Ghostly Flickering with Dimmer

I have installed energy saving fluoro bulbs in some of the channels of a 2A dimmer (L5504D2A). Since these bulbs do not dim, all involved switches are set as toggles, with 0% and 100% for off and on.

Everything works as expected, except that when the channel is switched off the bulb still exhibits a ghostly flickering. It doesn't actually light up the room or anything, there is just a faint glow/flicker at the base of the bulb.

Replacing with a normal incandescent eliminates the issue. However, these lamps are for a playroom and are on for much of the day (and night), which is why I installed energy saving bulbs!

Is the flickering normal with fluoro bulbs on a dimmer unit, or is there something I need to do to eliminate it?

Thanks!

 

Those energy saving bulbs have a level of compatibility of roughly, approximately zero!

Even when a dimmer channel is turned Off there is still a small amount of voltage available at the load. It seems that this small amount of voltage is enough to get the electronics inside that energy-saving bulb attempting to start the lamp. The interactions can be quite complex and they vary from brand to brand.

Even though you're switching On and Off only, it's still a dimming circuit and this brings with it a whole host of interactions with the load. Some people have got lucky by installing a bleed capacitor across the load but it's a case of hit-and-miss, usually the latter. And there's no guarantees that it will work fine if you replace the bulb a few years down the track when they eventually wear out.

A forum links that is related to fluoros on dimming channels:
http://www.cbusforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=927

In short, follow the recommendations usually found on the side of the energy-saving bulbs, don't connect them to anything other than switched circuits, either relays or conventional mechanical switches.

 

It is simply safer and cheaper to get a 2 channel C-Bus relay for the energy saving bulbs. Even if you can ignore the flickers, the bulbs would only last for perhaps few months since its electronic is working endlessly. There may be other ways to get around the problem, but an old style c-bus relay should be the best bet.

 

Thanks for the replies.

wanricky, we already have banks of relays but the "big" entertaining rooms were set up with 2A dimmers on the advice of Clipsal- good advice IMHO, because although one of those rooms is now a playroom, in general these rooms will benefit from dimming.
I suppose we could purchase extra gear to bypass the dimmer, but if the only consequence is possible shorter bulb life, I'll go with that. I also found that inserting an extra 3 long-life bulbs in the affected lamp eliminated the issue, presumably by dropping current per bulb below the starter threshold.

Can I just confirm: this isn't going to damage the dimmer unit itself? Obviously that would make a difference!

 

The dimmer should cope with this fine, especially since the bulbs aren't trying to re-start any more.