Early LED fixtures were not receptive to dimming. In recent years, advancement in LED technology has made dimming possible and even easy, but it will still require a little planning.
- Consider your voltage!
- Many LED fixtures are available in low voltage (12VDC or 24VDC) input or standard 110VAC input. Dimming for low voltage is very different than dimming for 110VAC, so understanding your fixture voltage and planning accordingly is critically important.
This article focuses exclusively on 110VAC dimming. If you’re working with 12VDC or 24VDC, click here for our "choosing a power supply" article, which discusses power supplies and dimming more in depth for low voltage products. - How do I know if my fixture is 110VAC or 12/24VDC?
- All of our strip lights and color changing (RGB or RGBW) products are either 12VDC or 24VDC and require a power supply (power transformer). For all other types of aspectLED fixtures, there should be a label on the fixture or wires saying whether it’s low voltage (12VDC/24VDC), line voltage (110VAC), or higher (240, 347 or 480VAC).
- Are all 110VAC aspectLED fixtures dimmable?
- Not everything. Although almost all our recessed fixtures are available in dimmable varieties, some products still have limitations.
-Our smallest (2” and under) fixtures have poor dimming performance due to the difficulty of decreasing the current to a fixture that already consumes so little in power
-In-Ground/landscape lights and specialized fixtures are not dimmable.
-Products that plug directly into wall outlets (such as flood lights and wall washers) are not designed to be dimmed.
You can determine whether the product you’re looking at is dimmable by looking at the “Specifications” table on the product page. Some products require you to choose the dimmable option when adding to cart. - Why are dimmable LED fixtures more expensive?
- There is quite a lot of extra hardware circuitry, engineering and development cost involved with manufacturing dimmable LED fixtures and drivers.
- So if I buy a dimmable fixture, will any dimmer do the job?
- Not quite - but we’ll help you choose one that will. Our recessed light fixtures use ELV (electronic low voltage) dimming and you dimmer must be an ELV dimmer switch. Most traditional incandescent dimmers use Triac or MLV (magnetic low voltage) technology which is NOT compatible with any of our recessed light fixtures. Some ELV dimmers that we have tested to work with our products include:
Eaton TAL06P - Our lowest cost dimmer and probably our favorite. This supports ELV, MLV, and TRIAC and performs great. It also has a low end trim function that can be adjusted to make dimming at the low end of your desired light output perform perfectly.
Eaton AAL06
Eaton SAL06P
Eaton DAL06P
Lutron Caseta ELV+
Lutron Skylark SELV-300P
Lutron Diva DVELV-300P
All of the major light switch manufacturers make ELV dimmer switches and the prices of them can vary widely. Any ELV dimmer that can be found at your local hardware store should perform admirably, but these are simply the ones we recommend, other customers have had success with and we sell most commonly. - Do ELV dimmers have a minimum load?
- Yes, all dimmer switches generally have a minimum load requirement for the switch to operate properly. Check the specifications of your chosen dimmers to verify that your light circuit will meet or exceed the switch’s minimum load requirement.
- Do ELV dimmers have a maximum load?
- Yes, all dimmers have a maximum load. Again, you’ll have to check the documentation for your specific model to avoid overloading it. For most home installations, thanks to the low power draw of LEDs, this shouldn’t be a concern.
- Do your lights buzz when they dim?
- No. They shouldn’t buzz under any circumstances.
- Does it shorten the life of LEDs when used with dimmers?
- When set up correctly with a compatible dimmer, dimming will have no significant impact on the life of your LED fixture.
- My lights are flickering when I try to dim them. What would cause this?
- Most flickering issues are due to incompatibilities - either with the dimmer in question, or voltage.
1. Verify the product you purchased is dimmable.
2. Check that you’re using a compatible ELV dimmer. Many people install incompatible dimmers and experience issues. You can simply swap these out with a recommended ELV unit and you’ll in business.
3. Verify voltages. Your 110VAC driver needs between 100 and 120VAC supply. Many commercial buildings use 277VAC or even higher. If that is the case, you will cause damage to your driver by feeding it too much. The solution is to purchase a step down transformer designed to step down from your voltage level to 110VAC.
4. If the flickering is occurring only at the low end of your dimming, you may require a dimmer switch that allows you to trim out the low end dimming to resolve the flickering. Try one of these dimmers with an adjustable trim functionality built-in to them.
Eaton TAL06P
Eaton AAL06-C2
Eaton SAL06P
Eaton DAL06P
5. Dimmer or occupancy sensor may be under loaded. Most dimmers require a 25-40 watt load in order to recognize a light is attached to them, and dim it correctly. That may be an issue if you’re looking to put a single 10W LED light on the circuit. Solutions in these cases involve using a load simulator or resistor to meet the minimum load necessary for optimal performance.
6. Your dimmer could be overloaded. Most dimmers have a maximum load of 300-600 watts. That may sound like you could run 20-40 15W LED fixtures, but you also need to account for start-up in-rush current, which draws roughly another 20% on most of our fixtures very briefly. That means you can’t run quite as much, despite the lower operating wattage.
Still no luck? Contact us and we’d be happy to troubleshoot.
Have questions?
We offer free technical support for all of our products. Please feel free to live chat with us or to contact us via phone at (888) 503-1317.