I just bought some of the spiral shaped energy saving light bulbs. On the package it says “not for use with electric dimmer.” Why? What happens if I use it with a dimmer?
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same reason you can't use a dimmer with flourescant
and that reason is?
It causes smoke.
So convenient a thing it is to be a reasonable Creature, since it enables one to find or make a Reason for everything one has a mind to do. --Benjamin Franklin
I cant argue with the dont use a dimmer. That said, there are fluorescent tubes that can be dimmed. Have a HD "Hampton Bay" ceiling fan with a dimmable circular fluorescent tube - dims using the supplied remote.I have seen dimmers that are fluorescent light compatible but I suspect that this is for the more usual tubes & not the Cfs.
You are right. It takes a special ballast to work with flouscent's.But for the CFL's there are CFL's that can work with regular dimmers.I understand that they dim all the way to black like incandenscents do..
.
A-holes. Hey every group has to have one. And I have been elected to be the one. I should make that my tagline.
I have yet to see a "dimmable" CFL that actually works, though there have been claims of sightings here. Most just go from bright to maybe 90% to flickering badly to off, all before the 50% mark on the dimmer.
So convenient a thing it is to be a reasonable Creature, since it enables one to find or make a Reason for everything one has a mind to do. --Benjamin Franklin
The end of the universe as we know it. Or possibly smoke.
Go ahead....try it. I dare ya.
Ney.....I double-dog dare ya!
J. D. Reynolds
Home Improvements
CFLs have an electronic ballast, a super-cheap circuit board that's designed to work at 110V. When the wall switch dimmer starts lowering the voltage to the CFL, at some point the electronic ballast quits working properly. Sometimes it even overheats and dies in a puff of smoke.
There are CFLs rated to work with dimmers, but they cost more.
Additionally, the current waveform of a CFL will "confuse" the dimmer and could actually damage the dimmer.
So convenient a thing it is to be a reasonable Creature, since it enables one to find or make a Reason for everything one has a mind to do. --Benjamin Franklin