We're looking for lighting for the living room. We've a central
ceiling rose and 4 lighting sockets around the room controlled by a
twin dimmer switch. For one of these locations wer'e building a
shelving unit and wanted to put some downlights into the shelves.
Halogen ceiling spots are the obvious simple answer but it would be
nice to use something a bit more efficient.

Does anyone make dimmable low-energy lighting? Are compact
fluorescents the only option?

In article . com,
wrote:
Does anyone make dimmable low-energy lighting?

Yes - you can get dimming ballasts for standard fluorescent tubes. I have
them for my kitchen worktop lighting. Not cheap, though.

--
*For every action, there is an equal and opposite criticism *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article . com,
wrote:

Yes - you can get dimming ballasts for standard fluorescent tubes. I have
them for my kitchen worktop lighting. Not cheap, though.
sound.

Can you suggest a source online? I'll buy locally but it's worth
having an idea of price first.

The other thing i was wondering about was LED's. I know they're not
really "there" for serious lighting yet but would probably be good for
cabinet lighting, especially as they run cool. I presume they're not
dimmable (as my understanding is that where they are dimmed it's by
some fancy circuitry flashing them at high speed) but i was wondering
if i could have them running off a dimmed circuit using a relay (ie so
they're on at a constant brightness but the other lights on the circuit
dim). How difficult would it be to wire up a relay to do that?

In article . com,
wrote:
Yes - you can get dimming ballasts for standard fluorescent tubes. I
have them for my kitchen worktop lighting. Not cheap, though.

Can you suggest a source online? I'll buy locally but it's worth
having an idea of price first.

http://rswww.com/

and do a search on dimming ballasts.

Mine are made by Osram, and any decent wholesaler should have details and
be able to order them. I doubt you'll find them in stock locally, though.


The other thing i was wondering about was LED's. I know they're not
really "there" for serious lighting yet but would probably be good for
cabinet lighting, especially as they run cool. I presume they're not
dimmable (as my understanding is that where they are dimmed it's by
some fancy circuitry flashing them at high speed) but i was wondering
if i could have them running off a dimmed circuit using a relay (ie so
they're on at a constant brightness but the other lights on the circuit
dim). How difficult would it be to wire up a relay to do that?

LEDs are very easy to dim - you simply vary the current going through
them, normally by changing the voltage.

I'd *guess* they can be dimmed in the same way as other low voltage
fittings.

--
*Reality is a crutch for people who can't handle drugs.

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

In article ,
"Dave Plowman (News)" writes:
In article . com,
wrote:
Can you suggest a source online? I'll buy locally but it's worth
having an idea of price first.

http://rswww.com/

and do a search on dimming ballasts.

I'm unaware of any good online stockist. RS and Farnell have
very small selections.

The best selection I know of is stocked by Bernlite in Watford,
http://www.bernlite.co.uk/ They will do mail order, but are not
setup for web based ordering. Their PDF catalogue is in the Downloads
section on their website, and you need to phone or email for prices.

--
Andrew Gabriel

wrote:
We're looking for lighting for the living room. We've a central
ceiling rose and 4 lighting sockets around the room controlled by a
twin dimmer switch. For one of these locations wer'e building a
shelving unit and wanted to put some downlights into the shelves.
Halogen ceiling spots are the obvious simple answer but it would be
nice to use something a bit more efficient.

Does anyone make dimmable low-energy lighting? Are compact
fluorescents the only option?

There are 3 techologie that fit this, linear fluorescent and LED, and
if you ever manage to find them, dimmable CFL. However none of these
will work on standard dimmers in most cases.

A switchbank makes a lot more sense than a dimmer in almost all cases.

With LEDs it is simple to fit dimming where the lights are, on the low
v side. A row of ultrabright LEDs (27p each), a wallwart and a pot will
give much more even lighting than mains voltage LED cluster lights, and
if you dont use white, last far longer. Also, being typically 5mm wide,
theyre easy to build in to woodwork, making the lights themselves
hidden.


NT