3rd party dimmer or Equipped dimmer?

I was at home depot yesterday and picked up a basic dimmer for $10.

I found a lamp fixture with a dial dimmer equipped for $20 at theretile store.
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y13...w/b7bbbcce.jpg

The question is... Are dimmers looked as being technical as a thermostat? Im picking up a dimmer to control my CHE. i have 2 tstats already controlling my 2 UTHs.

The current lamp fixture i have will not fit with the 100w CHE. So should I be buying the lamp fixture with the built in dimmer ($20)? Or buy a seperate fixture and the home depot dimmer ($15 + $10)?

Dimmers aren't considered technical really, and they don't compare to thermostats whatsoever. Dimmers are just a tool that lowers the amount of power going to a devise. Using a dimmer on a lamp dims the light, using it on a heating devise lowers the temp.

But, it's better to have a dimmer than nothing. I haven't seen those on a lamp before so I have no idea what they are like. I have dimmers as back ups on my thermostats to ensure that if something goes wrong at least they won't run full power.

I always say, it's better to go with a dimmer than with a cheapo thermostat. You have to be extremely responsible and check/adjust the dimmer often, but you can do it.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by jackiechan

I was at home depot yesterday and picked up a basic dimmer for $10.

I found a lamp fixture with a dial dimmer equipped for $20 at theretile store.
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y13...w/b7bbbcce.jpg

The question is... Are dimmers looked as being technical as a thermostat? Im picking up a dimmer to control my CHE. i have 2 tstats already controlling my 2 UTHs.

The current lamp fixture i have will not fit with the 100w CHE. So should I be buying the lamp fixture with the built in dimmer ($20)? Or buy a seperate fixture and the home depot dimmer ($15 + $10)?

---

Dimmers and thermostats are very very different. Essentially a fancy dimmer is called a rheostat and personally i would not use them. Rheostats and dimmers need to be constantly monitored and when they fail your heat source will run at full power and get very hot.

Cheers.

Unless your room temperature stays basically the same temperature day and night then dimmers are a bad choice for any heating devise :snake:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by decensored

Dimmers and thermostats are very very different. Essentially a fancy dimmer is called a rheostat and personally i would not use them. Rheostats and dimmers need to be constantly monitored and when they fail your heat source will run at full power and get very hot.

Cheers.

---

just a side note, a rheostat is a variable resistor, just adjusts resistance. potentiometer is the fancy one which uses a 3rd leg so you control the power by reducing voltage. both how ever can be used as dimmers.

also they do not fail in the full power position very often, very few parts not much to fail if anything fails at all. No reason to make them sound like death sentences, I would use a dimmer over some cheap thermostats.

to the OP, dimmers can work, but aren't nearly as convenient, actuate, or IMO safe as a quality thermostat.