Dimmer switches on flourescent bulbs?

Rogueish

Just wondering I have a studio (rented) in which there are four banks of four long flourescent tubes (total of 16 flourescent tubes). These are too bright when lying on your back doing matwork based exercise.

I have two options (I think)
1. Put dimmer switches on so that the light is not quite so glaring (but I don't know if it is possible to do this with flourescent tubes).
2. take two out of the four tubes out of each bank so that I am left with a total of 8 tubes

The room size is 26 x 13ft, so there is no real need to have the room so brightly lit.

Does anybody have any suggestions?

antoinolachtnai

I think 2 is the option for you, maybe supplemented by uplighters or some such.

It is possible to dimmer florescents, but the last time I checked (years ago, I admit), the gear was quite expensive, so it is probably not the best thing for your rented studio.

Antoin

charlie@w.d

u cant dim fluorescents, if u tried to dim the lights the tubes would just degrade and blow after a day or 2

viking

Just on the dimming question, is it possible to dim LED spotlights?

Mellor

charlie@w.d wrote:

u cant dim fluorescents, if u tried to dim the lights the tubes would just degrade and blow after a day or 2

No. You can dim fluorescents lights. But the standard dimmer switch won't work. As antoinolachtnai said in his reply the gear is expensive. It is not really for use in domestic situations. Only commercial or industrial where they can afford to do it.

As for LEDs, it is possible is dim an LED (as an electrical component), but i dont know if all led cluster bulbs can be controlled.
I seen 100s of single LEDs used to light a room. They were coloured red, green and blue and spaced evenly all over the room. A control panel dimmed each of the different colours to vary the light colour and intensity. All colours on full gave white light, and no green on would give purple. So LEDs can be dimmed, but i am unsure if a standard dimmer switch would work.


To the original poster,
Installing a dimming set up would be too expensive, it might be better to set up a dual switch. One switch controls half the banks, and the other controls the other half.
When you need to do floor work, switch of the banks above the area you will be working, the other banks will light the room, but still not blind you.

Rogueish

Thanks for the replies all.

The four banks are on two separate switches. I think it might be an option to get the switches rewired so that they control one half of the the room on a longitudinal basis rather than two banks at the bottom of the room and two banks at the top...

Thanks all.

JohnDigital

You could also get some gels to diffuse the light. Gel's are basically a plastic sheet that is available in colour or opaque that you can wrap the tubes in to change the colour, but an opaque one should diffuse the brightness. Alternatively opaque plexiglass (perspex) could be secured in front of the light units, again to diffuse the light.

antoinolachtnai

Rogueish, I think you should avoid investing any money in a rented premises if you can at all! Rewiring the lights the way you want would probably take an electrician at least half a day if there were easy access, maybe longer.

Gels could be a good idea.