I bought a 20W Varilight dimmable CFL to try out and the packaging claims "Full control of brightness with most standard dimmers". The instruction leaflet mentions that dimmers have a minimum loading (in my case either 40W or 60W) and multiple lamps should be used to achieve this requirement.
This strikes me as very misleading - Clearly a 20W CFL cannot be controlled by "most standard dimmers".
Has anyone else tried these?
Peter
I bought the one with internal dimmer, buzzes slightly on full brightness.
Yes, for CFLs they are pretty good, as they should be at the price.
They work exactly as claimed, i.e. dim reasonably smoothly from 2% to
100%, unfortunately 2% is still reasonably bright, so you can't do a fade up from darkness.Mine are on Z-wave dimmers and work fine with only one 20w bulb. The dimmer not working properly with a small load is a short coming of the dimmer design, not a problem with the bulb.
Bill
I agree that the dimmer not working properly with a small load is a short coming of the dimmer design *but* most 'standard' dimmers have this limitation so it's misleading to claim that the 20W CFL can be controlled by them...
Peter
Minimum load affects most dimmers but is for purely resistive load, an incandescent lamp, usually a minmum load will not go out fully or may flash to full brightness occasionally. The Varilight CFLs are an electronic ballast and present a differnt load entirely to the dimmer, on most good quality dimmers you should be fine.
Adam
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