Experience with LED bulbs and no rated LED dimmers

[mobiledynamics]

Experience with LED bulbs and non rated LED dimmers

Switched out some of my high hats PAR bulbs with some new HIGH CRI Led ones. Have new switches on hand but wanted to what would happen. And this test was good since it was a really small -load- too . Only 2 bulbs on this switch.

No buzzing and dimming works just fine ! Go figure. I figured it would not have worked at all !

 

[nadogail]

Thanks for sharing.

 

[frankd]

For me it's been hit or miss...but generally I get alot of buzzing and/or flickering when using non-Led dimmers with Led bulbs.

 

[mobiledynamics]

While it's high CRI and rated at 3K, and I do appreciate the -heat- it does not give off, definitely not as good -richness in color- compared to the halogens - Knew That Going In though....

I'm old school. Don't even like the 5K like the -masses- do.

Crazy but I got my own stockpile of Par20, Par30, some dedicated bulbs I have for undercabinet stuff (basically I knew stuff that going the way of the dinosaur). I still PREFER the color of these but as time goes by and as my -eyes- get used to how LED looks in the room, my perception of my stash grows smaller....

 

[cybrdyke]

Non LED dimmers rarely work with LED lamps. Often, folks will experience what you did...they work initially, but then start misbehaving somehow. I've seen everything from flickering lamps to thick black smoke coming from the dimmer. You just never know how it will manifest itself.
Bottom line is that the two things are not designed to work together and rarely do.
CD

 

[mobiledynamics]

Thick black billiowing smoke

I may be over-simplying this LED bulbs like we use now in fixtures without the drivers are still unknown variables ?
I have tested LED switches with Cree OE branded bulbs and still got buzzing. Just because a LED rated switch is used with a LED bulb, it's no guarantees as well IMO. I've purchased high $$ made in Japan PAR bulbs and some bulbs just won't fire up correctly with whatever circuity it has inside the bulb.

AFAIK, the dimming aspect is the switch wanting to see a certain resistance on the load and whether it will work or not . Whatever the case may be, sofar these switches (installed maybe a decade or 2 + before LED was common) - archit. grade spec Lutron (vareo series) seems to be working okay.

Again, if I can stick with my current switching, I'm going to . It is a -aesthetic decision-......

 

[cybrdyke]

Thick black billiowing smoke

Yes. Lutron Nova-T that was operating only 72 watts of LED load. Before LED, dimmers were designed to control a resistive load, which is easy. LED's are a capacitive load and can easily overwhelm an older dimmer.
It's not unusual, though, to run across an older dimmer that can hold up to an LED load. If you happen to have such a combination, consider yourself lucky. But I certainly wouldn't advocate using non-compatible products.
The industry has only recently started to get it's arms wrapped around this issue. Triac dimming has become the standard for dimmers because it will work with the largest amount of lamps. But there are still lamp manufacturers that haven't got the memo.
LED fixtures are a different story. 0-10V control systems have been the industry standard for a few years now.
CD

 

[CJ7VFR]

The dimmer switches I have in my kitchen are made by Lutron, and were installed by the previous owner of the house when he replaced the BR30 incandescent bulbs with BR30 compact fluorescent bulbs. Now that LED's are getting less expensive, I wanted to change out the compact fluorescent bulbs with LED's so I would not have to wait for the light to get full bright on cold mornings, as the compact fluorescents would take a while to do so.

I bought some cheap dimmable BR30 LED bulbs from Home Depot (I think they are Philips brand) and I put them in and tested them. They worked great. They dimmed down from full bright to almost completely off, and they didn't hum or buzz.

I thought I might have to replace the dimmer switches with new ones that were made specifically for LED bulbs, but the old ones are still working great, even after a few years with the LED bulbs in them.

I did check the dimmer switches before I put the new LED bulbs in, and I found that the Lutron dimmers are marked that they are for incandescent and compact fluorescent bulb use. There are no markings about using LED bulbs. This makes sense because they were installed about 15 years ago.

Could it be that dimmer switches that were made to dim compact fluorescent bulbs are better at dimming LED bulbs? I have no idea. All I know is that they work.

Jim

 

[nsula_country]

I have Lutron Toggler dimmers all over the house. We built and wired it in 2011.

Have been buying LED can light replacements on Amazon. Dimmers for incandescent work flawless... So far.

CT