Lutron Caseta w/ Low volt lighting

[yeldogt]

Has anyone used the newish Lutron Caseta dimmer that controls magnetic and electronic transformers? This dimmer has a neural -- looks like this dimmer controls all types of bulbs like the regular Caseta -- but adds the ability to control low volt transformers.

I'm seeing decent reviews for the system in general. The dimmer is about $100. Have a varied mix of lighting going into my new build -- these look interesting.

Have both the Lutron Spacer and older Maestro in other houses and I'm going to use some of those now outdated controls in the new place since i have many (NOS). The low volt controls in those systems were transformer specific -- the electronic could not control magnetic and viseversa -- they were also $200 each. Lutron says these will do both .... 1/2 the cost

 

[chinboys]

I use Lutron Caseta dimmers for my LED high hat lighting in my home's den.

I wish this technology was available before I ran three-way dimmer controls for my dining and living room LED high hats.
As well as my ex-wife's place in Angulia where she had to pay for the wire by the foot, the conduit pipes, the cement work to house the switch boxes (all block wall construction) and of course the high end dimming 3-way switches on at least 10 circuits.

Here in NJ, I use a Lutron wifi light controller which is integrated into Amazon Alexa to verbally control the lights or I can with the PICO remote control three-way circuits without three-way wiring.

To me, automation, functionality, and ease of use makes this product a no-brainer except its costs and once a year to replace the battery on the PICO remote switch.

 

[yeldogt]

I'm caught between technologies on this project. While LED bulbs have made great advances -- they are not quite there for all applications .. especially where you can see the bulb. I'm going to have mostly incandescent inside, many using transformers .... I'm glad they now have this option in the line.

Looking a bit closer I see with 3 way and 4 way setups -- you are not even using the house wire -- it's all wireless back to the main dimmer. Interesting -- but also a problem if the fixture uses more then 600w. I'm going to have to rethink -- this really does simplify the wiring in certain situations.

 

[Specracer]

Check this out.

http://www.lutron.com/en-US/Pages/LEDCompatibilityTool/Compatibility.aspx

The only thing that can trip this up, is if the dimmer makes the fixture buzz / hum. If that happens you might need a phase adaptive dimmer which is a $200 dimmer (up the line from caseta, into the RA2 product line.

 

[Git]

I mentioned this in another thread. I had to use this (ELV) Lutron Dimmer ($115) with several wafer LED lights that are Z wave controlled

The dimmer works great - but the dimmer works differently than the other dimmers I normally use (HomeSeer) On the Lutron you push the bottom of the switch in to turn it on and off. On the HomeSeer dimmers you push the top in to turn it on and hold it for the dimmer level and you push the bottom of the switch to turn it off

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001HT4M3E/?tag=atomicindus08-20

Most of the 3 and 4 way switches I have used lately (z-wave) require a traveler back to the master switch that does all the work

 

[yeldogt]

Git: The Lutron Caseta system looks to be strictly wireless between controls -- only the main dimmer is powered. The second switch/dimmer .. is simply a wireless control to the main dimmer. Reading the instructions, if replacing a 3 or 4 way switch/dimmer -- the existing wires are tied together -- it's basically a wireless battery control that goes in place of the switch. No wires connect to it. They say 10 year battery. This same control can be placed in a stand -- and sit on a table. Most of the Caseta dimmers don't require a neutral -- this newish one that will do low volt transformers has a neutral.

Most of the recessed LED lighting still seems to use a transformer --- same with the tape/ribbon. All of mine do -- same as the halogen mr16's.

The old spacer/ maestro system cannot directly control a LED bulb --it's only incandescent .. and then the special and more expensive MLV and ELV. The Caseta can. I don't have enough NOS LV Spacer/ Maestro dimmers to do all the house .... so these Caseta dimmers would make sense -- first they are 1/2 the price at $100 and they use all the new technology.

 

[yeldogt]

Check this out.

http://www.lutron.com/en-US/Pages/LEDCompatibilityTool/Compatibility.aspx

The only thing that can trip this up, is if the dimmer makes the fixture buzz / hum. If that happens you might need a phase adaptive dimmer which is a $200 dimmer (up the line from caseta, into the RA2 product line.

That's the page I originally went to ....

 

[Git]

Git: The Lutron Caseta system looks to be strictly wireless between controls -- only the main dimmer is powered.

I could see how that would come in handy if you were trying to add another switch to control a light, but I am not sure I would want to replace a hard-wired switch with basically a battery powered remote (pico remote)

All the z-wave switches I have used over the years - Intermattic, GE (Jasco), Homeseer, etc, always used a 'master' switch and then you would replace any other switches with the 'slave' and they would just send the signal back to the master on the traveler wire.

 

[yeldogt]

Git -- The battery thing is why I asked about them ... not sure either.

I typically use Leviton dimmers and electronic timer switches in bathrooms .. the Leviton control for dimming florescent Robern bath fixtures was about 1/4 the price of the Lutron. And the Leviton timer for bath fans is the best IMO ... using all of one make has everything match.