Can Light Questions?

joasis

I was looking over the specs on a custom home, and it has a bunch of can lights, high ceilings, and they spec to be dimmer switched. Now the new light bulbs, the HFC's or whatever they are, are not compatible with dimmer switches are they? Is there something new around the corner? I am betting that incandescent bulbs will get a pass, but of course, at a higher price. Anyone seen anything on the new LED's yet?

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stp57

I've seen alot of dimmable fluorescents lately at HD, Lowes, Costco, etc... I have also looked at led spotlights (br30 & 40) at Costco (quite pricey), but they only emmit 45 watts of light, while using only 5 watts of power. Doesn't seem bright enough to me?
Steve

Mike(VA)

Joasis,

There are dimmable flourescent bulbs on the market. They are expensive and have some quality issues, but they are there. Problem I see is people putting normal flourescent bulbs on dimmers and burning up the dimmers. There's no effective way to keep that from happening down the road.

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I EXPECT THAT SOMEDAY I WILL SEE THE FRUITS OF MY LABOR. IS IT SOMEDAY YET?
Clifton, Great Falls, McLean, Fairfax Station, Manassas, Virginia Renovation Contractor

tgeb

I bought some dimmable CF's and I thought they were crappy.

When first turned on, they only light at about 2/3 brightness, took about 15 minutes to warm up to full power.

Then they dim from (equivalent) 60 watts down to about 40 watts, I like my can lights to dim more than that. If they don't go below 40 watt, why have em?

Now I did buy these about a year ago, so there could be improvements.

I haven't tried the led's yet.

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Tom

www.gebcon.com

woodchuck2

I have only used the dimmable flor. bulbs once and that is in my own home. I put them in my recessed lights in my basement and i must say hey were expensive. How much exactly i cant remember but i know they were at least $18 each and like said above they dont dim all the way down. I also have Flor. flood lamps outside too, they were like $28 each and take about 5 minutes to come to peak light. I sure hope the technology gets better on these things, i sure didnt see a drop in my electric bill.

dlcj

Ive been slowly replacing the icandecent bulbs in my house as they burn out with cfls. I found GE 15 watt (65) dimmiable cfl floods at lowes and tried a couple in my living room. I think they were about $20 for 2 pack. They lasted less than 4 months and like others said, dont dim as low as incandecents. Thats been a year and may be better out by now but i decided to remove the dimmer switch, use non dimmable cfl floods in the cans and use the remote ceiling fan with incandecent for my dimmable light needs.

Mike Finley

Why wouldn't the electrician just spec fluorescent dimmers? Is there a mix of fluorescent and incandescent on the same switch?

mickeyco

CFL's should be banned, they contain toxic mercury, and that ain't good for some frog living in a tree somewhere in Colorado.





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Some people climb mountains. I take out the trash. But we both do it for the same reason.

Magnettica

The fluorescent lamps in my opinion are good for a few table lamps, basement and attic lighting, and for large industrial warehouse spaces. I think it's a waste of time putting in anything other than incandescent bulbs in recessed lights. LED's are great but I don't know enough about them or if they're even available as a R-40 type light bulb for can lights. All this talk about going green is great until people realize the costs of going green.

joasis

I haven't laid it out for our electrician yet, and it is more of a curiosity thing right now. I doubt incandescent bulbs will "go away" in 2011 or whatever, but this is something I want to know about. I don't even know how a dimmer switch works for fluorescent bulbs....I know how they work on incandescent....but I am under the impression that fluorescent needs a certain current value to even illuminate.

The new CFL's are made in China.....neat!

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mickeyco

They'll go away alright, just about the same time the solar panel and wind turbine boom hits, it's coming soon.




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Some people climb mountains. I take out the trash. But we both do it for the same reason.

Celtic

I have never seen or even heard of a "flores. dimmer"....I have heard of flores. ballasts that are dimmable.

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mickeyco

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Some people climb mountains. I take out the trash. But we both do it for the same reason.

trptman

I heard (and this was a while back) about some woman that had bought cfl's to replace some bulbs at her house (or apt..I forget).
She ended up breaking one and instead of sweeping it up and moving on with her life-she called Lowes or HD or wherever she bought it and asked how to clean it up because she remembered something about mercury in them.
Well the store, not wanting to be on the hook for liability finally told her she should call the local EPA and a haz-mat team was sent to her house etc. etc....
Stupid woman ended up paying thousands of dollars because she broke a lightbulb that she only bought to save the enviroment and herself some money on her electric bill.

Now I don't know if thats true- it kind of sounds like one of those "urban legends", but I wouldn't be surprised if it were true.

MSSI

As for LED HAlo H7 LED line(module) fits into a standard 6" Can...
I saw One other manufacturer recenty I forget if it was litoler or lithonia...one one of those I think. the Halos you can use multiple trim options. The others you cant. Both makes were around $130 each...I think it comes out to about a 2 year (quick guess)ROI on the upgrade not including labor. Or $500 savings over the 50,000 hr life of the bulb. according to Halo anyway.