Can You Put A Dimmable Bulb In A Non-Dimmable Socket?

As the US moves away from incandescent light bulbs in favor of LED lighting, there are some issues to consider. Many people are unfamiliar with the operating characteristics of LED light bulbs and have questions about replacing their incandescent bulbs. One often asked question is about using dimmable LED light bulbs in sockets not equipped with a dimmer switch.

In short, yes, you can put a dimmable LED lightbulb in a socket that doesn’t have a dimmer switch. The LED lightbulb will operate at full power all the time. Doing this will not damage the bulb or the socket. You will still enjoy the savings from the LED lightbulb over the incandescent bulb as well.

LED lightbulbs offer many advantages over older incandescent bulbs. Longer life, less heat, and less power consumption are the main advantages. More and more retailers are lowering their inventory of non-dimmable LED bulbs. This makes it almost assured that you will need to put a dimmable LED light in a standard socket.

LED lighting is based on the principle of electroluminescence. Don’t let that nineteen letter work scare you. It simply means that an LED produces light by passing an electrical current through a special material that gives off light when energized. This material is called a diode. Thus, a light-emitting diode or LED.

This differs from incandescent lighting, where an electric current is passed through a wire or filament. The wire creates resistance to the electrons passing through and heats up. This heating produces light. This light by heating is much less energy efficient than LED technology.

The major difference between LED and incandescent lighting is heat production. LED lights run much cooler than incandescent lights. It is the constant heating and cooling that causes incandescent lights to fail.

LEDs don’t produce nearly as much heat as incandescent light. This gives LED lights a much longer lifespan than incandescent lighting. The diode technology also requires less energy to produce a comparable amount of light, making LED bulbs much more energy-efficient than incandescent bulbs.

All LED lights have electronic circuits that control the electrical flow through the LED. Dimmable LED lightbulbs have additional electronic circuits to manage the LED and prevent damage to the diode. Non-dimmable LED lights lack this additional circuit.

Putting a non-dimmable LED lightbulb in a dimmable socket can lead to problems and early failure of the LED light. A non-dimmable LED expects to have full power available at all times. Putting less power into the non-dimmable light bulb can cause flickering of the LED and eventually its failure.

Conversely, a dimmable LED lightbulb works perfectly in a non-dimmable socket. The LED gets full power all the time, causing no problems for the power management circuit in the bulb. You should get the full life expectancy from a dimmable LED light in a standard non-dimmable circuit.

LED lightbulbs are more energy-efficient than incandescent bulbs by a wide margin. In most cases, LED lightbulbs require 75 percent less energy to generate the equivalent light of an incandescent bulb.

For example, an LED floodlamp uses only 11 to 12 watts of power to produce the same amount of light that an incandescent bulb using 50 watts of power. LED technology is more efficient than incandescent technology In many ways. Not only do LEDs take less energy, they run cooler and last longer.

The average incandescent bulb lasts for about 1,000 hours before the filament fails. This time can be considerably shorter if the bulb is confined in a fixture that doesn’t allow heat to escape. An LED bulb that produces the same amount of light has an expected lifespan of 50,00 hours. This is 50 times the life of an incandescent bulb.

The extra cost of the LED lightbulb is more than recaptured by not having to replace the lightbulb as often. When the cost savings over the life of an LED bulb are compared to an incandescent bulb, the upfront cost difference disappears.