Electrical – Does light fixture itself impact dimmer compatibility or the bulbs

dimmer-switchelectrical

I have read numerous dimmer switch instructions say compatible with led lights and then also led bulbs saying dimmable. So my question is do only the bulb and switch need to be compatible or does the light fixture itself impact compatibility too and should say if dimmable compatible?

I ask this because my ceiling fan currently has older non-led bulbs and I upgraded to LED bulbs. Now I am thinking of adding a LED dimmable switch but I am curious if the fixture itself needs to be dimmable compatible or not.

Also when two devices are not compatible say led bulbs with non led compatible switch then what happens (potential fire or overheating of dimmer?). I have some old dimmers in this house and the led bulbs seem to work fine but I’m sure these are pretty led dimmers so I’m surprised it worked.

Best Answer

Not normally, no.

But ceiling fans, yes. Because ceiling fans typically insert one of two troublemakers:

  • A current limiter, to prevent you from over-bulbing the light with 100W incandescent bulbs when they're only approved for 25/40/60W
  • A "remote control module" so you can use a wireless remote to control fan and light.

Both of them might play badly with LEDs, and both of them may well play badly with dimmers on LED. They were never designed with LED in mind.

And by "LEDs" I mean lightbulb replacement units with LED technology and an Edison screw base, along with an electronic driver to convert 120VAC into DC to run the LED emitters.

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