How to Add a Dimmer for Fluorescent Light?

Why not just change the bulb to a softer light...

Yes ,it's a way..thanks..

You can buy dimmers for lamps like that, but they probably won't provide the dimming range you need. Realistically you need a 200:1 dimming ratio from bright to dim for night use. Dimmers like this will probably only provide 10:1:

http://www.amazon.com/Lutron-TTCL-100H-WH-Credenza-Dimmable-Dimmer/dp/B004DE5ONC/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1350009412&sr=8-5&keywords=fluorescent+lamp+dimmer

You'd get more dimming from something like this (re-apply every night; remove for day use):

http://www.amazon.com/Rust-Oleum-249844-Painters-Multi-Purpose-12-Ounce/dp/B002BWOS8K/ref=sr_1_2?s=hi&ie=UTF8&qid=1350009635&sr=1-2&keywords=black+spray+paint

Or you could get something like this, probably the best solution:

http://www.amazon.com/LightWedge-Reading-Light-Touch-Black/dp/B0010T5AVY/ref=sr_1_3?s=hi&ie=UTF8&qid=1350009746&sr=1-3&keywords=clip+on+reading+light+bed

I prefer the first.. thank you...

If you buy the first one make sure you use it with a dimmable CFL (at more than twice the $) as it says, most CFL's aren't dimmable. I am sure you will be disappointed with the results however, they dim a little and then go out. LED's would be much better at dimming and of course so would an incandescent. I like the suggestion of the two polarized sheets.

So, is not a piece of neutral density filter a solution, like a paper handkerchief and some sticky substance, perhaps?

Or putting the lamp farther from the reading material?

LOL and a GA!!!!

I love it! A perfect union of frugal design (a.k.a. cheap), very creative thinking, enough missing details to leave up to the OP on how to implement and at the same time meeting the goals of the OP. Bravo!

Thank you very much Sir, I appreciate your comments and I'm glad that you appreciate my cheapness.

Regards

te pasaste chico eres muy ingenioso llegaras lejos

wow~~Great...!

25 years ago I remodeled my house and I installed an incandescent dimmer made by Power Controls. It was a toggle style wall switch and it functions perfectly. The progression is smooth from full brightness down to nightlight level at which point it clicks off. Dimmers I have bought since don't kick on until about half scale and kick off before you have them all the way down. I've looked for one as good as the original but have't beeb able to find one.

Put a brown paper bag over the light, or rotate it to point to the wall behind you.

I recall a railroad car that polaroid windows on it so you could vary the brightness. Of course they had to be round in order to work.

You need a dimmable CFL to use with a dimmer. Putting a non dimmable one wil smoke(literally!) both the dimmer and the bulb. I know this from experience. You could just wrap some aluminum foil around part of the bulb, although it might get a bit hot.

donno how's your russian

а вот я нашёл ** http://forum.ixbt.com/topic.cgi?id=28:24252-87#2114

// ** -- here i found (should be the apx. translation not what the google suggests) -- but there're pictures (makes it easier to grasp)

yes you can. most fluorescent units cannot work with dimmers, so you may need to replace the units with fluorescents that can work with dimmers.

Dimmer for Fluorescent Light is a bit tricky to set up (i donno how to do it - i can compute it out while emergency)

the incandescent light power is somewhat linear to used by it NRG

where the light output can be checked from

with fluorocent it's like arcing through dielectric to achieve lowwer light output - there might excist some continuous feed signal function that works not as a packet arcing but it's a retail design for individual lamp geometry and halogen - or you have to redesign the lamp like adding electrodes to keep the gas energized (conductive) by external E-field - then pass amps through it (i wonder that those things (flurescent lamps) been around for ages) and there's no reference to alike designs