News & Views

The E3 Program is seeking to work with industry to reduce the consumer cost of transitioning to LED lighting for Australian households through promotion of compatible products.

To achieve this goal, the Department of Environment and Energy have approached NECA, seeking our feedback on an LED and Dimmer Compatibility Testing process as part of National compatibility testing on dimmers, transformers and LED Lamps.

Information obtained will input to the information resource “Find an LED to work with your installed dimmer”. This information resource is part of a package to assist electricians working with consumers to help manage the transition from Halogen lighting to LED lighting.

The information resource would allow households with possible or anticipated compatibility problems to potentially identify an LED lamp compatible with their existing dimmer setup. The resource will encourage trialling of a single lamp on the dimmer circuit prior to further investment, given the tested performance is a guide only and may vary. 

The following are in scope for this testing:

• Dimmable non-directional LED lamps connected to a dimmer switch.

• Dimmable Mains Voltage (MV) LED downlights connected to a dimmer switch.

• Transformer compatibility to enable replacement of Extra Low Voltage (ELV)12V MR16 halogen downlights connected to a dimmer switch, with 12V MR16 dimmable LED lamps.

How you can help:

Are there any brands of transformer being used by you that are not listed in Attachment A that fall within the scope of testing listed above?

If there are, please send the transformer model information to: EERLighting@environment.gov.au

Leon Dickson