Does anyone have any ideas on how to create a fader that can be time
controlled to say brighten at night and dim during the morning, using
a 150 watt incandescent lamp?
The easy way would be to connect an X-10 or similar module
in parallel with a dimmer switch for the 'dim ' setting.
Connect an appliance module in parallel so the thing turns full ON
when the timer/controller does the timed activation.
This means wiring the AC to two switches, and connecting
the outputs... but the X-10 timers and modules are easily
available.
Some of the X-10 modules can dim on command, but I don't
know if the timer/controllers have continuous-dimming-on-a-daily-
cycle functionality.