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Re: A Practical Problem in E&M



Jack: As I understand it the cause of fuse and power supply problems
with SCR/Triac dimmers (cheap ones such as household dimmers) is
extremely fast, high voltage spikes created by the clipped waveform.
It isn't so much the harmonics but that the resultant output voltage
is almost a square wave. The fast change from a sinusoidal increase in
voltage to a flat, horizontal slope waveform creates these transients.
Just take a transistor radio and place it next to a household dimmer
that is has been turned to some level between max and zero. The RF
interference is caused by both the square wave harmonics and
especially the transients.