Most LE bulbs seem to say: Not suitable for use with dimmers, time switches or photo cells.
I can understand they are not suitable for dimmers, but what is wrong with having a time switch or dawn-to-dusk switch turn such bulbs on and off?
This is because some of these devices need power themselves, and some of them draw power by passing a tiny current through the bulb all the time, which would cause a LE lamp tp flash every now and then.
If you have a time switch or dawn-to-dusk switch that clicks when it turns to load on and off, then this will probably be OK.
Toby...
Not really to do with the CFL but the design of the time switch, etc. Many of these are designed to replace a simple light switch so get their neutral feed to their electronics via the tungsten lamp filament. The current is so low that the ordinary bulb doesn't light up. But a CFL doesn't have the same low 'not in use' resistance - so strange things could occur. It's easy enough to switch CFLs with any of these devices but involves some rewiring to provide a dedicated neutral to the switching device and a mechanical relay to do the switching - the coil of the relay replacing the tungsten lamp.
In article , "Dave Plowman (News)" Sun, 21 Jun 2009 18:34:59 writes
Thank you and Toby for your clear responses which confirms what I thought - that for "proper" circuits there should be no problem.
The other trick which allows the use of such bulbs with these devices is to wire a resistor in parallel with the bulb holder. The resistor gives the 'not in use' resistance formerly provided by the bulb.
Snag with that is it will waste energy when the thing switches on.
The only way I see to improve on the loss of a resistor is to fit a capacitor instead.
NT
You can get a capacitor that you wire in parallel with the low energy bulb which allows enough electricity through to power up the dusk to dawn switch.
Downside is the low energy bulbs flicker faintly when off and from what I have read some types of low energy bulbs glow permenantly and have seriously shortened lifetimes.
__________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 4180 (20090623) __________
The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus.
Ian_m coughed up some electrons that declared:
Megaman have dimmable CFLs, designed to work with regular dimmers.
Might be worth looking at?
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.