How light dimmers work ?

Light dimming is based on adjusting the voltage which gets to the lamp. Light dimming has been possible for many decades by using adjustable power resistors and adjustable transformers.

A light dimmer works by essentially chopping parts out of the AC voltage. This allows only parts of the waveform to pass to the lamp. The brightness of the lamp is determined by the power transferred to it, so the more the waveform is chopped, the more it dims.

Solid-state light dimmers work by varying the “duty cycle” (on/off time) of the full AC voltage that is applied to the lights being controlled. For example, if the voltage is applied for only half of each AC cycle, the light bulb will appear to be much less bright than when it get the full AC voltage, because it get’s less power to heat the filament. Solid-state dimmers use the brightness knob setting to determine at what point in each voltage cycle to switch the light on and off.

Typical light dimmers are built using thyristors and the exact time when the thyristor is triggered relative to the zero crossings of the AC power is used to determine the power level. When the the thyristor is triggered it keeps conducting until the current passing though it goes to zero (exactly at the next zero crossing if the load is purely resistive, like light bulb). By changing the phase at which you trigger the triac you change the duty cycle and therefore the brightness of the light.

These electronic parts are semiconductors not dissimilar to transistors. A Thyristor is a Uni.-directional device and hence, because AC power flows in both directions, two are needed. A triac is a bidirectional device and therefore only one is needed. An electronic circuit determines the point in time at which they turn ON (conduct). The ON state continues until the next zero-crossing point, at which point the device turns itself OFF. The electronic circuit then provides a delay, which equates to the dimness of the lamp, before turning the control device back on. The slight capacitance of the load, filters the chopped waveform resulting in a smooth light output.

 Some controllers use a microprocessor control with the above timing function being handled by an analogue circuit. More sophisticated systems, called digital dimmers, operate the switching direct from microprocessor. This has the advantage of greater reliability, quieter operation, lower cost and smaller controls.