I purchased a few dimmers last week, at Turks. I get a 22% discount at my local store, which I understand is pretty close to regular wholesale prices charged to contractors. I purchased three different, Clipsal (450W) dimmers:
- Orange - Fan speed controller type.
- Green - Trailing edge type, for electronic transformer halogens.
- Blue - Leading edge type, for standard incandescent.
All are encased in transparent plastic cases and make extensive use of surface mount technology. I didn't take note of the country of manufacture, but:
1) It was probably China. 2) It probably doesn't matter all that much, given the level of robotics used in SM stuff. 3) Labour costs in manufacture would be minimal.Anyway, I haven't purchased a dimmer in nearly 20 years, but I'm pretty certain that they cost me less than $20.00 way back then. Imaine my surprise when I had to fork out $44.00, $43.00 and $33.00 respectively, for what is around $2.00 in materials. What gives? Why are these things so damned expensive? Hell, I bought a 5 disk, carousel CD player on Friday for $59.00 from K-Mart and it is considerably more elaborate than any dimmer.