"HerHusband" wrote in message
...
I have a 100W globe style bulb attached to a simple 2-way dimmer.
The thing (the bulb) buzzes like crazy on anything other than full on
and full off. You can even see the filament flapping in the inert
breeze.

Maybe a heavy duty bulb, which has additional filament supports in it,
would be quieter?

I have three wall sconces in our living room that are on a remote control
dimmer. One of the bulbs is a standard 60W light bulb, the other two are
60W bulbs made for ceiling fans. I ran out of the ceiling fan bulbs when
one burned out, so I just screwed in a standard bulb. I prefer the ceiling
fan bulbs simply because they are smaller in size and don't stick down
below our light fixture. They cost slightly more, but they're generally
built stronger to endure the vibrations of a ceiling fan.

Anyway, the standard light bulb buzzes (rings) a lot, but neither of the
ceiling fan bulbs make a sound at dimmer settings. Might be worth trying a
ceiling fan bulb.

Anthony

As you have said, the buzzing/humming is due to the filament of the lamp
vibrating. So, any incandescent lamp with more filament supports will be
less noisy. Try lamps with different filament construction too; some are
noisier than others. Lamps with heavy thick filaments are less noisy than
lamps with thin light filaments.

The ultimate solution is to wire a "debuzzing coil" into the circuit or
replace the dimmer with one that has the coil built in. Most dimmer
manufacturers list debuzzing coils as accessories, but you'll probably have
to get them on line as I've never seen any in retail stores. Also, you will
need room in either the wall box where the dimmer is or the junction box
where the fixture is mounted to install the coil. Just wire the coil into
the circuit between the dimmer and the lamp in the black lead.

The coil is just an inductor which smoothes the edges of the sharp on/off
pulses which the dimmer sends to the lamp as the lamp is dimmed. Those
pulses set up reversing magnetic fields in the lamp support leads which
twist the filament 120 times a second. When the dimmer is full on, it sends
the normal smooth sine wave from the line to the lamp.

TKM