All 'bulbs' r now 'low energy sticks' - what about dimmers?

[ChristopherB]

Homebase have a deal £1 for Philips low energy bulbs (£1.99 each by buy one get one free - and a 6 year guarentee!) so I have replaced all my bulbs this week with low wattage flouro stick.

The annoying thing is that in my lounge (the place lights are on most of the time) I have 8 x 40w blubs that are dimmerble.

I want to be able to adjust the brightness using the dimmer so can't use the flouro sticks - are there any products I can use instead to cut down on the 320watts of power usage in my lounge each evening.

 

[securespark]

There are some cfl's that are "dimmable": can't remember whose, but do a search on google.

 

[sparkybird]

I've been looking into this for my clients.

Megaman do a dimmable energy saver but so far only 11W (60W equiv)and screw fitting seem to be available in the UK. It works by 'dimming' in four stages of brightness, which is done by switching your dimmer or switch on and off, so not really like conventional dimming.
Osram also have one 'in development' but couldn't tell me when it would be available.

So the choice is a bit limited at the moment, although I'm sure this will change over time.

If anyone else has other info, let me know

SB

 

[davelx]

How about LED lamps - not sure if these are dimmable on conventional dimmers, it would be worth giving them a ring and asking:

https://sslrelay.com/led-lightbulbs...78952d21/shopdata/product_overview.shopscript

 

[Steve]

I want to be able to adjust the brightness using the dimmer so can't use the flouro sticks - are there any products I can use instead to cut down on the 320watts of power usage in my lounge each evening.

1. Use less normal bulbs (less brightness, less energy)
2. Use less low energy bulbs (less brightness, MUCH less energy)
3. Dim normal bulbs (less brightness, less energy)

Bulbs are planted in the ground. Lamps are fitted to light fittings in order that they emit lights. CFLs are compact fluorescent lamps - what you now have.

 

[ChristopherB]

The layout of the lounge lighting is 4 pairs of wall lamps.

1> Using less normal bulbs would result in dark areas where the missing bulbs are.
2> Using low energy bulbs would not allow me to dim (sometimes for 'reading' I want the light bright and when watching a film I want lower (but not off) lighting.

3> Dim normal bulbs would save energy but regardless I want to reduce the 40w normal bulbs and use low energy (11w?) bulbs.

Yes, yes Bulbs are ALSO things you put in the ground. Light Bulbs are ALSO things that are fitted to light fixtures in order to emit light.

I have seached and found the "Megaman" one and this really appropriate if it is 3 stage press switch style (although if this is the only option then it would do). However Megaman only do bayonett fitting and I need a mini screw bulb.

 

[breezer]

How about LED lamps - not sure if these are dimmable on conventional dimmers, it would be worth giving them a ring and asking:

If only it were that simple.

you can not dim a LED light, how ever you can "pulse it" so fast it appears to dim, but to do it you need a specific controller. also lots of £

 

[Steve]

varilight also do a dimmable CFL which is capable of continuously variable dimming.

 

[davelx]

How about LED lamps - not sure if these are dimmable on conventional dimmers, it would be worth giving them a ring and asking:

If only it were that simple.

you can not dim a LED light, how ever you can "pulse it" so fast it appears to dim, but to do it you need a specific controller. also lots of £

Yes, I know - I work in theatre lighting and we use LEDs a lot. I've even designed PWM drivers to dim them.

I just wondered if anyone had produced a PWM LED dimmer for domestic use yet.

 

[breezer]

is your design copyrighted? or do you want to tell me more about it, sounds interesting

 

[davelx]

There're three main things you can vary - the duty cycle, the drive current (using constant current drive so you can drive any number of LEDs in series
up to the limit of the supply voltage) and the repetition frequency.

The values needed depend on the LED characterisics, but basically with modern programable controller devices (PICs etc) you can use mapping
tables in memory to select the optimum combination of these for any given brightness from off (that's easy ) to full (that's not as easy as it sounds).

The black art is getting the correct dimming curve for each type & colour of LED to get a perceived linear response from the DMX values used to address
the table. Generally you have multiple dimmer curves in ROM and load the selected on on startup.

And I think that's as far as I should go.

 

[breezer]

whats your opinion on a rgb led par 38 dmxcontrolled?

some one on here has a par 36 one, but i was thinking of making one myself, just for the "fun" of it, but I am seeing that it will probably be better to buy one