090327-2018 EST
Filament type fluorescent lamps need the filaments heated to emit reasonable quantities of electrons. Once started the normal current at full brightness is enough to keep the filaments hot without external excitation.
If you want to dim the lamp to a low level, then external heating by a filament transformer is required. This is why there needs to be a full excitation hot wire to the ballast. However, this should only be powered when the lamp is to be operated.
Open up a Lutron SF-10P dimmer and you will see this full excitation wire, red, comes from the output side of the on-off switch. Yellow is the phase shifted variable output. This dimmer requires a neutral and appears to be able to start at the minimum dimming position. The maximum brightness position turns the Triac on at about 45 deg, and minimum is about 142 deg. With 120 V input and a 75 W incandescent lamp load this corresponds to RMS voltages of 116 V and 24 V across the lamp.
In my opinion this dimmer is way overpriced for what is inside and the labor to make it. Assuming any reasonable market for this the UL and development costs should not be a big factor either.
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