A customer called and said her switch for her fan, which is on the same switch as her light, gets very hot. She has an old dimmer with a turn knob. She was worried about it and wanted to know why it gets so hot. I asked if her fan is on the dimmer and she said no. It is on another switch. If her fan was on a dimmer, that would explain the heat. The fan should be on a special switch that has three speeds that will give you gradual resistance.
A dimmer is a rheostat. Why did her rheostat get hot? A rheostat is a resister. A resister goes through a number of windings. The more resistance you put it through, or the more you use the dimmer, the more heat it builds up. Resistance is an amount of usage. For example, you can have five light bulbs in a row. That is an amount of resistance. Each bulb is a resistance. But what does a rheostat do? It gives you an amount of resistance within a range, from zero resistance to a lot of resistance. Zero means straight through, no resistance. A lot of resistance means the light bulb is dimmed a lot and power is lessened. How is the power lessened? It is going through a winding of resistance called a variable resister, or a rheostat resister. A rheostat is the same thing, or a dimmer.
It gets hot from the amount of flow that is slowed down through an amount of resistance. Let's compare a mountain of sand to a hill of sand. It takes a lot of push to push through a mountain of sand than through a hill of sand. It's like a mountain of sand compared to a hill of sand or compared to no sand. You are going heavier, heavier, heavier until you get to a mountain of sand. And that's where your resistance is.
A rheostat gets hot because of its amount of resistance toward the voltage passing through it. It can heat up to 125 degrees, but check with your manufacturer. Most put plastic screws in the rheostats because people burn their fingers. You can overload a rheostat.
I am a consultant for energy efficiency. I would like to invite you to visit http://www.energyconsciousconsultant.com to find out how Farbe's Electric can give suggestions to reduce your energy costs to save money.
all Power America Power Generator
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