My contribution to the July issue of ELECTRICAL CONTRACTOR talks about dimming curves and why they’re important.
As dimming becomes more important, electrical contractors may benefit by becoming familiar with dimming curves. The dimming curve defines how dimmers set voltage output in response to control signal input, such as a slider position. Intuitively, it would appear optimal for an LED light to dim in direct proportion to the input, what we would call a linear curve. If we push a slider halfway down on a dimmer, light output should reduce by 50 percent. It is indeed suitable for energy-saving applications. When dimming for visual needs, however, it often isn’t. In this case, the source ideally will dim along a nonlinear curve that matches user expectations (perceived as linear) and accounts for how the eye works.
Read it here.
