Dimming Guide
Lighting is a major use of energy in all hotels. When dimming is used in combination with Elecon’s other energy saving technologies owners and operators can benefit from major cost savings.
Light dimming is also an essential part of modern lighting control to set the scene and mood of a room and to provide an outstanding guest experience.
There are various types of dimming control devices available, but the most popular are ‘phase control’ (or phase-cut) dimmers, these can be of the “Leading Edge” or “Trailing Edge” phase control type as described here. Dimming is done by controlling 220VAC loads or 12-24VDC loads for LED’s.
After extensive research and development Elecon has developed special dimming modules to cater for both mains 220VAC and low voltage LED lighting loads.
Trailing Edge Dimmers
Trailing edge dimmers are more sophisticated than leading edge dimmers, and usually have a ‘MOSFET’ or ‘IGBT’ switch rather than a ‘TRIAC’ and coil and are sometimes called ‘electronic’ dimmers. This benefits the user with smoother, silent dimming control and no “buzzing” noise.
A trailing edge dimmer also has a lower minimum load (often 10W) compared with leading edge dimmers, making it a better choice for dimming low-powered LED lighting circuits.
Trailing edge dimmers can also benefit older incandescent and halogen bulbs with the ‘soft start’ (low in-rush current) feature built into the dimmer control circuit which prevents “filament” bulbs from dying or exploding of thermal shock when first switched on.
