Smart lighting technology is considered the future of house lighting. It not only gives the household multiple light colors using a single, smart bulb, but you can also control them conveniently using an app installed on your smartphone.
As a result, you do not have to worry if no one is left in your house and you forget to turn off the lights. Furthermore, simply by using an app, you can manage to operate your lights regardless of what part of the globe you are in.
Apart from controlling the lights using a cellphone app, you can also take advantage of voice commands to operate your lights, using the Alexa or Google Assistant voice application systems.
You can set a lighting schedule for when to turn on and off your smart bulbs or brighten or dim them through your recognized voice.
Another trick that your smart light bulbs can do, especially when you are away from your house and no one is there, is to simulate lighting patterns in your house as if someone is occupying it. In other words, it provides an illusion that there are people inside to dissuade robbers from entering the house and rob it.
Govee may sound unfamiliar to some users — it doesn’t have the reputation of Alexa or HomeKit, for sure. But now, it is creating a name to challenge its competitors.
The manufacturer has a great value regarding the importance of money. Govee’s price is much cheaper (almost half) compared to its rivals, such as Philip Hue, but it gives you a similar quality of illumination, features, and functionalities as prominent lighting brands.
This article will focus on whether the Govee smart bulbs work with dimmer switches. Here, we will further uncover the technical experts’ explanations of the recommendations.
Let’s carry on!
Quick Answer: Will Govee Smart Bulbs Work with a Dimmer?
Many technical experts have already agreed that Smart Bulbs won’t work with dimmer switches. It might work if you force it, but it will eventually damage the bulbs.
In simplest terms, it is unnecessary (and repetitive) to have a dimmer switch controlling a smart bulb, which has a built-in dimmer function on its own.
Using a smart bulb with a dimmer switch will likely lead to flickering, shortened bulb lifespan, and poor performance. While it might technically “work” to use them together, it sure isn’t recommended.
Built-In Dimming Mechanism in Govee Smart Light Bulbs
To understand and fully grasp why dimmer switches won’t work with smart light bulbs, we have to check and review why Govee smart bulbs have to be classified as dimmer switch independent.
Govee has strictly observed the primary objective of smart bulb technology, which is to control the light changing and dimming of colors through a built-in microchip inside the bulb that automatically dims the bulb as directed by the program through the Govee app.
The built-in dimming mechanism installed inside a Govee smart bulb does not require a dimmer switch.
One Device with Two Same Technologies
In the preceding portion, you can see in the explanation that smart bulbs, including Govee, are designed to dim and brighten without a dimmer switch.
It provides an automatic dimming mechanism to change the brightness and dimness of the smart bulbs. And it is activated through a smart app installed on your smartphone — in this case, the Govee app.
If your purpose of using an additional dimmer switch is to dim or brighten your smart bulbs, it is considered both technically unnecessary and impractical.
First, using a dimmer switch with smart bulbs can create a signal interruption to both the smart bulbs and the dimmer switch. Consequently, it might lead to connection instability. If the communication between the smart bulbs and smart app through WIFI has become intermittent, the light bulbs will flicker and can cause a delay in relaying the command from both systems.
Secondly, it can easily damage the semiconductor (the microchip responsible for regulating the voltage being output to the bulbs) installed inside the Govee smart bulbs since it is not designed to operate in unstable voltage output from a dimmer switch.
The Dimmer Switch’s Voltage Capacity: A Technical Discussion
First, you may wish to know the dimmer switch’s voltage capacity and why it damages smart bulbs.
As explained before, the semiconductor is responsible for regulating the voltage output to the bulbs. In other words, the brightness of the bulbs is dependent on how much voltage is released by the semiconductor.
In addition to the semiconductor is the potentiometer, also installed inside a dimmer switch next to the semiconductor. The potentiometer is responsible for the variable resistance of electric current. In other words, the resistance value commanded by the potentiometer will determine how high and low the voltage is required for a specific bulb.
The semiconductor is responsible for the voltage amount that will release to the bulbs to power them. In that case, the potentiometer is in charge of the electrical resistance (regarding how fast and slow the electric current moves) of the voltage in lighting and even dimming the bulbs.
The standard dimmer switch is engineered to output a voltage of 60 volts RMS with 120 V input for dimming the lights. But every time you keep changing the dimming settings of your smart bulbs using a dimmer switch, the potentiometer outputs an additional voltage in every switching activity or command you complete.
In other words, the more you change the dimming setting of your smart bulbs using a dimmer switch, the higher the voltage is output to the bulbs. In layperson’s terms, a dimmer switch turns on and off the lights much faster than what smart bulbs are configured for.
You have to understand that dimmer switches output much higher voltage capacities than smart bulbs because they are originally designed to support non-smart bulbs, which require higher voltage than smart bulbs.
Govee Smart Bulbs Designed as Microcomputers
Another reason why the dimmer switch won’t work and can be damaging to smart bulbs is its microcomputer functionality.
Smart bulbs, including Govee, take time to boot up, just like computers. You will notice this during pairing and WIFI installations. The indicator lights of smart bulbs take time to flash to indicate that the bulbs have already successfully connected or paired to the app or WIFI router.
So a much faster and higher power voltage output from the dimmer switch will damage the circuit cards inside the smart bulbs.
The circuit cards inside the smart bulbs are engineered to support a stable voltage supply rather than a rapidly changing supply. However, some users of both dimmer switches and smart bulbs installed together have noticed that whenever they turn the lights on or off, they even change the dimming settings of the bulbs.
As a result, the bulbs flicker from time to time, indicating that the circuit cards inside the smart bulbs have started to malfunction due to fast rate changing and unstable voltage from the dimmer switch.
Final Thoughts
One of the things that we should always keep in mind is that we can maximize the full potential of your smart lighting system without the risk of damaging the bulbs. We should also be practical thinkers by ensuring and preserving the life span of the bulbs. And we can only do that if we know how these smart bulbs and dimmer switches are engineered and function.
In short, most smart bulbs have built-in dimming mechanisms to control the brightness of your bulbs even without a dimmer switch. So aside from the dimmer switch being potentially damaging to the smart bulbs, it is also impractical and another source of expenses which you can avoid if you know its features and specifications. Therefore, we should also be smart users of smart technology.
