dimmer
of
decreased.
more
And one oher problem is they're fire starters, but that's a subject for another discussion. My thought would be to replace a larger incandescent blub with a few fluorescents, switched to give a dimming effect. But another possible method, which I see used on the modular furniture 'cubicle' lights, is to use a sleeve over the fluo tube, to dim it by turning the tube. THe tube is partially transparent on one half, so turning it varies the light.
BTW, why would you need eight 30W blubs? You would need a 150W for half as much light, an 80W for quarter, a 30W for 1/10, and some boolean logic in the switching to give other in-between settings. Maybe two
30W, or maybe a 30W and an even lower wattage lamp. But you get the idea. You would only need 3 or 4 lamps, which is much simpler and cheaper than 8 smaller lamps. But I digress from the fluorescent lamps. Just use fluos instead.