Percival P. Cassidy wrote:
On 09/09/08 12:13 pm RickH wrote:

I recently put CFL bulbs in all my lamps, ceiling fans and light
sockets. On the ceiling fans there are dimmers. When the fan lights
are turned on at the dimmer and then turned all the way up, one fan
light stays dim for about an hour, then will start to flicker and go
to its normal brightness and does not flicker anymore. The other
ceiling fan light flickers the entire time and also makes a buzzing
noise. i had a dimmer on the kitchen light also and it would also
flicker whenever the light was on. I replaced the dimmer with a simple
off and on switch and this solved the problem. I only have the problem
where there are dimmer switches installed. Why are the lights having
this problem?


Unless the CFL's are the newer "dimmable" types, CFL's are not
dimmable, they have to be explicitely labeled as dimmable.

And even the new dimmable ones are not truly dimmable over the entire
range of your dimmers. They only dim with maybe the top 60% of the
dimmer travel, lower levels and the results are unpredictable with
flicker, etc. I have the same issue, 80% of my wall switches are
dimmers so I have not been able to jump on the CFL bandwagon except
for closet and porch lights.

If the govt does something un-American like make incandescent bulbs
illegal, then I will stock up from foreign sources to last the
remainder of my lifetime.


IMO, CFLs are merely a stopgap until higher-output LEDs become available.

Perce


And dimable LEDs ought to be a no brainer.

Jeff

--
Jeffry Wisnia
(W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)
The speed of light is 1.8*10^12 furlongs per fortnight.