Dimming Halogen and LED lights

[CooperS7777]

Dimming Incandescent and LED lights

I'm in the process of finishing up my garage/man cave renovation, and will be installing some new lighting in the stairwell leading to the area. Currently the man cave area has 6 in ceiling recessed fixtures, and a single light in the stairwell. These are on a dim-able circuit with 3 switches.

I would like to improve the stair lighting, while keeping it on the same circuit as the can lights. My initial thought was to install a pair of downward facing, recessed lights in the wall along the stairs. I think this would provide better lighting than the old setup. A lot of what Im finding, however, is LED.

Is it possible to control dim-able Halogen and LED fixtures on the same circuit? Will a universal dimmer, sized accordingly do the job or should I look at converting entirely to LED/find a suitable in wall halogen fixture?

 

[cybrdyke]

I'm in the process of finishing up my garage/man cave renovation, and will be installing some new lighting in the stairwell leading to the area. Currently the man cave area has 6 in ceiling recessed fixtures, and a single light in the stairwell. These are on a dim-able circuit with 3 switches.

I would like to improve the stair lighting, while keeping it on the same circuit as the can lights. My initial thought was to install a pair of downward facing, recessed lights in the wall along the stairs. I think this would provide better lighting than the old setup. A lot of what Im finding, however, is LED.

Is it possible to control dim-able Halogen and LED fixtures on the same circuit? Will a universal dimmer, sized accordingly do the job or should I look at converting entirely to LED/find a suitable in wall halogen fixture?

Understand that there is no such thing as a universal dimmer. I know that there are companies that are trying to make you think that there are....but there aren't.
LED dimming is still the achilles heel of the technology. The reason is because there is still no standards on driver design, so every driver company makes their drivers differently. Thus, no single dimmer will work on all of them.
Plus, you cant use watts to correctly "size" an LED dimmer.
That said, it is possible to put different light sources, like halogen and LED, on the same circuit and have them dim properly, IF both lamp types are compatible with the dimmer you have chosen. Technically, it's even easier to dim circuits with mixed sources than circuits that are solely LED.
To specifically answer your question, some more info would be nice. What lamps are in the cans? What dimmer are you thinking of? What are the LED's that you are planning on?
Like I said, LED dimming is still dicey, but when it works...it works beautifully.
CD

 

[CooperS7777]

Thanks for the info!

Currently there are 60w e26 medium base bulbs in the cans. I have not purchased a dimmer yet, they are just running off a standard switch. The other dimmers in the house are Lutron 600w smart dimmers, but I'd rather something that works than something that matches everything else.

For stair lights, I was leaning towards something like this mounted in wall next to the stairs. I would probably do 2 or 3 tops on this flight.

http://www.lumens.com/ledme-led100-...c-lighting-uu545924.html#cgid=28&&tileIndex=1

 

[cybrdyke]

http://www.lumens.com/ledme-led100-...c-lighting-uu545924.html#cgid=28&&tileIndex=1

this link just takes me to the home page, not the specific item.
CD

 

[CooperS7777]

Re: Dimming Incandescent and LED lights

This should work a little better.

 

[cybrdyke]

So I checked WAC's website. (they're a solid manufacturer, by the way). The LED100 produces 64 lumens from about 4 watts. For reference, a 40w incandescent light bulb produces about 450 lumens, a 60w produces about 800 lumens.
64 lumens might be something like you'd see in theatre aisle lighting. Not sure why someone would want to make it even dimmer.
Regardless, I'll see if I can find out what dimmers they recommend.
CD

 

[CooperS7777]

Re: Dimming Incandescent and LED lights

CD - thanks for all the help, I'm fumbling my way through this and I do appreciate it!

My ultimate goal is not necessarily to have the ability to dim the stair lights, but to ensure that the lighting in the stairs comes on with the same switch as the 6 can lights, and to ensure that I maintain the ability to dim those can lights. I'm not sure if its possible to have one without the other, but I would certainly be open to that if it was!

Realized I said Halogen and I meant incandescent!