On Nov 14, 1:19*am, Ashton Crusher wrote:
I replaced the incandescent bulbs in a 6 bulb fixture with
non-dimmable CFLs. *I didn't realize it at the time I did it that the
switch was a dimmer switch. *Realizing it was a dimmer switched
circuit I tried dimming them. *Didn't work, they were either on or
off. *So just to see what would happen I took out two of the CFLs and
put regular incandescent back in. *With the inc bulbs there the dimmer
would dim the non-dimmable CFLs. *Not as well as real dimmable CFLs
but certainly enough to be dim enough to satisfy my needs in the
dimming department. there is a slight buzzing when I dim this setup
but it's not enough to be a problem to me for the few times I want to
dim them.

So what's different about the dimmable CFLs compared to the
non-dimmable ones? *Do they just add a resistor in parallel inside the
dimmible bulbs???

Not sure, but in effect that's what is happening. I would be very
leery of what you are doing, however, because it obviously is running
the CFL's in a manner to which they were not designed. I would expect
that any guarantee about lifetime would be out the window, and also I
would be very careful to see if they overheat under that type of
operation. You're taking an appreciable risk in doing what you are
doing, although I have done the same thing just for a couple of 20
second experiments out of curiosity just like you did.