Dimmable Flourescent bulbs are here.

[Mike Painter]

I found dimable bulbs at my local grocery store today.
I use X10 devices in several places in my home and these work like a charm.
75 watt equivalent and a bit over three dollars for four of them with tax.

If I could count I would have bought six for all my needs

 

[Stereodude]

$3 each, or 4 of them for $3? Cause I haven't even seen the standard cheap ones for under $1 each.

 

[bitslammer]

I found dimable bulbs at my local grocery store today.
I use X10 devices in several places in my home and these work like a charm.
75 watt equivalent and a bit over three dollars for four of them with tax.

If I could count I would have bought six for all my needs

I've had 6 candelabra style dimmable CFls in my dining room fixture now for over a year. Got them at a Lowes's or Home Depot but have not seen them for a while.

They were a little pricey and they really don't dim as I'd like. I'd say you can decrease intensity 25-30% and then they flicker and go out. You also need to have a very slight touch as the dimming action happens very quickly. No more than 1/3 turn of my switch and they're out.

Hopefully improvements will come but I was disappointed with the effect givent the price I paid.

 

[Mike Painter]

$3 each, or 4 of them for $3? Cause I haven't even seen the standard cheap ones for under $1 each.

Four of then for about $3.00. A bit over 75 cents each with tax.

 

[bitslammer]

Four of then for about $3.00. A bit over 75 cents each with tax.

That's a lot less than I paid. I think mine were almost $6/light, but that was over a year ago.

 

[flashfan]

Wow, things have come a long way. I first saw a dimmable compact fluorescent bulb about five years ago. Don't remember how much I paid, but it was pricey.

Was extremely disappointed. Don't know if the bulb was defective, but it flickered badly if set at anything less than full brightness.

Hmm, maybe it's time to look into dimmable bulbs again. By the way, does anyone know if the new bulbs are available in bright white (as opposed to soft white)?

 

[sed6]

Four of then for about $3.00. A bit over 75 cents each with tax.

What? You can't buy standard incan bulbs that cheap, let alone a CFL, let alone a dimmable CFL. I smell a pricing error, or a math error.

 

[sunspot]

I bought a few CFL torchiere's that are dimmable. They are a bit touchy on the dim control. I rarely use the dim function anyway.
I do like that bugs no longer fry like the old halogens.

 

[James S]

Hi Mike,

It would be great if dimmable units were really coming available at that price point! I've seen dimmable CCF ones for around $6, but they are like 15 or 20 watt equivalent bulbs, and who needs to dim a 15 watt bulb?!

75 would be perfect though! I'll keep an eye out here, do you recall what brand they were?

You mention X10 which is of interest to me since I write home automation software during big chunks of my day job. Are you using these with standard plugin lamp modules? Or with X10 light switches? Or with other brand fancier light switches. The reason I ask is that the problem with CF bulbs has always been that the cheaper X10 wall switches can't trickle a current through the ballast to power themselves they way they can with a regular bulb. You need to perform either the separate neutral mod to the switch or get a more expensive switch from lutron or smarthome or someone that requires a separate neutral in order to dim the reliably. The module dimmers have always worked OK since they already have access to a separate neutral. So what have you got them in, and whats the color temperature?

Thanks!

 

[Mike Painter]

Hi Mike,

75 would be perfect though! I'll keep an eye out here, do you recall what brand they were?

UL America

You mention X10 which is of interest to me since I write home automation software during big chunks of my day job. Are you using these with standard plugin lamp modules? Or with X10 light switches?
Thanks!

They work fine with the SocketRocket and lamp modules. They will turn on and off from a wall switch but not remotely and will not dim.
These are older switched and not gounded.

I sent a detailed email to X-10 and got back a canned response, either from a computer or somebody who does not read well.

 

[James S]

UL America



They work fine with the SocketRocket and lamp modules. They will turn on and off from a wall switch but not remotely and will not dim.
These are older switched and not gounded.

I sent a detailed email to X-10 and got back a canned response, either from a computer or somebody who does not read well.

Thanks! I'll order a box and try playing a bit. I've recently been investing in some better wall switches to do dimming and switching of CF bulbs. They are so much more expensive than the regular X10 switches that I'm not going all out, just 1 or 2 a year in the most obvious places so I will try them with those from smarthome and leviton just for kicks.

As far as X10, they wont ever admit that you actually can control some or most CF bulbs from their dimmer switches because there remains the chance that somebody will start a fire with a bad bulb. They do seem to be doing some new products lately though, a fancy new "soft start" lamp module that remembers dimming settings and such, so hopefully more CF friendly products are in the works too.

 

[SafetyBob]

James, Advance makes some electronic ballasts that will work with multiple CFLs or tubes and just uses simple 0-10Volts to dim and I think they work with a multitude of industry standard devices (proximity, ect).

Nice, simple and analog. Now if your into that DALI thing, they have amazing stuff with an amazing price I would imagine too. Like you, I will stick with my X-10 for now. Sure with Z-wave would come down to X-10 pricing.

Bob E.