I’m not sure if this is the best place to post this.
With the energy codes requiring the use of fluorescent fixtures/lamps more more, where is the technology of dimming fluorescents? How, availability, cost etc.?
It used to be that you could use dimmers with incandescant lamps with out much thought as to cost etc. as long as you kept the wattage below 600 watts or even 1000 watts.
Thanks for your input.
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I'm not an expert in lighting by any means, but to my knowledge fluorescent lighting requires a constant amount of current to function and is by nature not "dimmable." I imagine this is because of the very different kind of physics involved in fluorescent lighting.
Any lighting pros out there want to confirm this?
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You need special ballests
> where is the technology of dimming fluorescents
In the stone age, mostly.
You can buy T-8 (tube-style) fixtures which contain dimmable ballasts. Also, you can probably get cans and other fixtures intended for ballast-less CFLs that are dimmable. Depending on the brand of ballast and dimmer, these work somewhere between pretty good and so-so.
But dimmable self-contained CFLs (screw in replacements for incandescent bulbs) are available only in theory -- they're expensive, about twice as big as non-dimmable units of the same wattage, available only in limited wattages, and besides that they don't dim below about 50%.
The environmental thing on flourescents has flipped the other way now. Here, you're not allowed to throw out the burnouts, they're considered hazardous waste. So, I'm going to dumpster the fixtures when I run out of spares. Incandescents from now on -- or at least until it flips again. Then maybe CFL's?
-- J.S.
A standard fluorescent fixture is purchased then a replacement ballast is installed (122.00 per ballast) + labor (figure 30.00 per fixture) there may be one or two per fixture.
The fixture is controlled by a special dimmer that costs 135.00, one dimmer can control up to 15 fixtures.
Rather than standard romex, 4 wire romex needs to be pulled
I just saw some CFL's made to replace an R-30 incandescant that was dimmable with a standard incandescant dimmer. 6000hr life. 15watts? and $12 wholesale per lamp.
I also discussed with the lighting rep from Green Lighting the availablility of a replacement for PAR 20 lamps. He recommended a cold cathode flourescent that has about 25,000 HR life and is dimmable. those are about $25 ea.
Dimming tubes requires a special ballast for each fixture and a special dimmer to operate them. Very pricey, but possible. The ballasts and dimmers are available from Lutron. There are also interfaces available to allow you to control your flourescents with the Lutron dimming systems.
There are no electrons! It is all made up. Don't believe it.
Electricity is made by GREENIES.
I have Juno incandescent cans with the TCP dimmable CFL retrofits, on a standard (Skylark) Lutron dimmer. Dimming is okay, not as much as incandescent, as someone mentioned probably up to 50% which is good enough.
Main problem is, the TCP lamps look like something from a public toilet. On the lookout for replacments with better aesthetics.
Not to hijack the thread, but . . .
Where is the technology with LEDs? I heard that you get something like ten times the light per watt as florecent or incandescent.
Seems like the future.
Last I heard, naturally, they were very expensive.
I only know I'm waiting for the LED-enabled DLPs (2 or 3 generations out, let someone else be the beta tester)....
I am waiting for them to get a whole lot cheaper.
There is a general shortage of attractive (suitable for a home) fluorescent fixtures. We checked all over Rochester and even looked in some catalogs and only found a couple that we'd even halfway consider using in our family room. Finally just went with the screw-in CFLs.
If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy. --James Madison