Has anyone tried dimmable compact fluorescent bulbs. How well do the work
and do they smoothly dim? What brand name did you use?

Thanks,

On Wed, 17 Oct 2007 23:40:31 GMT, "Jeff" wrote:

Has anyone tried dimmable compact fluorescent bulbs. How well do the work
and do they smoothly dim? What brand name did you use?

Thanks,


They're pretty dim already. G

"Jeff" wrote in message
...
Has anyone tried dimmable compact fluorescent bulbs. How well do the work
and do they smoothly dim? What brand name did you use?

Thanks,
Your question is timely. At a lighting showroom open house last night, that
question came up so we borrowed a standard Lutron dimmer from a
demonstration display and connected it to a GE 29 watt screw base CFL marked
for dimming. After warming up at full output, the CFL dimmed fairly
smoothly down to about 1/3 light output (we had a light meter) and then it
dropped out. The dimmer had to be cranked up to almost full before the CFL
came on again. So, our conclusion is that self-ballasted CFLs can be
dimmed; but the range is limited.

TKM

On Oct 17, 7:40 pm, "Jeff" wrote:
Has anyone tried dimmable compact fluorescent bulbs. How well do the work
and do they smoothly dim? What brand name did you use?

Thanks,

My experience matches TKMs, plus one other observation when I tried
this a few years ago in our dining room. I had a regular tungsten
bulb in one lamp socket and a dimmable CFL in another, and started
dimming. As expected, the tungsten bulb got dimmer and yellower, but
the dimmable CFL got dimmer and bluer. I totally hated the color of
the dimmed CFL, so as of now our entire house has CFLs, with the
exception of the dining room which still has tungsten bulbs on the
dimmer.

The one dimmable CFL I got I ended up just putting it in another non-
dimmable fixture somewhere, and I don't even know which one any more.

Ken

On Oct 17, 4:40 pm, "Jeff" wrote:
Has anyone tried dimmable compact fluorescent bulbs. How well do the work
and do they smoothly dim? What brand name did you use?

Thanks,

Same as experience as TKM and Ken. I bought one Philips Marathon
Classic 65 CFL dimmable flood as a test because I wanted to replace
the 20 or so I have installed in can lights throughout the house. The
CFL dimmed fairly smooth until it cut out completely at about the last
third of the dimmers range. The lamps output was very cool as I
expected. I took it out after about 30 seconds. My opinion is that
they suck.

Same as experience as TKM and Ken. I bought one Philips Marathon
Classic 65 CFL dimmable flood as a test because I wanted to replace
the 20 or so I have installed in can lights throughout the house. The
CFL dimmed fairly smooth until it cut out completely at about the last
third of the dimmers range. The lamps output was very cool as I
expected. I took it out after about 30 seconds. My opinion is that
they suck.


The government wants us to use the CF lamps and LEDs and companies
like GE are dramatically scaling down their incandescent bulb
production.

Unless there are some new technology breakthroughs, our dimming days
are going to be over...

Well thank you mister doom-and-gloom!

In case you haven't noticed, technological breakthroughs happen all the time. 15 years ago when you wanted to buy a
lightbulb, how many technology choices did you have?

In terms of brightness, I would expect LED's to dim better than CFL's, since they don't have the need for high voltage to
start/maintain an arc.

There's still the issue of simulating the color change that an incandescent has when dimmed, but I bet it's not too long
before some clever person teams up several different-colored LEDs with some control circuitry to give the same effect by
looking at the RMS input voltage and varying the drive to the different LEDs.

Oh and you can blame the government if that's what floats your boat, but I buy CFLs because they save me money.

Eric Law


"Beachcomber" wrote in message ...


Same as experience as TKM and Ken. I bought one Philips Marathon
Classic 65 CFL dimmable flood as a test because I wanted to replace
the 20 or so I have installed in can lights throughout the house. The
CFL dimmed fairly smooth until it cut out completely at about the last
third of the dimmers range. The lamps output was very cool as I
expected. I took it out after about 30 seconds. My opinion is that
they suck.


The government wants us to use the CF lamps and LEDs and companies
like GE are dramatically scaling down their incandescent bulb
production.

Unless there are some new technology breakthroughs, our dimming days
are going to be over...

"Beachcomber" wrote in message
...


Same as experience as TKM and Ken. I bought one Philips Marathon
Classic 65 CFL dimmable flood as a test because I wanted to replace
the 20 or so I have installed in can lights throughout the house. The
CFL dimmed fairly smooth until it cut out completely at about the last
third of the dimmers range. The lamps output was very cool as I
expected. I took it out after about 30 seconds. My opinion is that
they suck.


The government wants us to use the CF lamps and LEDs and companies
like GE are dramatically scaling down their incandescent bulb
production.

Unless there are some new technology breakthroughs, our dimming days
are going to be over...

There will be plenty of changes in residential lighting during the next few
years, no doubt. I think we'll see improvements in CFL dimming, however,
because commercial fluorescent dimming systems already do a good job -- they
dim smoothly right down to zero output. The problem is that the dimmer
controls we have around today were designed for incandescent lamps. We now
need controls specifically designed for CFLs.

The CFL dimming test that I reported also had a second part which was
dimming an LED downlight (the LR6 unit made by LLF which draws 12 watts).
See http://www.llfinc.com/index.aspx Using the same standard Lutron
dimmer, the LR6 nicely dimmed down to about 3 watts without any significant
color change and then it went out. Our little test group concluded that
LEDs dim better than screw-in CFLs, and with a bit of work on the controls,
LEDs would dim just fine.

TKM

On Oct 17, 7:40 pm, "Jeff" wrote:
Has anyone tried dimmable compact fluorescent bulbs. How well do the work
and do they smoothly dim? What brand name did you use?

Thanks,

I bought some dimmable CFLs from Home Depot. I cannot dim them low
enough as comparing to regular dimmable bulbs - meaning that they are
still quite bright when they are supposed to be dimmed. This is OK
with me. But you may not like that.

The other problem is that they are longer than regular dimmable light
bulbs. They are sticking out from the cans of the ceiling fixtures.
When I get the time, I may look into the lighting fixture to see if I
can adjust the height.

Jay Chan

"Jeff" wrote in message
...
Has anyone tried dimmable compact fluorescent bulbs. How well do the work
and do they smoothly dim? What brand name did you use?

Thanks,
"Beachcomber" wrote in message
...


Same as experience as TKM and Ken. I bought one Philips Marathon
Classic 65 CFL dimmable flood as a test because I wanted to replace
the 20 or so I have installed in can lights throughout the house. The
CFL dimmed fairly smooth until it cut out completely at about the last
third of the dimmers range. The lamps output was very cool as I
expected. I took it out after about 30 seconds. My opinion is that
they suck.


The government wants us to use the CF lamps and LEDs and companies
like GE are dramatically scaling down their incandescent bulb
production.

Unless there are some new technology breakthroughs, our dimming days
are going to be over...

There will be plenty of changes in residential lighting during the next few
years, no doubt. I think we'll see improvements in CFL dimming, however,
because commercial fluorescent dimming systems already do a good job -- they
dim smoothly right down to zero output. The problem is that the dimmer
controls we have around today were designed for incandescent lamps. We now
need controls specifically designed for CFLs.

The CFL dimming test that I reported also had a second part which was
dimming an LED downlight (the LR6 unit made by LLF which draws 12 watts).
See http://www.llfinc.com/index.aspx Using the same standard Lutron
dimmer, the LR6 nicely dimmed down to about 3 watts without any significant
color change and then it went out. Our little test group concluded that
LEDs dim better than screw-in CFLs, and with a bit of work on the controls,
LEDs would dim just fine.

TKM

On Oct 20, 8:52 am, "TKM" wrote:
"Jeff" wrote in message

... Has anyone tried dimmable compact fluorescent bulbs. How well do the work
and do they smoothly dim? What brand name did you use?

Thanks,
"Beachcomber" wrote in message

...







Same as experience as TKM and Ken. I bought one Philips Marathon
Classic 65 CFL dimmable flood as a test because I wanted to replace
the 20 or so I have installed in can lights throughout the house. The
CFL dimmed fairly smooth until it cut out completely at about the last
third of the dimmers range. The lamps output was very cool as I
expected. I took it out after about 30 seconds. My opinion is that
they suck.

The government wants us to use the CF lamps and LEDs and companies
like GE are dramatically scaling down their incandescent bulb
production.

Unless there are some new technology breakthroughs, our dimming days
are going to be over...

There will be plenty of changes in residential lighting during the next few
years, no doubt. I think we'll see improvements in CFL dimming, however,
because commercial fluorescent dimming systems already do a good job -- they
dim smoothly right down to zero output. The problem is that the dimmer
controls we have around today were designed for incandescent lamps. We now
need controls specifically designed for CFLs.

The CFL dimming test that I reported also had a second part which was
dimming an LED downlight (the LR6 unit made by LLF which draws 12 watts).
Seehttp://www.llfinc.com/index.aspx Using the same standard Lutron
dimmer, the LR6 nicely dimmed down to about 3 watts without any significant
color change and then it went out. Our little test group concluded that
LEDs dim better than screw-in CFLs, and with a bit of work on the controls,
LEDs would dim just fine.

TKM- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -


I haven't even gotten to the dimming issue. I bought a 4 pack of FEIT
CFL's that look like indoor floods. Put them in my kitchen. First
problem, they don't fit the can because the neck area is slightly
wider than a regular flood. And yes, they are the correct R type for
the can. So, I have to buy extenders.

Next proiblem, they take a good 2 mins to reach maybe 75% of
brightness. In the first min, it's like a 30W bulb, which is just
great when you come into the kitchen at night. Solution? We'll
since they use less energy, I just leave them on a lot more... Doh!

Second problem, one failed after 2 months. Replaced it with another,
and it's gone in a month too.

I've had much better results with the spira type that I use in my
garage. They get to reasonable output a lot faster and haven't blown
up yet.

The huge problem here is a lack of specs. When you go to buy them,
you should be able to read on the package how long they take to reach
70% of output, how low you can dim them, how long they last... Oh,
wait, they already tell you that, and in some cases, it's a lie.

On Oct 19, 3:12 am, (Beachcomber) wrote:
Same as experience as TKM and Ken. I bought one Philips Marathon
Classic 65 CFL dimmable flood as a test because I wanted to replace
the 20 or so I have installed in can lights throughout the house. The
CFL dimmed fairly smooth until it cut out completely at about the last
third of the dimmers range. The lamps output was very cool as I
expected. I took it out after about 30 seconds. My opinion is that
they suck.

The government wants us to use the CF lamps and LEDs and companies
like GE are dramatically scaling down their incandescent bulb
production.

Unless there are some new technology breakthroughs, our dimming days
are going to be over...

Well, you can probably delay that by voting for the Republican next
year. But I can't tell you for sure, until we know who it is. One
thing for sure, any one of them is less likely to ram a CFL up your
ass than the Democrat.

wrote in message
oups.com...
On Oct 20, 8:52 am, "TKM" wrote:
"Jeff" wrote in message

... Has
anyone tried dimmable compact fluorescent bulbs. How well do the work
and do they smoothly dim? What brand name did you use?

Thanks,
"Beachcomber" wrote in message

...







Same as experience as TKM and Ken. I bought one Philips Marathon
Classic 65 CFL dimmable flood as a test because I wanted to replace
the 20 or so I have installed in can lights throughout the house. The
CFL dimmed fairly smooth until it cut out completely at about the last
third of the dimmers range. The lamps output was very cool as I
expected. I took it out after about 30 seconds. My opinion is that
they suck.

The government wants us to use the CF lamps and LEDs and companies
like GE are dramatically scaling down their incandescent bulb
production.

Unless there are some new technology breakthroughs, our dimming days
are going to be over...

There will be plenty of changes in residential lighting during the next
few
years, no doubt. I think we'll see improvements in CFL dimming, however,
because commercial fluorescent dimming systems already do a good job --
they
dim smoothly right down to zero output. The problem is that the dimmer
controls we have around today were designed for incandescent lamps. We
now
need controls specifically designed for CFLs.

The CFL dimming test that I reported also had a second part which was
dimming an LED downlight (the LR6 unit made by LLF which draws 12
watts).
Seehttp://www.llfinc.com/index.aspx Using the same standard Lutron
dimmer, the LR6 nicely dimmed down to about 3 watts without any
significant
color change and then it went out. Our little test group concluded that
LEDs dim better than screw-in CFLs, and with a bit of work on the
controls,
LEDs would dim just fine.

TKM- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -


I haven't even gotten to the dimming issue. I bought a 4 pack of FEIT
CFL's that look like indoor floods. Put them in my kitchen. First
problem, they don't fit the can because the neck area is slightly
wider than a regular flood. And yes, they are the correct R type for
the can. So, I have to buy extenders.

Next proiblem, they take a good 2 mins to reach maybe 75% of
brightness. In the first min, it's like a 30W bulb, which is just
great when you come into the kitchen at night. Solution? We'll
since they use less energy, I just leave them on a lot more... Doh!

Second problem, one failed after 2 months. Replaced it with another,
and it's gone in a month too.

I've had much better results with the spira type that I use in my
garage. They get to reasonable output a lot faster and haven't blown
up yet.

The huge problem here is a lack of specs. When you go to buy them,
you should be able to read on the package how long they take to reach
70% of output, how low you can dim them, how long they last... Oh,
wait, they already tell you that, and in some cases, it's a lie.

There are standard specs. and CFLs are being tested against them. See:
http://www.energystar.gov/ia/partner...s_prog_req.pdf
(Page 12-13). There's plenty of junk out there; but I've not had a problem
when I buy Energy Star CFLs. No failures in four years, for example.

TKM