Dimmer Switches - What's a good choice?

[CraigParks]

Hey if you are so much keen on having a good and efficient lighting in your house or apartments then the best that i would suggest would be to go in for the led energy efficient bulbs and lights with the most sophisticated designs and energy efficiency available in the market...

[BobL43]

Hey if you are so much keen on having a good and efficient lighting in your house or apartments then the best that i would suggest would be to go in for the led energy efficient bulbs and lights with the most sophisticated designs and energy efficiency available in the market...

Well, I felt that same way and bought those LED lamp units for pot lights at HD and one of them failed within a few months. It may have been an anomily or a bad omen, but either way, with 70 bucks for 2 bulbs, I returned both of them for refund.

Other than the failure, I was VERY pleased with their dimmability and color and brightness. I have the Lutron dimmer for CFLs and LED lamps installed. I went back to 2 R30 incandescant bulbs for now.

Sometimes being an early adopter leads to dissapointment. I hope most other users have better success with them. I bought a few LED lamp bulbs that I use in table lamps, but they are built oddly in that they are directional and do not emit light any where as evenly as an incandescent 40 watt bulb that these replaced.

Last week I bought some other design bulbs at Costco that have 17 LED's in them that are more omni directional, but emit much less brightness than the other ones. I do not remember the stated Lumen output of these 2 types, but I thought they were identical. It appears to be like a 40 watt bulb vs a 25 watter. I put one of each type in the lamp on my night stand, and the difference is so obvious. Going to measure the actual wattage of these 2 types with my Kill A Watt device for comparison. It seems to be able to measure down to 10th's of a watt if I remember correctly.

[CraigParks]

Hi Bob,

Thanks for your reply on my post but I would like to clarify that though you have been the user of the so called led lights from GLI, but at the same time you've said that the light bulbs seems to have failed your expectations though the same could have also been due to some power fluctuations or problem but due to a single product one cannot estimate that all the products to be the same.

Well, I felt that same way and bought those LED lamp units for pot lights at HD and one of them failed within a few months. It may have been an anomily or a bad omen, but either way, with 70 bucks for 2 bulbs, I returned both of them for refund.

Other than the failure, I was VERY pleased with their dimmability and color and brightness. I have the Lutron dimmer for CFLs and LED lamps installed. I went back to 2 R30 incandescant bulbs for now.

Sometimes being an early adopter leads to dissapointment. I hope most other users have better success with them. I bought a few LED lamp bulbs that I use in table lamps, but they are built oddly in that they are directional and do not emit light any where as evenly as an incandescent 40 watt bulb that these replaced.

Last week I bought some other design bulbs at Costco that have 17 LED's in them that are more omni directional, but emit much less brightness than the other ones. I do not remember the stated Lumen output of these 2 types, but I thought they were identical. It appears to be like a 40 watt bulb vs a 25 watter. I put one of each type in the lamp on my night stand, and the difference is so obvious. Going to measure the actual wattage of these 2 types with my Kill A Watt device for comparison. It seems to be able to measure down to 10th's of a watt if I remember correctly.

[BobL43]

Hi Bob,

Thanks for your reply on my post but I would like to clarify that though you have been the user of the so called led lights from GLI, but at the same time you've said that the light bulbs seems to have failed your expectations though the same could have also been due to some power fluctuations or problem but due to a single product one cannot estimate that all the products to be the same.

Craig, I agree with your thinking. If you read another thread I believe I started last year about CFL's and LED lamps, you will see that I felt the same way when I bought them at 70 bucks for 2 lamps, when the fist one failed, I said uh Oh, the guys mabe were right and I returned them for a refund. Maybe it was an oddity, but.......... I dunno!

http://www.terrylove.com/forums/show...ings&highlight=

I don't remember saying I thought the LED's failed from power fluctuations, but maybe I did. I'm too lazy at the moment to read it all now.

[ditttohead]

I have been switching my entire house to LED this year. I did some minor energy consulting work for a few companies in regards to lighting systems and controls and we came up with avery simple math calculation for the cost of lighting. While it is not highly accurate, it is intended to give any person the ability to quickly calculate the cost of lighting.

1 watt = $1 if the light is left on 24/7

I did long spreasheets with automation controls for huge warehouses consimung billions of watts per year, and the calculations were fairly close to the above calculation.

It has been many years since I had to do these calculations, but I think it goes

watts consumed x hours per day x 365 / 1000 X cost per KWH

so a 100 watt bulb left on in the basement would cost...

100x24x363/1000 x .13 = $113.88 Close enough to a buck a watt for me. Please let me know if my calculations are wrong, like I said, it has been a long time.

LED's have taken a considerable cost off of my electricity bill, it is absolutely noticable. I have replace about 40 bulbs in my house. The 3000 color is whiter than I expected, but I prefer that over the yellowish incandescents, even the GE reveal bulbes that use blue glass are more yellow than the LED's.

Since this is about dimmers, every light in my house is on a dimmer, I use the Leviton dimmer. No buttons to break, minimalist look, very easy to keep clean. Why are you stuck with the old style? The electrical box should be the same. Do you have special covers that must be reused? Let us know what you decide.


Model # 011-TTI06-1LZ