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    Question about LED bulbs for recessed lighting

    I have a question about LED bulbs and dimmer switches.

    Right now I'm running the GE Smart Dimmer with four Ecosmart LED bulbs. They were replacements for the incandescent bulbs that used to be there. They are the 65W-equivelant (BR30 type base). We have four of them in the room.

    The problem I'm having is not that they don't work at certain dim levels, it's that they turn bright fairly quickly. For example, the brightest we generally turn them is 10%. Maybe 20% if we really need a lot of light for something. If we want it to be legitimately dimmed we need to go to 6-8%.

    Would this be an issue with the bulbs or the dimmer?

    Additionally, I'm going to be finishing my basement next summer and am going to be putting in recessed lighting and I'm wondering if I should go the same route (LED bulb in a standard recessed light fixture) or is there something better that would work and be controllable.

    Sorry for the vagueness of the question. I'm just not sure where to turn for help answering these questions.

    #2
    This can be a real challenge.

    I have 9 BR30 LED bulbs on two z-wave switches in the living room. The switches (Linear) dimmed from 1% to 100% however they didn't report their status to HS and I didn't like that. So I switched to the HS dimmers. They reported perfectly, of course. However, they would only dim down to maybe 30% which was unacceptable. Changing the FW back to a previous version fixed the issue. You can't always blame the bulb.

    In another situation I have BR40 LED bulbs in the kitchen that will not dim below 30% (not that big a deal in the kitchen) even with a conventional non z-wave dimmer. The breakfast nook has the same bulbs but on an old X10 dimmer (no neutral to the box) and they won't dim below 30% either. You can't always blame the switch.

    Put in a conventional dimmer or change some bulbs and see what happens. Then you'll have a better idea if it's the bulbs or the dimmer.

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      #3
      Originally posted by PilotC150 View Post
      I have a question about LED bulbs and dimmer switches.



      Right now I'm running the GE Smart Dimmer with four Ecosmart LED bulbs. They were replacements for the incandescent bulbs that used to be there. They are the 65W-equivelant (BR30 type base). We have four of them in the room.



      The problem I'm having is not that they don't work at certain dim levels, it's that they turn bright fairly quickly. For example, the brightest we generally turn them is 10%. Maybe 20% if we really need a lot of light for something. If we want it to be legitimately dimmed we need to go to 6-8%.



      Would this be an issue with the bulbs or the dimmer?



      Additionally, I'm going to be finishing my basement next summer and am going to be putting in recessed lighting and I'm wondering if I should go the same route (LED bulb in a standard recessed light fixture) or is there something better that would work and be controllable.



      Sorry for the vagueness of the question. I'm just not sure where to turn for help answering these questions.
      HS4 4.2.6.0 &HSTouch Designer 3.0.80
      Plugin's:
      BLBackup, BLOccupied, BLShutdown, EasyTrigger, Ecobee, Nest, AK Bond
      EnvisaLink DSC, PHLocation, Pushover, SONOS, Blue Iris, UltraRachio3,
      weatherXML, Jon00 Alexa Helper, Network Monitor, MyQ, Z-Wave

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