Advantage & Disadvantage of Triac

There are three types of dimmers: mechanical, magnetic, and electronic. Mechanical dimmers use a rotary dial to control the amount of light that is emitted. Magnetic dimmers use a coil and a magnet to control the light. Electronic dimmers use a transistor to control the light.

Why choose TRIAC?

TRIAC works to switch high voltages that make it a perfect option to utilize in various electrical control solutions. It implies that TRIAC can work to fulfil our everyday light control requirements. The uses of TRIAC circuits are not limited to household lighting applications; they can also be used in controlling small motors and fans as well as other control applications and AC switching. TRIAC is a multipurpose control that is a very useful protocol for users to fulfil their various needs.

Advantages and disadvantages of TRIAC dimming for LED

The key benefit of utilizing a TRIAC dimmer with LED lights is that it has a low dimming cost. Little size, low weight, high adjustment accuracy, high conversion efficiency, and simple remote control are just a few of the benefits.

TRIAC dimming comes along with the benefit of high efficiency, high adjustment accuracy, and lightweight, small compact size, and easy remote control. In the market, TRIAC dimming is dominating the form of dimmer and many products are designed with this kind of dimmer. The huge benefit of TRIAC dimmer is that when you use it with LED light, it has a low dimming cost.

The Triac need a single fuse for protection

When the voltage is reduced to zero the TRIAC device is generally switched off

It needs only a single heat sink of a slightly larger size whereas for SCR two heat sinks should be required of smaller size

A safe breakdown in either direction is possible  using TRIAC but for SCR protection should be given with parallel diode

It can be triggered with positive or negative polarities of gate pulses

The drawback of TRIAC dimmer is that the dimming performance is quite low that resulting in a constricted range of dimming. As the TRIAC switch functions to turn on the current, it is unable to turn off the current completely even at the lowest; there is a weak current flowing. It is a difficult issue faced in the present LED dimming method.

The main disadvantage is that its dimming performance is poor, resulting in a restricted range of brightness. It’s an issue in the present LED dimming technique.

Disadvantages are categorized as follows:

It has a very high switching delay

This is not suitable for DC application

It can be triggered in any direction so we need to be careful about triggering circuit

As compare to SCR it has a low rating

The TRIAC is not much reliable as compared to SCR

The dv/dt rating is very low as compared to SCR device