Trailing Edge Or Leading Edge Dimmer For Led

The dimmer market mostly has the two kinds mentioned previously leading edge and trailing edge dimmers.

Trailing edge or leading edge dimmer for led.

Leading edge and trailing edge. Trailing edge dimmers are a better fit for led lamps. Why does my dimmer switch buzz. However because led retrofit lamps are more likely to be installed on existing dimmers used for incandescent or halogen lamps many manufacturers design and test their led lamps to be compatible with leading edge dimmers.

Trailing edge is also better for filament lamps too if ever the op were to swap back to halogens the soft. Trailing edge switches work best with leds. Trailing edge dimming electronic dimming utilizes a current that is turned off as the ac waveform ends right before it crosses zero. However when finding the perfect dimmer you should look at the specifications of led and driver as well as dimmer to see the compatibility.

Although a 400w trailing edge dimmer may be able to power 400w of incandescent lamps with ease when it comes to leds the maximum load is only 10 of this. A trailing edge dimmer has a lower minimum load than leading edge dimmers making it a better choice for dimming modestly sized low powered lighting circuits. Led lights and dimming unlike incandescent bulbs which are all dimmable by default led retrofit bulbs have a built in driver in their base. Using trailing edge dimmers with leds the 10 rule is very important when using trailing edge dimmers with leds.

The difference between the two is that with a leading edge dimmer after voltage increases post zero crossing this dimmer inhibits for a while. It also boasts additional features such as soft start multi channel silent running and smooth control dimming capabilities. Output brightness is controlled as energy being transferred is properly metered. There are two types of dimmer switch for mains dimming in your home.

Trailing edge dimmable led lamps are available in both leading and trailing edge versions depending on the manufacturer so it is important to be sure what led dimmer type you re looking at to make sure that they are suitable for your specific application. Leading edge dimming is typically used with incandescent bulbs and produces a rush of voltage every half cycle resulting in a rush of current to the light source. If your dimmer switch is old it s likely a leading edge switch and worth changing to a trailing edge version. Common problems that can occur with dimmable gu10s on a triac dimmer are buzzing at the dimmer flashing and flickering at low dim reduced dimming range and variable performance based on the number of lamps controlled by one dimmer.

Now you may ask which dimmer is better for led lighting generally trailing edge is the most popular dimmer with led light sources.