Dimming infared bulbs

[Rhinoman]

I'm building a new brooder in a few weeks and I want to put the heat lamb inside. I'm thinking of hard wiring the heat lamb to a dimmer switch!

Traditionally people just move the light further away according to what temp they need. They're still paying for the same amount of heat. Just wasting more of it. I want to permanently mount my heat lamp and hard wire it to a dimmer. It's essentially just an incandescent bulb. Has anybody done this?

 

[HEChicken]

I've never done heat lamps any way except on a rheostat - I never could see the point of having it on full bore all the time and paying for all that electricity when I didn't need anywhere near that amount of heat. The dimmer works great and means I don't have to move the light - I just turn it down a little every few days.

 

[Daedalus62]

Yep... Done that too... Works great and, like you said, it saves on the electricity bill.

Just pay attention to the Watts rating of your dimmer, it must be higher than the bulb.

Cheers