View elegant scenes of light control created with Lutron.
Introducing a new era in shade design, this collection is a collaboration between the leader in shade automation and Europe’s premier window fashion brand. View our fabric offerings for roller shades, Venetian blinds, and new XL pleat shades.
This newest addition to the Lutron sensor family allows the control of two circuits from one occupancy sensor, making it ideal for applications that require bi-level switching to meet codes.
Each type of lighting source (load types) has individual characteristics, which require special types of dimmers. It is important to use a dimmer that is designed, tested, and UL listed for your specific lighting source/load type:
During normal operation, dimmers get warm to the touch. Wallbox dimmer efficiency is typically around 99%. The other 1% is dissipated in the dimmer as heat. So, a 600 W load on a 600 W dimmer would produce around 6 watts of heat. This is approximately the heat generated from a small nightlight. Operating on its rated load, Lutron dimmers will stay below the UL limits of 140º F (60º C).
To help the dimmer dissipate the internal heat normal to operation, a typical dimmer is wider than a switch. Dimmers can be ganged together such that the space is the same as switches. A portion of the fins (heat sink) must be removed. The fins are grooved to make the removal of fins easy with a pair of pliers. The removal of fins reduces the wattage capacity (load) the dimmer can control.
The stated VA (volt-ampere) rating is the capacity of the dimmer that includes the magnetic transformer heat losses and the lamp load. A Lutron MLV dimmer UL listed for 1,000 VA can be loaded with a full 1,000 VA lamp load. A transformer dissipates up to 20% of the connected load as heat. Better transformers dissipate less than 10% as heat. Added together, the lamp load and the transformer loss determine the dimmer capacity required.
Electronic low-voltage transformers also dissipate some heat. These inefficiencies are small enough to be accounted for in the dimmer rating. A Lutron ELV dimmer UL listed for 600 W can be loaded with a full 600 W lamp load. If ganged with other dimmers, standard derating rules apply.