Do Light Dimmers Save Energy? Full Answer
You might have wondered if adding light dimmers to your home or business would be a good idea to save some energy every day. Saving energy can seem daunting when you have computers, TVs, and other devices drawing power all the time. Your lights might not seem that important when it comes to saving energy.
Do light dimmers save energy?
Yes, light dimmers do save energy. Dimmers not only save on power but can also extend your bulb life. Traditional bulb styles will last up to 20% longer when using a dimmer, and your power bill will likely reduce. Dimmers work by reducing the flow of electricity to the lights connected.
Other Benefits of Light Dimmers Rather Than Saving Energy
In addition to saving you money and reducing your energy usage, dimmers help you to control the amount of light in a room with great accuracy. This can be really helpful if you tend to get migraines or if you want to use a room for movies or a projector of some kind. Being able to adjust the amount of light in a room is really useful when the amount of daylight changes throughout the day.
For those who have the TV or their computer in a bright room, a dimmer can be beneficial to prevent glare that can cause eyestrain and other discomforts. Having control over how much light is in the room can be a big help for your daily comfort and can help you save money and energy.
Light Dimmers Only Work and Save Energy with Certain Lightbulbs
The one downside to dimmer switches is that they are not compatible with all kinds of lighting. Most LED lights and incandescent bulbs can be used with a dimmer. Track lighting and some kinds of LED bulbs are not compatible with dimmer switches, however. You should look at the requirements for your lighting before choosing a dimmer switch to make sure that they will work together.
If you’re buying new lighting, lightbulb packaging typically specifies whether or not the bulb is dimmable. If you have older lighting, it might be easiest to just replace the light fixtures or the bulbs to be sure that they will work with your new dimmer switch. Most new lighting will work with this kind of switch, so adding new lightbulbs makes it easy to use your dimmer switches.
How Dimmers Work and Why They Save Energy
Dimmers work by cutting out parts of the AC voltage delivered to the lightbulb. Reducing the power is what allows you to save money on your energy bill. When the light receives less power, it produces less light — and that’s how dimmer switches work!
Dimmer switches are made specifically to provide this change in voltage through a unique design that stabilizes the electrical current so that the light doesn’t flicker. Flickering lights would be annoying and would ruin the benefit of dimmer switches.
The circuit in a dimmer switch provides a delay that is carefully maintained to avoid flickering. This careful design works perfectly even when the dimmer switch is turned down very low. When you want access to the full power of the lights and the full brightness, the switch function allows the full flow of power to the bulb.
By using a dimmer switch, you are not utilizing the full power needed to make bulbs light up brightly all day long, which allows you to save power. If you are using LED lightbulbs, you are already saving a lot of power every year, but dimmers can make these savings even greater.
Should You Dim Your Lights to Save Energy?
This is one of the best solutions to help you to save money at home or where you work every day. You will use less energy from your lights, and you will have more control over the kind of lighting that is being used in each room. You might also avoid health concerns like glare that causes eye strain and migraines or headaches.
If you can’t change to dimmer lights, you can also save money by turning off the lights in rooms that are not in use. There is no need to waste power by lighting up rooms that aren’t being used, and you can save a lot of money each month just by remembering to turn lights off when you leave a room.
Remember that there is no reason to install a dimmer switch if you just want to turn the lights off instead of lowering the brightness. In that case, you can skip buying a dimmer switch.
Always make sure that you check that the bulbs that you have installed in your lights are compatible with a dimmer switch. Most new lightbulbs will be able to be used in this way, but that is not true of every single style of lighting or some LED bulbs. Installing dimmer switches is a simple way to help save on power, but you should not install these switches if you are not using the right bulbs for this style of switch.
