LED lamps and 4 channel / 8 channel dimmers

With the new LED lamps out in the market I was wanting to try some of the new CREE LR6 dimmable down-lights.
http://www.creelighting.com/products.htm
There are several screw in Edison style LED replacement bulbs on the web but none at any of the large home improvement stores yet.
My thinking is that in a few years LED lighting will start to be the main-stream and surpass florescent bulbs for efficiency.

However I am worried about having enough load on the Clipsal dimmer module to fully trigger to turn off the SCR?s internally and have a bleed output voltage, then the LED will have a slight glow.

Is a 12 Watt load enough to work with a 4 channel or 8 channel dimmer and / or is there a minimum load needed?

I plan on purchasing a few CREE LED lights to try but at around $100 USD each it is a expensive experiment.


One recent thread I looked into but no true answer yet.
http://cbusforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=5109&highlight=Channel+Dimmer


Alan Dobbs
Houston, TX

 

May be of help to you.

I just fitted off some more cbus in my house tonight and have fluro ES 14 Watt lamps in some fittings. Running thru dimmer as on/off they are flickering while off so no good for dimmer module.

 

CREE LED bulbs came in today

I wired up 1 CREE LR6 lamp to my 4 channel dimmer.
When turned on it instantly lightened up within milliseconds . Same with turning off.
However when dimming it would not work proper.
For dim up it would just illuminate fully.
When dimming down it would go from 100% and look like it works as it would dim but when release the keypad switch the lamp would turn off completely.
I decided to put 2 lamps to double the load from a single 12 Watt to 24 Watts.
What a difference it made. I was able to dim / ramp up nicely but the ramp down was not there.
I will order 2 more and see how having 3 or more will work on the dimmer.

I plan on putting my meter in-line to see what the current draw actually is and if it is zero volts when off.

Overall I think the LED lamps are excellent and gives off no heat by the touch.
The lamp is very bright and a wide spread.

I will do some more testing and let the form know my results.


Alan Dobbs

 

I have used one relay after the dimmer channel. i.e Dimmer o/p will go to relay A terminal and Load will be connected to B.

Program relay with min level as 10%.

Whenever you dim down the CFL/LED, it will be dimmed upto 10% and supply will be cut off below that. So no flickering occurs...

Regards,
Manas

 

Thanks Nick

I was wondering if you tried 1 or had multiple CREE lamps in parallel.
As stated I started with one then two then once received a few more I will load up more and let the forum know the data.

Thanks to all whom mentioned about the min set to 30%, I will try and see.

My 120V units had no audible buzzing but then again I just had on a bench to see and not mounted in a recess can..


Alan Dobbs
Industeq, Inc.