Neighbour's installation has dimmer switches plus ...

[dr.j.r.stockton]

My flat's main room ceiling lighting is OEM, apart from adding shades and replacing bulbs. It has two dangling lights controlled by a 2-spst switch pair by the door.

The main room of the flat of my next-door neighbour (not the recently aforementioned neighbour) would originally have had the same. It now has a double-dimmer switch pair by the door, a dangling light at one end with a bulb which works, and at the other end a three-bulb ceiling-mounted fitting with no bulbs.

The dimmers would have been installed for/by the previous resident, meaning at least eight years ago, and therefore designed for incandescent filament bulbs.

She wants to have bulbs in the three-bulb fitting.

I remember that nowadays one must be careful about compatibility between bulbs and dimmers.

She is out now, and I have not yet looked at the dangling bulb.

I have not yet found anything up-to-date-looking about this in the Wiki-FAQ.

So, what would it be best to do?

P.S. I'm still catching up on recommendations for Win7 -> Win10.

[Brian Gaff (Sofa 2)]

I'm sticking with win 7 till some applications need to be updated or until the anti virus no longer supports windows 7. Brian

[Dave Plowman (News)]

It's just possible the dimmers may work with LEDs. I have MK grid ones dating from the 90s which do.

You won't break anything by trying LED bulbs on a none LED dimmer.

[The Natural Philosopher]

I have bought LED bulbs from homebase that are both cheap and alledely dimmable. They sort of dim - not great, but dim they do. On a bog standard dimnmer.

You can get LED compatible dimmer modules to replace the rotary knob things in the existing dimnmer foir not huge money

[dr.j.r.stockton]

Thanks. I have now seen the dangling bulb, which is LED; it works on the existing dimmer.

I have some spare LED bulbs, which are all BC; but her fitting is ES. I have a BC-ES adaptor, but it is the wrong way round :-(>.

I'll get an ES bulb to be tried on the next convenient day.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

If TLC prices are to go by, you'll not save anything over buying a complete one. Of course if the existing plate matches other fittings, just changing the modules can make sense.

[Roger Mills]

All perfectly doable. She needs LED bulbs which are dimmable - not all are - and she needs a dimmer switch which is capable of handling LEDs.

When I asked a similar question a while ago, Adam recommended the Varilight V-Pro range. I fitted one when I fitted a new 5-bulb pendant light in my dining room using dimmable LED bulbs - and it's been fine.

It may simply be a case of replacing the existing two-gang dimmer switch with one of these:

or similar - they come in various finishes to suit the decor.

[tabbypurr]

Not true at all. If you're lucky they'll work fine together. If you're unlucky the lamps will use CR PSUs which die quickly on trailing or leading edge dimmers.

NT

[Jon Fairbairn]

Particularly if the LED load is less than the minumum rated load of the dimmer. The smell from an exploded LED bulb hangs around for weeks.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I've never damaged a LED by *trying* it on a non trailing edge dimmer. Long term use might, of course, but why would you?

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Can you explain the theory behind that?

[tabbypurr]

then you've not used a CR PSU led light for that job.

nothing long term about it, the PSU R experiences gross overload and smokes in seconds.

NT

[Dave Plowman (News)]

How would I know a CR PSU from an LED that simply says 'dimmable' (with a suitable dimmer) ?

[Tim Watts]

I found the Varilight vpro range very good with LEDs declared as dimmable.

3 operating modes - trailing, leading and something else can be programmed as well as max and min settings.

[www.GymRatZ.co.uk]

Indeed. When LED bulbs finally became affordable I replaced 10 x 50W halogen bulbs originally configured split over 2 x dimmer switches with "dimmable" LED bulbs but all wired as a single circuit to keep the load up.

Switched them on and the bulb closest to the dimmer blew, switched it off and thought it might just have been a duff bulb as all the rest were fine so took it out and switched them back on and the next (now the closest) bulb blew.

Replaced dimmer with a regular light switch after that and use a small table lamp for softer lighting.

[tabbypurr]

Dimmable LEDs can not contain CR PSUs, they don't survive chopper dimming. The only way to tell a CR PSU LED from an SMPSU LED is to open it up.

NT

[Jon Fairbairn]

I don?t have theory, I have practice.

But I imagine that (assuming some inductor in the dimmer circuit) if the load is too low it generates spikes ? 240V that the LED can?t handle. Of course, it could have been coincidence, but I?m certain about the smell.