On Fri, 13 Jun 2008 13:52:48 +0100 someone who may be Peter Scott
wrote this:-

New lamps became available, I guess, towards the end of last year
which are continuously dimmable.

But I thought they either needed fittings with control gear built-in or
required a rather clumsy operation of the on-off switch.

The first dimmable ones without separate control gear could be
dimmed to one of four levels with a standard dimmer. The next ones
were continuously dimmable, but by flicking the switch on and off in
a particular way. From memory one got the thing rising or falling
and then flicked the switch to stop it. The lamp then remembered the
last setting and would come on at that brightness the next time.

Neither design was particularly appealing, but they showed the way.
The latest lamps are continuously dimmable from a standard dimmer,
though are only available in some types at the moment.

Is there any indication of whether
dimming them reduces their consumption significantly, unlike tunsten?

No idea about that. The consumption is already low so there may not
be much scope to reduce it further.



--
David Hansen, Edinburgh
I will *always* explain revoked encryption keys, unless RIP prevents me
http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2000/00023--e.htm#54