500w uplighter

[xant14]

I have an uplighter 240V 500W dimmable in the living room. When I dim it, does it use less energy? or does the energy go somewhere else, like in heat or whatever?

[cgscott]

You are reducing the current to the bulb so therefor you are reducing electricity usage regardless of the voltage.

[xant14]

Ahh cheers CG, was curious if it reduced energy, It is a pleasant light, but you can cook dinner off the bulb.

[HoTTDubbER]

I have an uplighter 240V 500W dimmable in the living room. When I dim it, does it use less energy? or does the energy go somewhere else, like in heat or whatever?

i have very nice carbon filter and hydro system 2 go with that light of urs if u like i can sell ....nice price lmao

[xant14]

ahhh hahaha, no thanks. Altho might be good for my tomatoes.

[ITS A SCAM !]

Speaking as a lighting engineer i am pretty sure you do not actually reduce the amount of Amperes being drawn with the light being dimmed. The voltage is being reduced when you increase the variable resistor, but that energy has to go somewhere and it is normally converted into heat. The higherr the resistance of the dimmer, the more heat is generated. I am not 100% sure how this works with dedicated electronic dimmers, but we have used some ballasts/control gear at work that do actually reduce the amount of voltage being sent to the lamp without increasing the current. however i am certain this technology has not yet been passed over to the general public. Hope this helps solve your question and i suggest you go for compact flourescent lighting instead of running half a kilowatt of lighting on just one light....or even go down the new lighting route of LED's.....only using 1.5w of electricity each.

[chroma]

NO... and YES!

Its a complicated question believe it or not.

It kind of depends on the dimmer to be fair.
Old Analogue dimmers work by adjusting the resistance and therefore supply less voltage to the bulb itself, the dimmer itself works by converting to heat.

Key:
W = Wattage,
I = Amperage
V = Voltage
R = Resistance

W = V x I will work out how much wattage is used by a dimmer, which is all well and good if you know the voltage and the amperage going in.
If you dont you can use some jiggery pokery from "Ohms Law" (V=IR) to figure the values out

So if you dont know how many amps you can use W= V x (V / R)

If the voltage is unknown you can use W = I? x R

All an old analogue dimmer really does is connects a firebar or cooker ring before the actual bulb, so you can offset the ammount of power to either the bulb or the heater...

Solid state Dimmers on the other hand work much differently.
They use "Bidirectional Triode Thyristors"" or TRIACS (Triode for Alternating Current) for short.
These are semiconductors and either conduct or dont depending on their state.
So you can use them to pulse in time with the sine wave, and work not by transferring power to heat but by blocking it entirely between pulses.
Its essentialy the same as standing next to the light switch and flickering it on and off very rapidly, the more delay you add between the off and on results in what appears to be less brightness... if this makes sense?

Think about your eyes as a bucket with a hole in the bottom, and light as a hose pumping water into the bucket.
If the light is constant you can keep the bucket level up to the top and you would see bright light. turn the hose off and the buket will empty and result in darkness.
Add in a TRIAC (think of that as a valve on the end of the hose) and by adjusting just how fast the on and off works you can control the level of water in the bucket, adjusting it to any desired brightness setting.

The genius of this is that because power is either on or off very little is lost in the way of heat

So if your dimmer uses solid state triacs then your saving energy.
If its using Rheostats or Autotransformers then your only diverting the energy used to light the bulb into heat.

Like i said, its a complex question

[xant14]

Cracking answers from you all. So it is unsure if there is any energy reduction or not. The box of tricks on the lead with the sliding adjustment never gets hot... (well, I don't think so, but will be doing some checking now), but it does get noisier the more you turn the light down. I have actually taken out the original 500W bulb and put in a 300W one. I don't like the idea of using mega amounts of energy, but the light is very pleasant on the eye. I have LED GU10's in the kitchen, and it is a horrible light.
I might have a look about for some lowish energy wall uplighters, I have the wires there, just never got around to fitting any.

[cactikid]

i wont mention lit candles

[ITS A SCAM !]

If you know a sparky, ask him if you can borrow his " clip on ammeter " This is a device that clamps around the cable that plugs into the wall ( no special skills needed ) and will tell you exacly how much voltage / current is being drawn by any electical device in your house that works on 230v. I have one myself, and it is very interesting to see what appliances actually use a lot of energy. I agree that the LED Gu10 lamps are not the best of lighting you can have in the house, we use them in the bedrooms and up he stairs. The technology is not really ready for the domestic market. I think in the next 2 years there will be a huge move towards LED lighting, and big energy companies are going to be in for a shock when energy consumption is drastically reduced ( a bit daft really, because they actually approve the use of energy saving devices ) Compact flourescent lighting will now be the main source of lighting, as the 100w Tungsten filament ( or GLD ) has been removed from the shelves, and next to go will be the 60w & 40w. As these are removed from sale, lamp manufacturers such as philips, Osram, Silvania etc are going to be pumping millions into researching alternative lighting sources. This will put many new products on the shelves, and will hopefully remove the cheap and nasty Chinese manufactured items from sale in our big DIY stores. Maybe if it was possible to buy low wattage GU10 lamps, people would buy them, but i can only find them running at 35w minimum. You can buy a replacement compact flourescent GU10 lamp, but you can have problems getting them to fit inside a downlighter etc due to their bigger size. LED lighting IS the way forward, but its just not good enough for the houeholders needs.

[melloned]

NO... and YES!

Its a complicated question believe it or not.

It kind of depends on the dimmer to be fair.
Old Analogue dimmers work by adjusting the resistance and therefore supply less voltage to the bulb itself, the dimmer itself works by converting to heat.

Key:
W = Wattage,
I = Amperage
V = Voltage
R = Resistance

W = V x I will work out how much wattage is used by a dimmer, which is all well and good if you know the voltage and the amperage going in.
If you dont you can use some jiggery pokery from "Ohms Law" (V=IR) to figure the values out

So if you dont know how many amps you can use W= V x (V / R)

If the voltage is unknown you can use W = I? x R

All an old analogue dimmer really does is connects a firebar or cooker ring before the actual bulb, so you can offset the ammount of power to either the bulb or the heater...

Solid state Dimmers on the other hand work much differently.
They use "Bidirectional Triode Thyristors"" or TRIACS (Triode for Alternating Current) for short.
These are semiconductors and either conduct or dont depending on their state.
So you can use them to pulse in time with the sine wave, and work not by transferring power to heat but by blocking it entirely between pulses.
Its essentialy the same as standing next to the light switch and flickering it on and off very rapidly, the more delay you add between the off and on results in what appears to be less brightness... if this makes sense?

Think about your eyes as a bucket with a hole in the bottom, and light as a hose pumping water into the bucket.
If the light is constant you can keep the bucket level up to the top and you would see bright light. turn the hose off and the buket will empty and result in darkness.
Add in a TRIAC (think of that as a valve on the end of the hose) and by adjusting just how fast the on and off works you can control the level of water in the bucket, adjusting it to any desired brightness setting.

The genius of this is that because power is either on or off very little is lost in the way of heat

So if your dimmer uses solid state triacs then your saving energy.
If its using Rheostats or Autotransformers then your only diverting the energy used to light the bulb into heat.

Like i said, its a complex question

Sod it ! , I'll stick to candles i think , what you see is what you get !