Asklemmy

43901 readers

1514 users here now

A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions

Search asklemmy 🔍

If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!

Open-ended question
Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
An actual topic of discussion

Looking for support?

Looking for a community?

Lemmyverse: community search
sub.rehab: maps old subreddits to fediverse options, marks official as such
!lemmy411@lemmy.ca: a community for finding communities

~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_A@discuss.tchncs.de~

founded 5 years ago

MODERATORS

Can someone ELI5 why often lights set up with a dimmer also flicker? (mander.xyz)

submitted 3 months ago by Mothra@mander.xyz to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

30 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Seen this in many houses, people upgrade their lighting setup and install a dimmer. Which works. But usually it also makes the lights flicker unintentionally, which is super annoying IMO.

Now, my understanding of electrical engineering is pretty rudimentary so I'd appreciate more something that explains the concept in a way that Cavewoman Mothra can understand rather than something technically accurate.

Thanks

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] kitnaht@lemmy.world 25 points 3 months ago

It's because they aren't installing the correct bulbs. Some dimmers work by cutting the 'pulse' that goes to the light early, some of them work by lowering the voltage/current.

When you install a direct LED to one that cuts the pulse, you get flickering. Incandescent bulbs don't do this because they're white-hot and don't change luminosity fast enough for you to notice.

Basically: If they're flickering -- they did it wrong.