LED & CFL LIGHT BULBS

[Piedad]

I’m looking for some technical advice. In beginning a new space buildout, are there any special, or additional, requirements for the electrical wiring or systems to accommodate LED or CFL bulbs … particularly to provide for dimming at will? I would hate to complete the new space and then learn that the lights couldn’t be dimmed. Thanks for your thoughts.

 

[Piper]

I’m kind of a lighting nerd in my home. We have lots and lots of lights, all connected via a home automation system, and all use some sort of dimming to create “scenes”. I would love to save some power, but I have yet to find a “dimmable CFL” that dims anything like an incandescent. If you’re OK with just a little bit of dimming ability you’ll be fine, but you won’t be able to get much less than 30% without the light turning off completely.

With that said, I have not tried them with a dimmer exclusively made for CFL bulbs… but I have heard it doesn’t get much better.

The ones I’ve tried also hummed quite a bit while dimmed. Probably not a problem for a restaurant, but it was noticeable enough to potentially drive me crazy in my home.

I have not tried dimmable LED’s yet, and with the amount of lighting we have I wouldn’t make the investment yet anyway. Lutron makes a dimmer that is reported to allow LED dimming to 1%, but I don’t have much information on that. I think it was a fairly new product just a few months ago.

 

[mattbau43]

I tried the dimmable CFL’s and 1/2 died within weeks. I ended up going back to the regular style.

 

[Rockstar_pizza]

we have dimmable LED’s in our dining room, we have 12 on one switch nothing different than normal. they dim extremely low 3 years zero issues and have yet to loose a bulb

 

[Piedad]

Thanks for the info. It sounds as though there are no particular wiring or equipment requirements, other that a dimmer itself. How about a source for great prices on LED bulbs and dimmers?

 

[pizza99]

Cree brand at Home depot is likely the best deal. The light quality is similar to incandescent bulbs and they are around $10/60 watt equivalent bulbs. The 2700K bulb is the softer yellow light bulb whereas the 5000K is a whiter light.
Beware of some of the cheaper LED bulbs as the light quality is often pejoratively refereed to “Alien Autopsy”-a pasty white light with a low color rendition index(CRI).
Regarding compact fluorescents, I’ve installed many a my rentals and you often get what you pay for. Discount CFL bulbs sometimes don’t work out of the box, have shorter lifespans, and the light quality is often poor. I stick with brand names like Philips and GE.