Lighting – Is it possible to use a dimmable LED GU10 bulb on a non-dimmable circuit

The two differences are

• Cost
• It can be dimmed with a standard dimmer

A standard dimmer reduces the RMS voltage going to a light to dim it; this may be done by a simple resistor or by chopping of the top of the waveform. So a dimmable LED lamp must be able to:

• Cope with a big range of input voltage including part formed sine waves, which isn't easy for the control logic.
• Detect from the input voltage the light level that the user wants, then give that light level.

It would be a lot better if a dimmer switch could send a digital signal (radio, or over the main wiring) to the lamp, so that the lamp could know what was required without reverse engineering the voltage back to the user's wishes. However this would need a new standard to be used by all switch and lamp vendors, so may take a little time-:)

Yes, LED bulbs typically work fine on dimmers set to max. In my experience, even the "non-dimmable" ones don't seem to be harmed when dimmed although your mileage here may vary with bulb and dimmer models.

This seems to be a big improvement in comparison with "non-dimmable" CFLs, which seem to be very susceptible to destruction - I have destroyed several after just seconds of dimming.