I bought a 20W Varilight dimmable CFL to try out and the packaging
claims "Full control of brightness with most standard dimmers". The
instruction leaflet mentions that dimmers have a minimum loading (in my
case either 40W or 60W) and multiple lamps should be used to achieve
this requirement.

This strikes me as very misleading - Clearly a 20W CFL cannot be
controlled by "most standard dimmers".

Has anyone else tried these?

Peter

On 15/01/2008 10:37, Peter Watson wrote:

Has anyone else tried these?

I bought the one with internal dimmer, buzzes slightly on full brightness.

On Tue, 15 Jan 2008 10:37:02 +0000, Peter Watson
wrote:

I bought a 20W Varilight dimmable CFL to try out and the packaging
claims "Full control of brightness with most standard dimmers". The
instruction leaflet mentions that dimmers have a minimum loading (in my
case either 40W or 60W) and multiple lamps should be used to achieve
this requirement.

This strikes me as very misleading - Clearly a 20W CFL cannot be
controlled by "most standard dimmers".

Has anyone else tried these?

Peter

Yes, for CFLs they are pretty good, as they should be at the price.

They work exactly as claimed, i.e. dim reasonably smoothly from 2% to
100%, unfortunately 2% is still reasonably bright, so you can't do a
fade up from darkness.

Mine are on Z-wave dimmers and work fine with only one 20w bulb. The
dimmer not working properly with a small load is a short coming of the
dimmer design, not a problem with the bulb.

Bill

Bill Taylor wrote:
On Tue, 15 Jan 2008 10:37:02 +0000, Peter Watson
wrote:

I bought a 20W Varilight dimmable CFL to try out and the packaging
claims "Full control of brightness with most standard dimmers". The
instruction leaflet mentions that dimmers have a minimum loading (in my
case either 40W or 60W) and multiple lamps should be used to achieve
this requirement.

This strikes me as very misleading - Clearly a 20W CFL cannot be
controlled by "most standard dimmers".

Has anyone else tried these?

Peter

Yes, for CFLs they are pretty good, as they should be at the price.

They work exactly as claimed, i.e. dim reasonably smoothly from 2% to
100%, unfortunately 2% is still reasonably bright, so you can't do a
fade up from darkness.

Mine are on Z-wave dimmers and work fine with only one 20w bulb. The
dimmer not working properly with a small load is a short coming of the
dimmer design, not a problem with the bulb.

Bill

I agree that the dimmer not working properly with a small load is a
short coming of the dimmer design *but* most 'standard' dimmers have
this limitation so it's misleading to claim that the 20W CFL can be
controlled by them...

Peter

On Jan 15, 11:38 am, Peter Watson wrote:
Bill Taylor wrote:
On Tue, 15 Jan 2008 10:37:02 +0000, Peter Watson
wrote:

I bought a 20W Varilight dimmable CFL to try out and the packaging
claims "Full control of brightness with most standard dimmers". The
instruction leaflet mentions that dimmers have a minimum loading (in my
case either 40W or 60W) and multiple lamps should be used to achieve
this requirement.

This strikes me as very misleading - Clearly a 20W CFL cannot be
controlled by "most standard dimmers".

Has anyone else tried these?

Peter

Yes, for CFLs they are pretty good, as they should be at the price.

They work exactly as claimed, i.e. dim reasonably smoothly from 2% to
100%, unfortunately 2% is still reasonably bright, so you can't do a
fade up from darkness.

Mine are on Z-wave dimmers and work fine with only one 20w bulb. The
dimmer not working properly with a small load is a short coming of the
dimmer design, not a problem with the bulb.

Bill

I agree that the dimmer not working properly with a small load is a
short coming of the dimmer design *but* most 'standard' dimmers have
this limitation so it's misleading to claim that the 20W CFL can be
controlled by them...

Peter

Minimum load affects most dimmers but is for purely resistive load, an
incandescent lamp, usually a minmum load will not go out fully or may
flash to full brightness occasionally.
The Varilight CFLs are an electronic ballast and present a differnt
load entirely to the dimmer, on most good quality dimmers you should
be fine.

Adam