What came first the LED Dimmer Switch or Dimmable LED's?
The main reason that LED's flicker when dimming them is that the LED(s) and dimmer switch are not compatible. Dimmable LED's were only introduced to the World in 2009; the first one I was made aware of was the Philips 7W GU10 LED. How did Philips create this brand new product without an LED dimmer switch?
They must have tested it using conventional dimmer switches and done batch tests with many different brands and kept testing it until they managed to achieve smooth dimming results.
Varilight V-Pro Dimming Module
Since 2009 LED technology has come a long way, although the Philips 7W GU10 which was made obsolete in 2012 is in my opinion one of the best lighting inventions since the filament lamp and has possibly done for LED technology what Google did for the internet. Most LED's are now dimmable as standard with just a few manufacturers still offering non dimmable options.
During this time and still to this date many customers still phone with apprehension saying that they've heard that LED's will not dim. They will dim, but you just need the right combination, choosing the right combination will guarantee smooth, flicker free dimming down to 30% or lower.
LED Dimming Made Easy
Varilight (also known as Doyle & Tratt) have been at the forefront of dimming LED's from almost the very beginning – just behind Philips. Their original LED dimmer switch known as the J-Series did manage to dim a large variety of LED's, but not all of them. For the past few years Varilight have been perfected their dimmer switches and re-branded the J-Series to the V-Pro range.
Anyone else who has been selling Varilight dimmer switches over the years will undoubtedly have their stories of them working perfectly on project then do anything from flickering on another when dimmed down low to flashing at full brightness on other seemingly identical lighting set ups. This was because Varilight kept changing the components and technology inside and as they tried to develop the World’s first true LED dimmer switch.
You no longer have to install an advanced lighting control system such as Lutron or Rako just to be able to dim modern day lighting, the V-Pro range is finally LED compatible. But watch out because some of the older versions of this switch that have the exact same part number contain totally different technology and will not dim all LED's. You need to make sure you have the very latest batch which can be identified by a code on a label on the side of the dimmer module. This code must have digits that are 9A or later.
If the dimmer switch has a code that is 9A or later it contains corrective dimming technology and will adapt to the LED type and quantity on the circuit. If this dimmer switch has been wired to a different lighting circuit or different quantity of LED's you may made need to reset it to its factory settings which can be done by turning the knob on and off in a sequence. You can view the Varilight V-Pro dimmer switch here and download the manufacturer’s instructions.
The LEDs we've experienced these success rates with are all branded high quality ones such as Aurora, EcoLED, Philips and Megaman we have no experience with unbranded ones, they may or may not work.
