[Premium-Rx] "quiet" dimmers

[George Georgevits]

Hi John,

I do have one alternative. A suitably large capacitor in series with a light
does have the same dimming effect, the smaller the capacitor, the more the
dimming. Now, if you were to hide a number of these capacitors in a cavity
wall, and switch them out of the circuit progressively with a rotary switch,
it may do the job. It means your dimming would be in progressive steps, but
there certainly would be no interference.

In my case, we live virtually across the road from the utility supply
transformer. Here in Oz, we run on 240V. Late at night, when everyone in the
street has gone to bed and I listen to my radios, it is not uncommon to see
265V on the mains, presumably because the distribution transformer is
lightly loaded. As a result, we seem to be always blowing globes. Anyway, I
have one spot in my house above the stairs where the ceiling is very high,
and it is a major exercise involving ladders and considerable acrobatics to
change the globe. So last time I put a capacitor in series with the light in
the ceiling to effectively dim it a little, with the hope of the globe
lasting longer. I also put in a higher wattage replacement globe to make up
the difference. As globe life is a fourth power law function of applied
voltage, it doesn't take much. Anyway that was years ago, and I haven't had
to replace it since.

Regards,
George Georgevits
VK2KGG