Joseph Meehan wrote:

Dick M. wrote:

How could the cooling design help? The heat has to get out thru
the wallplate regardless of the cooling design.
Dick


I am not sure they are still making the same design dimmers that I am
was thinking of. The ones I was thinking of were or are built with cooling
fins on the faceplate and the even heavier duty ones took up two spaces in
the work box to get more cooling fins.

It could be that they are made with more efficient electronics today. I
really don't know. it has been a while since I have needed to work on such
a thing.



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Joseph Meehan" wrote:

Maybe, but I believe you will find it will also have cooling integrated
into the design


The semiconductor manufacturers have been continuously improving
(lowering)the "on resistance" (A parameter called Rdon) of their power
switching devices, and the lower that resistance, the less heat is
generated for a given average current.

Economics being what they are, the chincier manufacturers will use older
lower cost semiconductors as long as they can get away with it

Short of putting on an electrical engineering hat, setting up a
measuring system, and comparing different makes of dimmers, there's no
practical way to tell from just the "wattage rating" exactly how hot one
dimmer will run compared to another.

HTH,

Jeff

--
My name is Jeff Wisnia and I approved this message....

(W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)

"As long as there are final exams, there will be prayer in public
schools"