Dimmable CFL's - Magaman DimmerABLE

Well, its been a while since the last few batches of posts in regards to CFL's and their not so friendly dimmable behaviour

Just wondering if anyone out there has attempted to get C-Bus working successfully with the new Megaman Dimmerable (pronouced Dimmer Able) series?

http://www.megaman.cc/global/technology/dimmerable.php

After chatting to Cosmoluce they state that they will work with C-bus, as they do support standard dimmer switches (not all, though).
However Megaman Australia themselves have not tested this in depth as of yet.

Has anyone had any experience by any chance?

Would love to see some forward movement in this area of C-bus and CFL dimmable lighting in general..

Looking forward to anyones comments

Cheerz,
Matt

 

I spoke to Megaman Australia last week, but am awaiting information from them about accounts, etc. Our company buys as an OEM, so we don't necessarily need to deal through Cosmoluce.

I thought that the Megaman guy said that he was talking to Clipsal about testing etc - but I cannot be sure what the outcome was / will be.

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More general info about dimming CFLs...

Last week the Philips people brought around a spiral CFL which we successfully dimmed on our test rig (32 series Trailing edge, not C-Bus).

I think the main problem with all these lamps will not so much be how well they dim (because that is easily tested and confirmed), but how long they last when dimmed.

From what I've seen, they are all fairly reasonable at dimming providing the minimum level is set correctly so that they don't start flashing and carrying on from being under-run. In all cases the dimmers must be set to "toggle" (rather than "memory") or there will be all manner of starting problems, and it may even burn out the lamp filaments.

All the ones we've tested were more "smooth" on trailing edge dimmers than leading edge. Our tests were only for functionality (ie: did it work) rather than proper engineering evaluation.

 

Thanks for the post JohnC

Yeah, he also told me that they are busy testing with C-Bus at the Megaman Adelaide branch.

I really hope that it pans out as I really want them for ramping up and down.
From what I read about the DimmerABLE series, they actually last longer when dimmed.

If anyone else has tested these or know any info, we would love to hear your feedback.

Thanx for reading..

 

Most of them will "tell you" that they last longer when dimmed - but this is usually from anecdotal evidence based on what happens to Incandescent and Halogen, rather than factual or statistical info on the products themselves.

With linear T5 on dedicated dimming ballasts, the lamp life can be significantly reduced when the product is dimmed. Perhaps not according to any sales brochure, but just ask anybody who's been involved in dimming DALI about how well the lamps handle it.

Small levels of dimming seem to be OK, but when lamps are dimmed below a certain point the filaments must be continually heated or the lamp extinguishes. This seems to be the main reason for end-blackening and poor life in fluoros when dimmed to low levels.

I'm no engineer - I just call it how I see it. But, if the big names like Osram, Philips and Tridonic can't make dimming reliable with a full-on dedicated ballast worth significantly more than the CFLs... I have my doubts about how "nicely" the lamp will be treated by a crude and cheap ballast in the base of a throwaway retrofit CLF lamp

 

Thanks for everyone's 2c

If anyone has had any other experiences, feel free to post

Cheerz,
Matt

 

Megaman CFL's

Megaman Australia has confirmed testing with Clipsal Adelaide and C-Bus compat with Std Leading edge dimmers and C-Bus system.

 

CFL's Dimmable

After Chatting to the Megaman office @ Alexandria in Sydney I spoke to a very helpful guy although he said he was far from an engineer Their sales Manager I belive George was his name,he said that Megaman "Dimmerable" CFL's are rated at 10,000 HRS average rated life and yes as you dim them they actually use less power.
The correct way to use a "Dimmerable " CFL was to turn it on to 100% then allow approx 1-2 minutes to reach operating Temp/brightness then you can dimm from 100% to as low as 10% ,make sure the dimmer switch doesnt go below this as the lamp may flicker as the Australian dimmer switches dont have a mechanism to stop and adjust them to remain at 10% as of course they are designed for incandesent and halogen .
Works on Clipsal leading edge dimmers with a max load of 90Watts or 8 x 11w GU10 lamps. and C-bus sytem leading edge.
Dynalite works on trailing edge ?
Have tried them and works ok if you dimm slowly and maintain to 10%.Light output was pretty good for a GU10 not as bright as halogen but very even and easier to live with and now only 88watts ( 8 x 11w)consumption not 480 watts halogen and trans combined.(50w lamp + 10w trans = 60w x 8 lamps therefore 480 watts ouch what was i thinking at the time, and bonus no heat,miss it in winter but cant wait for summer.;
He also said they have approx 4/5 dimmable CFL's in Australia and may be increasing the range as Megaman Global has approx 8 in the world range.

 

What is the Max

Hi,

just found this thread through a search,
I have 4 of these lamps installed on a circuit and they perform well.
But they do prefer to start at 100% and then be dimmed after acouple of minutes.

I'm currently installing 20 (on one circuit) on another project and was wondering if there is a suitable (preferably din rail mount type) dimmer available that can drive this?

Any advice/guidance, would be much appreciated.

TIA, Aaron

 

I've contacted Megaman, and they are unable to comment on dimmers. (not their product).
Can anyone let me know/or advise how many 11W lamps can be installed onto one 2A or the new 2.5A Din rail type dimmer?
There is something in my course notes about transformers and VA, but not dimmable CFL's??

 

Philips Bulbs

Guys

Slightly off topic, but after trying the Philips Dimmable CFL's on a 2a din dimmer, and found that there was an auditable hum from the bulb.

Im now using them on a 2.5a din dimmer (TE) and the noise is gone, and they appear to dim fine.

I currently have 2 per channel on the dimmer, and everything seems to be working ok.

I now see that Philips have this on there website:

Interesting as when I was talking to Philips around 2 months ago they said they were undertaking testing with Clipsal, I assume by this statement from them that testing failed - anyone from Clipsal care to comment?

Cheers
David

 

Thanks for the info, what value should I use for the VA.
I've requested the capacitance value from the lamp supplier.

TIA, Aaron

 

What about the professional series dimmers??

For the future, would it be possible to list dimmer performance as watts, and then list number of lamps against an output as all lamps are rated in watts??

 

And the L5504D2U please