Non dimmable led strip and dimmable light on same dimmer switch

[london-electric]

Hi

Was wondering if anyone can shed some light here .
Have a customer who has had work done on his flat.
They have installed an led strip around a ceiling bulkhead (non dimmable) and a pendant style led (dimmable) light in the centre of the bulkhead which run off the same supply and controlled via a 1 gang dimmer.

I advised the customer that as there is only 1 switch line controlling both lights that this shouldn't be on a dimmer as this will send the led strip faulty even if always kept at full voltage.
(As from experience I've seen this happen before)

The customer is adamant that he seen this done before and that the designer who sold him all the lights said it's possible to run these two fittings off the same switch line with the central light dimming and the led not being affected by the dimmer - he said it was using some kind of voltage regulator on the led strip to avoid the fluctuation in voltage caused by the dimmer (or cancel it out basically)

Has anyone seen anything like this done before as i've looked at quite a few wholesale websites and can't see anything of the such on general sale.

Any help would be much appreciated ....and yes I have told him to go back and ask the designer what it was they wild recommend but so far no joy so thought I'd take it into my own hands

Thanks

 

[Midwest]

Quite frankly, dimming LED lamps is a bit of a minefield. I only use dimmers that the manufacturers of the lamps, state that they are compatible, and you should not mix different manufactured dimmable LED lamps on the same circuit. There are some dimmers becoming available, that the manufacturer of the dimmer says it's compatible with must makes of Lamps though, Varilight have one I think.
Seem to remember though, not to use a non-dimmable lamp in a dimmable circuit as it may cause damage to the lamp. Loads of hits on the internet about the subject.

Your clients set up seems a bit bizarre in any case?

 

[The Ghost]

When you tried out the switch/dimmer what happened to both lights?

 

[westward10]

When you tried out the switch/dimmer what happened to both lights?

Yeah I was thinking the same thing.

 

[Richard Burns]

I cannot see the system you describe working well.
I would expect that the non dimmable one would probably work for a while on full brightness, but would cut out or flicker badly at lower dimming levels.
A voltage regulator would not be of much use as the power would not be there to regulate, though it would help to some extent at higher brightness levels, but the voltage regulator would probably also be struggling with the dimmer waveform.
For the cost of another cable and a two gang switch I cannot see the point.

 

[Adie moore]

if the led tape is 12v and the driver can run of a wide range of voltages this might work.

 

[dmxtothemax]

Whilst it may work as described under some circumstances,
but this is dodgy stuff and NOT best practice !
So any electrician who values his licence will be very hesitant.
this is not a good thing, please find another way.

You could try and take power for the LEDS off the same switch
BUT
before the dimer.