While decorating or renovating your house, many things will come to your might like “can any light fixture be dimmable?” or “does my chandelier have to be centered over the table?” thinking of all of this before will save you from much trouble later on.
If you have a social circle where people visit your house a lot, all these small things matter a lot. You might not care about it while getting it done, but later on, it can become a huge regret for you.
So, make sure you have everything right in your kind while renovating your house!
A light fixture is a chandelier, but it can mean any electrical device that has more than one light bulb in it. Some of the wall lamps are like that too and hence are known as a light fixture.
“It is not the light fixture that is dimmable but the lamp installed in that fixture that can be dimmed.”
- So, if your light fixtures also have dimmers along with them, then they can be dimmed; otherwise, not.
For you we have the best dimmable light fixture:
WHAT ARE DIMMER SWITCHES?
Dimmers are the devices that will dim the light of these light fixtures. These dimmers are used to create an ambience in your house and can also be used by people who prefer conserving energy.
Most people like to be in the dimmed lights when they are not doing anything productive, which requires light.
So, having dimmers in their house is a huge blessing for them. These dimmers can decrease and increase your lights’ brightness to a certain level.
THINGS TO CONSIDER BEFORE INSTALLING LIGHT DIMMERS
Before you can install the dimmers along with the light fixtures, you need to consider quite a few things, and the following are some of these:
- Do you need light dimmers for your light fixtures?
- Do you need special light bulbs for dimmer switches?
- Will dimmed light go with the theme of your interior?
- How to work a light dimmer?
- The type of dimmer switch you want to install.
- Power of dimmer switches.
WHICH DIMMER SWITCH WITH WHICH LIGHT FIXTURE?
Compatibility matters a lot when it comes to light fixtures and dimmer switches.
If you think that you’ll need special light bulbs for dimmer switches, then you are RIGHT!!!
“If you want dimmable led light fixtures, you will need a dimmer switch for led lights that are different from dimmer switches for other lights.”
- When it comes to standard dimmer switches, most light fixtures will work with them. These include incandescent and halogen light bulbs.
- These are the lone voltage dimmer switches that will work well with such lights. They won’t work with low voltage light fixtures.
SPECIAL DIMMERS
Low voltage dimmers are of two types:
The voltage requirements in your home will determine which type of low voltage dimmer switches will work for your light fixtures.
- Even though the LED light fixtures can be dimmed with regular dimmers, you may need a specialized LED dimmer switch for your light fixtures.
- The same goes for the compact Fluorescent Light fixtures, as they may work with some of the dimmers and not with the others.
- Universal dimmer switches are also available for all low voltage, LED, and CFL light fixtures.
DIMMERS THAT ARE COMMONLY USED
Each type of dimmer may be used for each type of light; you don’t need to use the same dimmer switch types all over the house.
“The common type of dimmers can be used with incandescent and halogen bulbs.”
Advantages:
- This type of control over the light will help you set the mood in your dining room, especially for dinners.
- Adding a dimmer to the ceiling lights will help you control the lights for your dressing as well as reading purposes.
- Hallway LED lights will work well with the LED-specific dimmer switches.
- This way, you will be able to increase or decrease the track light of your hallway.
HOW TO DIM LIGHTS WITH DIMMER SWITCHES?
If you want to know how to dim lights with dimmer switches, then it is something that you won’t need to learn again and again.
Once you have decided on the points for switches, you will be able to do it very easily.
- To control the dimmer switches, you will need to turn the knob or use the sliding option.
- This can also be done with the help of remote control that often comes with some dimmers.
- You should also be able to decide the control spots of these dimmers.
- If you want multiple spots, you need to have more than one control point. Like: you will be able to dim the lights from both ends of the stairs.
- But if you want only one main switch, you will be able to control the lights of the whole house.
- You can also save the settings and can quickly set the lights to that setting.
- Some dimmers also provide your online control through your phone or tablets.
Hence, in this way, you can control the lights before even stepping into your house.
CAN A NON-DIMMABLE FIXTURE BE MADE DIMMABLE?
Many people have this question in their head that can you make a non-dimmable light fixture dimmable?
And the answer to that is usually a NO.
The answer is the same as the question “can I use a non-dimmable switch on a dimmable switch”.
“For a bulb or whole light fixture to be dimmable, you need to change all of it.”
You can’t just convert a non-dimmable bulb into a dimmable one. Having a dimmer attached to it will be of no use to you and hence would be a failure.
Then What to Do?
- So instead of going through all that effort, you can go for the dimmable fixtures at first, or the cab has them replaced later on.
- Since dimmable LED lamps are also available, most people look for solutions like how to dim non-dimmable LED lights?
Caution:
- If you ever try to connect a non-dimmable LED light to a dimmable circuit, you will have to go through the damage of the bulb or whole circuit.
USING DIMMABLE BULBS IN NON-DIMMABLE CIRCUITS
You can easily use a dimmable bulb on a non-dimmable circuit as it will work well.
- But when it comes to the non-dimmable bulbs in dimmable led light fixtures, you should quit the idea as it will damage the whole circuit.
Most people with a limited budget often look for the answers to use a non-dimmable bulb on a dimmable switch, and the answer to that is a YES!
- You can save much money by going for dimmable bulbs instead of getting your whole circuit
HOW TO INSTALL A DIMMER SWITCH?
Installing a dimmer switch should not be a problem after you have gotten an answer to questions like, can you use dimmable bulbs in non-dimmable lights.
Especially when you are getting it done with the help of someone else, but if you are doing it on your own and you must do the following things:
- To start with, you need to turn the power off of that area.
- Next up, you need to remove the old switch and prepare the circuit wiring.
- Figuring out how to connect it to circuit wiring is very easy, and you can do it very easily.
- When you have installed the dimmer in place, you should make sure that all the wires are connected properly and switch in place.
- Now you can turn on the power to check if the fixture went well or not.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Can you make a non dimmable light fixture dimmable?
NO, you can’t make a non-dimmable light fixture, dimmable. This is because dimmable and non-dimmable light fixture uses entirely different components. Therefore, when you put non-dimmable light on a dimmable circuit, it won’t work. Whereas, reverse is possible- You can make a dimmable fixture non-dimmable.
Are all LED light fixtures dimmable?
Yes, LED light fixtures are dimmable, but not all. To ensure, that your LED light fixture is dimmable check out these two factors. 1. High wattage LED bulb. 2. In case, if have simple dimmer replace it with a trailing edge dimmer.
What happens if you put a non-dimmable LED bulb in a dimmer?
When you put a non-dimmable LED bulb in a dimmer, these things are likely to happen: 1. Circuit, LED, or driver failure. 2. Lamp flickering. 3. No conduction, a drop-out, or no light output.
Do touch lamps need dimmable bulbs?
Yes, touch lamps need dimmable bulbs.
FINAL WORDS
“Yes, your light fixture is dimmable, until or unless it owns a dimmer with it.” We hope that your search query regarding “Can any light fixture be Dimmable” is answered well in our article. Do let us know if something or some fact was left behind that we forgot. We shall wait for your response!
Till then- Dim your light with dimmers and let’s say a BYE to this journey!
