Compact Fluro's On Dimmer Unit

Having read through everything I can find in the forum I am still left with the question are compact fluro's safe to use with an 8ch dimmer unit? Furthermore if the unit is set up for dimming as per normal (long press ramp up/down) will the unit get hurt?

The reason I ask this is for the idiot factor of someone replacing a lamp with a compact fluro and not realising the light is on a dimmer circuit.

OK that's not the real reason .....but it was a good one. I like most other new home builders have strict energy efficiency requirements to adhere to. I want to put compacts in for the inspection and change them out the day after - fluro light while high in lumen output is very ugly and expensive to dim over the 23 circuits i am running.

I don't have any concern spending more on power and spent lights - as a mine electrician I feel comfortable I am keeping miners' job safe burning up resources and energy. Someone has to keep the resource boom alive with all the rant and rave about global warming. If the government was really serious about producing green energy we would have started building nuclear stations years ago.

Not to mention the bloody huge windows I had to install to meet ventillation and light codes, this meant I had to add at least a couple of kw to the central a/c unit. But hey think of all the power we save by not having to have those 3 60W lights working for that 1 hour a day. Does the minister for environment visit this forum?



Sorry for the rant but I get riled up about the crap that comes out of the politicians in canberra - wouldn't mind seeing the total energy consumed per poly against that of the general public!

 

you can now get cfl's in dimmable versions which work on CBus. They are made by Varilight. You need the standard dimmer control version. I have been running one on a test bed for about three weeks now and its given no problems at all.

 

Many CFLs do not draw enough current to pull the dimmer to "zero" voltage. Hence, in a batch of CFLS some will flicker and try to turn on even when the dimmer is set to "zero output". The only solution is a small resistive load (hidden 25W pilot lamp usually works) to act as a base load

Yes, that is an issue. I have never seen anything get damaged, but the best thing is to program the switch as a toggle on/off until after inspection.

Unless the inspector is VERY slack, you won't get away with it. In order to meet the Energy Efficiency requirements, the CFLs must be dedicated - not the cheap and nasty retrofit type with ES or BC base that can be exchanged for incandescent like you propose.

Precisely - the power consumed by lighting is irrelevant compared to that used by HVAC. However, with PROPER house design you wouldn't need to increase the A/C. Most home owners don't want to install proper shading, eaves, use passive design principles, etc... thus the regulations like Basix (NSW).

Anyway, there are more "mainstream" dimmable CFLs now - Osram have them and so do GE. We have been testing them here and they don't work TOO badly providing that the dimmers are set to "toggle" rather than "memory". But to do it properly, you should use decent lights and dedicated CFLs and controllable ballasts (0-10V or DALI)

As an aside - I tested the Megaman 11W MR16 CFLs recently, and found that the total output per watt (overall efficacy) is LOWER than for IRC Halogen. In other words, it takes more watts of those tiny CFLs to get the same light level in a room as can be achieved with a decent ELV halogen installation.

 

Re Compact Fluoros on dimmers

I had some 13W's on a old D750 some years ago, the compact fluoros died an early death because they don't like being dimmed on & off. Even when the input is programmed on/off, its still driving a dimmer.

Try using "warm white" (3000K) instead of "cool daylight" (6000K)fluoros' the colour is much closer to incandescant / halogen lighting, and looks so much better in the home environment. The regulations were brought in to stop environmental vandals installing 240w of downlights & transformers in a bedroom where much less can suffice.

I've been a skeptic, but just installed 4 of 9w megaman CFL's in fixed downlights and have been pleasantly suprised at the result, lights up the room really well and the 2700/3000K colour makes it feel like a bedroom not a public toilet. On a relay not a dimmer, I use a lamp for low level lighting.