Dimmers For Relays

Hi All I Have A Simple Question Probably Posted Somewhere Else. I Have A Full 12 Ch Voltage Free Relay On The Load Side Is A Few Energy Savers And Heated Towel Rails And 4 Outside Lights With Wire Wound Ballasts A 40 watt BAssast Running 2 x PL 21 WAtt CFL's. The Question Is I NEED To Utilize 4 relays For Other Loads. But Have 5 Ch Free on A 1 Amp Dimmer...is It Possible To Use the Dimmer For The Ballasts As A ON/ Off Instead Of Spending $$$$$ On Another Relay? The Towel Rails Are Elements 120 Watt and 260 Watt
Any Help Would be great, Thanks

 

Resistive loads such as a towel rail element will not cause any problems as long as you don't exceed the current (1A) of the dimmer.

You can run your other 'on/off' loads from a dimmer channel but may need a 31CAP to take care of leakage current that will make the load appear on even when it's off. Do a quick search on this forum on 31CAP and this should help a little more.

A quick question if I may.... If there was a 2 channel din-rail relay available at a reasonable price, would you use this instead?

Cheers

 

I am running fluoros off a dimmer quite successfully for the exact reason that you have mentioned. All you need to do is put a .22 microfarad mains rated capacitor across the load. these are available from Jaycar for about a dollar. Much cheaper than a 31Cap!!

 

Thanks Guys For Your Help, I Have The Dimmer Free Channels So Buying A Din 2 Channel Relay Would be Great But A Expense At This Stage I Changed The Outside Lights Some Time Ago And Put The Pool Light And Surrounding pool Lights On the Same Channel But Its not Nice. So By Putting The Floro's On The Dimmer Its Really Going To Be Better). One Question in The On/Off Slider On the Dimmer In Toolkit Do I Set The Min To Say 90% and Max To 100% So To Say Have A Definite On / Off And Not Dim The Load ? Thanks Guys Ps How Much For The DIN 2 Ch Relay.?

 

Make sure that if you're going to use a capacitor from Jaycar, or anywhere else, instead of a 31CAP, that you buy an X2 class cap.

 

I would - Yes definitely. i think there is a huge gap in the product list. The small one off remote load that needs to be added to a system, or the one too many loads in a new system can be covered nicely by this small relay.

Fit it inside the same casing as the blind controller as well and it is a definite winner

I am in this position in a couple of places here

Mick