HELP: dimmed lv lights

Feb 04, 2004 5 Replies

Just installed 10 lv 50w lights on a 300w double dimmer. have used "intellegent" 105w transformers (marked as dimmable) for each pair of lights. When lights are full on everything is fine - however once dimmed all lights start buzzing. what can i do to stop this buzzing.



Many thanks in advance


On 04/02/2004 jezza opined:-

Dimmers work by triggering the turning on and off of the AC sharply at a certain stages in the sinewave. Which is why they cannot be used with normal inductive transformers. The sharp switching can cause buzzing noises, but how much will depend upon the dimmer which you have matched to the 'transformer' units. You didn't say whether you purchased both dimmer and 'transformers' from the same supplier, if you did and the noise is not acceptable, then it might be worth talking to the supplier.

Fascinating, Harry, truly fascinating.

You're lucky it doesn't buzz on full. I hate dimmers for several reasons, the incessant noise being one of them.

Christian.

10 * 50W = 500W

You have two 300W dimmers. How have you arranged the lights? 200W +

300W? Most dimmers need to be derated for halogen or LV lighting - check the instructions which came with your dimmer switch. I suspect you are overloading one or both of the dimmer switches. Even if not, I'd be wary of running a 300W dimmer with a 300W load, especially an LV load.

The more load you have on a dimmer, the more it tends to buzz, and the solution is to fit a (much) higher capacity dimmer than you think you need. Unfortunately, as another thread has discussed in the last few days, two-gang dimmers of >300W capacity are rather difficult to obtain.

HTH.

Hwyl!

M.

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