Does energy consumption change when the power of an adjustable lamp changes?

My standing lamp and then it is purely about the top one, you can open it so that a huge mountain of light comes out, but does it save energy if I let it burn at ‘half power’ (but see almost nothing because of this)?

This lamp was purchased from Gamma in 2005, and there is now a lamp (also from Gamma) that seems to consume 200 W, but gives the effect of the “normal” 300 W.

The dimmer is originally built in, unlike other posters here that had connected dimmers themselves.

Kind regards,

Ramon.

Asker: Ramon, 29 years old

Answer

When you dim, the energy consumption also goes down.

From the grid comes sinusoidal alternating voltage (something that changes all the time from positive to negative in a fairly smooth way). Dimming is done by ‘cutting away’ pieces from the sine wave. This cutting is usually done with a TRIAC.
http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triac
Since you ‘cut out’ pieces from your sine wave, you also cut pieces from your energy consumption.
On wikipedia there is also an interesting article about dimmers:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dimmer

Answered by

dr. ir. Nico Smets

Engineering Sciences

Free University of Brussels
Avenue des Pélain 2 1050 Ixelles
http://www.vub.ac.be/

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