Flickering Light bulbs with new dimmers

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27 Apr 2009
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Hi all

I've recently installed hamilton sheer dimmers, with low energy bulbs, but these flicker even when turned fully up. have tried both standard and dimmable lamps but no difference, and they last about 1-2 weks before failing completely. Back to old standard incadescent bulbs which work fine. Are these lamps just incompatible, or is this symptomatic of other problems?
 
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When you say "dimmers" you don't mean you have installed more than one conventional type dimmer on a 2 way lighting circuit do you?
 
Also if you have multiple lights on a particular dimmer such as wall lights try using at least one tungsten lamp on the same circuit as the dimmable energy savers to give the dimmer some load, after a time period they tend to "bed in" and you can then remove the tungsten lamp.

I had to do this with the varilight ones which now dim and run perfectly without any flicker.
 
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I have installed dimmers in three roms. Two rooms ahve a single dimmer and lamp each, one room runs 3 lamps, with two switches - one dimmer and one normal. Both switches run all 3 lamps together in thnis room - it's L-shaped so need access to two locations.

Interestingly, I've had most problems with the sinlge rooms. One standard lamp in the triple room has lasted without bother, but the other two have failed twice.

When you say "matvch lamps to the dimmers", what exactly do you mean? Is there some kind of flicker rate?

I have tried a dimmable low energy lamp but that had the shortest life of all the ones I've tried.

Willahve a look at those two options. Thanks.
 
Most dimmers wont work below a minimum wattage. As most of your problems seem to be with the single lamp/dimmer set up I would look at that first.

Put a 60W tungsten lamp in and see if it dims properly, if it does then you need to increase the load on the dimmer or find a dimmer that will cope with a smaller load.

Hugh
 
I think a lot of you have failed to read the OP , the lamps they are trying to dim are low energy lamps. unless specifacally designed to be dimmed ie the ones stated by megaman to be dimmable , then there is every chance that is why they are flickering. Low energy lamps are not designed to be used with dimmers.

Nick
 
RF Lighting";p="1309873 said:
have tried both standard and dimmable lamps but no difference,

You must ONLY use CFL lamps that have been designed to be dimmed.....If you require a dimmerswitch to operate low loads....Varilight sell such a beast (min load 10w)....contact TLC .

Cheers
 
Also note that whlist some standard dimmers can be used with dimmable CFLs, you have to meet the minumum load requirement of the dimmer. So if, where you had, say, one or two 60W lamps on a dimmer, you now have a couple of 11W dimmable CFLs, you are not meeting that requirement and are likely to have problems - hence the "low load" dimmers referred to above.
 

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