Hello,

Is there any "rule of thumb" or simple way to calculate a triac's power dissipation?

I'm trying to build-up a simple micro-controlled 230VAC light switch for incandescent bulbs (purely ohmic) and I would prefer to understand how to correctly choose a triac instead of just taking the ones proposed in the examples one can find in the internet.

As far as I could find information up to now, it looks to be necessary to use the graphs provided in some datasheets to determine each triac's power dissipation.

But one can't read every datasheet to find out the adequate triac to use...

This AN from PHILIPS http://www.nxp.com/acrobat_download/.../AN10384_1.pdf might be very explicit for electronicians; for me, it is too complicated.

Thanks for any info