Dimming and control arrangement and method for solid state lamps

A method for controlling brightness of an LED lamp, comprising:

• receiving, at an LED dimmer, electrical power from an alternating current (AC) source;
• determining, at the LED dimmer, a phase angle of said received AC power, and
• sending, from the LED dimmer, power to the LED lamp to operate the LED lamp at a brightness based on the determined AC phase angle, wherein the brightness level is in a range between a maximum brightness condition of the LED lamp and an off condition of the LED lamp;
• wherein when the LED lamp is in the off condition the received electrical power provides a constant minimum level of electrical power to circuit components associated with at least one of the dimmer and the LED lamp.

A system for controlling a light emitting diode lamp for use in a system comprising an LED lamp connected to and in communication with a dimmer, and a non-transient machine readable storage medium encoded with a computer program code such that, when the computer program code is executed by a processor, the processor performs a method comprising:

• receiving, at the dimmer, electrical power from an alternating current (AC) source;
• determining, at the LED dimmer, a phase angle of said received AC power, and
• providing direct current (DC) power from the dimmer to an LED lamp, the DC power representative of a predetermined brightness of the LED lamp, the DC power based on the determined AC phase angle, wherein the predetermined brightness level is in a range between a maximum brightness condition of the LED lamp and an off condition of the LED lamp;
• wherein when the LED lamp is in the off condition said received electrical power is sufficient to maintain a functionality of a circuit component associated with at least one of the dimmer and the LED lamp.