"regular" dimmer switches and transformers

Tim Wescott · 2013-05-05T22:14:50+00:00

I've heard over and over again that dimmer switches don't like inductive loads, but in the background of that is the occasional refrain "oh, it's not so bad". I've never analyzed the usual dimmer switch circuit but -- what would happen if you connected a dimmer switch to a transformer that had a resistive load on it? Would you just not have full range, would the switch or the transformer burn up, what? I could make use of a dimmer switch into a transformer with a resistive load on the secondary; hence my questions. -- My liberal friends think I'm a conservative kook. My conservative friends think I'm a liberal kook. Why am I not happy that they have found common ground? Tim Wescott, Communications, Control, Circuits & Software