vibrate and vibration produces sound, at low level it's noisy because so much of the wave is chopped it jerks on at its highest point of the wave, because it jerks around instead of wibbling with the sin wave it makes a louder noise.

>>1183749
>He meant farenheit I think
no, celcius

>>1183761
>Wait, you installed a dimmer to control a light, then stuck a vacum in it?
the switch controls a wall outlet

>>1183682
>500watt
>tfw your vacuum pulls well over a kW

>>1183685
>rheostat
are there actually people retarded enough to use a serial resistive load for dimming?

>>1183894
There was that guy who was going to use a potentiometer to control his furnace fan speed. He said that it wasn't at mains voltage so it would be fine, but it's still fucking stupid.

>>1183710
The element is struggling, your starving the bulb of the power it needs.
You need to use dimmable bulbs. Your parents probably put what ever they had that was cheap in there and they worked long enough to make em happy.
>I don't know shit about how today's lighting technology works tho

>>1183893

power bill BTFO

>>1183767
>wrong dimmer
that image name
what did he mean by this?