According to lee h :

I don't think too many people had those in their house to dim
the mood lights.

No, not common, but by no means a rarity. Even nowadays with
the cheapness of triac dimmers, think about how small a percentage
are used. Especially where they'd be most useful. I'll bet they're
used in less than a few percent of homes and apartments.

I'd think the contrary - virtually all new housing will have
at least one dimmer, and it's a very popular add-on. This
is vastly more than the old rheostat stuff. I think I'm justified
in calling something that rare "rare" ;-)

I use dimmers in many switches in my house. They pay for
themselves in lower juice use and longer bulb light. I've got
some hard to reach ceiling fixtures with bulbs that have lasted
twenty years. I prefer the rotary to the lever type to slow
down that filament killing inrush and shock.

Given that many rotaries have "full bright" and "full off"
adjacent at one end of the travel, you can't escape abrupt
on/offs with them :-(

We're switching mostly to decora-style outlets/switches, and
rotary dimmers look stupid in decora. At least slider dimmers
"slow start" better than straight switches.

Have you seen slow-start LV fixtures yet? I replaced a burned
LV supply in an Ikea track light a few months ago with a new
LV supply bought off the Internet. We liked the fixture, and
replacing the whole thing would have been difficult - discontinued
product. Not only was it higher power and smaller size, it has
slow-start - takes a bit less than 2 seconds I think to get to
full bright. _Very_ nice feature. Those bulbs should last about
forever.
--
Chris Lewis,

Age and Treachery will Triumph over Youth and Skill
It's not just anyone who gets a Starship Cruiser class named after them.