On 11/28/2015 11:11 AM, notbob wrote:
On 2015-11-28, Tony Hwang wrote:
Don Y wrote:

Non-dimmable bulbs in a dimmer circuit often consume *more* power
(as well as almost ALWAYS forcing less efficient operation!) when
used with dimmers that are "inappropriate"!

By wasted non-energy producing ghost Wattage!

Yes. It's called a shunt.

No, dimmers don't work with "shunts". The problem with CFL/LED "ballasts"
is that they don't represent nice resistive loads -- like the incandescents
for which legacy dimmers were created (and still in use).

See the 'scope traces at:
http://sound.westhost.com/articles/incandescent.htm#wfm
(N.B. the vertical scale has been changed by a factor of *5*
from the "non-dimmer" example to the "dimmer" example that
appears below it.

[The rest of the page is probably worth reading -- if you're technically
inclined. E.g., the table that appears a bit above the cited photos
if you like to see numbers instead of graphs]

You jes lost any creds you may have ever had.

Hmmm... something about "real life" comes to mind...