With the development of the lighting industry, LED lights have dominated the lighting industry. Indeed, the LED downlight brings many advantages to us. On the other hand, technology has gotten more complex. There are dimmable and non-dimmable LED downlights, as a result, the control of the brightness is not always possible.

What are dimmable Led lights?

You may puzzle how to switch the lightness? Actually, a dimmable Led downlight has a specific switch called a dimmer switch that is used to change an electric bulb’s brightness or to make the light dim. Not to say the switch of lights, such a switch also can change the light’s intensity. The working principle of dimmer is more complex than ordinary switch. The dimmer also additionally equips with an electric circuit to reduce the brightness.

The working principle of the dimmer

There are two dimming methods: Constant Current Reduction (CCR) and Pulse-width modulation (PWM)

  Constant Current Reduction (CCR)

  Constant current reduction (CCR) is also called analog dimming. In this method, the forward current which is fed to the LED lights is      controlled. Therefore, the current gets reduction and the led also get dimmed.

Pulse-width modulation (PWM)

  In this method, the LED downlight has a high switching speed. The time cycles of on and off have individual on-time cycles. Furthermore, the intervals where the light is on and off are measured in milliseconds (thousands of a second). If you want to get a 10% brightness effect, the LED is on 10% of the cycle and off the other 90%. If you want to higher brightness, you could make the on-period more longer. After reading this paragraph, you may wonder why we cannot see the blinking? Actually, for our ordinary people, the light flicker is too fast to notice it. Our eyes are only capable to assimilate the average amount of light out of the pulses. Only if the rate of pulse is high enough, our eyes would not perceive the pulsing.

Helpful Tips:

It’s a good investment for you to upgrade your dimming circuit with great dimmers designed for LEDs. A good quality dimmer that is designed for LEDs can make your LEDs have a longer lifespan. Before upgrading, you also should make sure the LEDs can match your circuit. 

Conclusion

Once the dimmable LED downlights were introduced in the market, this type of led downlights is popular with our customers. It is because you can get more benefits from dimmable Led downlights compared with other normal downlights. Because of its special working principle, the dimmable LED downlights also help you save electric energy.