![]() Anyway it certainly requires more power than a simple dimmer (but less than will visibly light an incandescent bulb). I guess I should measure the current draw to better understand my situation. But I am powering a RadioRA switch, as I noted in the opening post. I suppose that for a simple dimmer switch, where all you are powering via trickle current is a light, or perhaps a memory of the dim setting, it would probably work. The little 10k resistor just packs into the junction box with the light's wiring. I suppose I could try going up to 10W or more? I fear I start to have heat dissipation problems though. Even 3 of them in parallel (3333r, 4.3W) didn't do the trick. I won't embarrass myself by posting the price. I bought a 10k resistor packaged specifically for this use. In your case, you could try adding a small incandescent lamp to the circuit, but it might not make any difference.ĭidn't work in my case. I imagine replacing one of the lamps with an incandescent would work, but I haven't tried it and I don't see the point, as the dimmer function for the three lamp circuit isn't used anyway. ![]() A dummy load on the three lamp circuit would probably solve the problem. The dimmer with six lamps dims quite well, although there is a tiny amount of 100Hz flicker, especially when set to the minimum brightness. It will often flicker, at a low frequency or just not work when dimmed, presumably when he mains voltage is on the low side. The one with three lamps doesn't always dim properly, but reliably works at full brightness. There are two dimmer switches in the room: one with three lamps and another with six. They were fairly cheap ones off ebay and probably don't comply with the safety regulations, since the level of insulation between the metal collar and LEDs is insufficient, but I made the judgement that it's very low risk, since they're out of reach, the luminaire is earthed and one shouldn't replace the bulb, without disconnecting the power first. I replaced some incandescent lamps with dimable LEDs at my parent's house about five years ago. There are some LED drivers which are supposed to be TRIAC dimmer compatible, but they often have issues. LEDs and phase controlled dimmers don't mix well. Otherwise I'd easily address this by installing incandescent. And of course there are many styles that simply can only really be done with LED. ![]() All newer easily sourced modern styled luminaires are LED. There are triac-controllable 3rd party drivers, but good ones are in the $150 range and I have to void warranties by replacing the manufacturer driver, and experiment with compatibility. The reason it isn't widely discussed as a proper fix is because it eliminates the efficiency of LED and in most cases, it's easy enough to replace the dimmer. But, will the driver behave correctly? Whether MLV or ELV, the driver still expects a phase-cut voltage-modulated signal, so does forward (MLV) or reverse (ELV) phase really matter to the driver? Does a typical driver actually depend on the phase characteristic per se? My thoughts are that this will work well. Will a dummy (resistive) load help otherwise? I think obviously (?) it will cure all the problems of a capacitive load negatively affecting the dimmer. I don't know for sure for my specific dimmers, but I imagine the neutral also provides stable zero crossing detection for the dimmer. My dimmers already have a neutral wire, so minimum load is not a problem at least as far as powering the features of the dimmer itself. I've found a scant few references that problems can be patched up with a dummy load. That ELV dimmer isn't the critical factor in dimming performance of the luminaire. They expect some arbitrary ELV dimmer control to be in front of it. It's also my understanding that the dimming performance of the fixture will generally be derived from the driver+LED combination, which the manufacturer has made sure are compatible. Which are very high quality (Lutron RadioRA), but are for MLV. But in my situation, I cannot replace the dimmers. Apparently it's generally cheaper to replace the dimmer with an ELV dimmer than to have a triac-compatible driver anyway. This saves cost such that the driver doesn't have to present a minimum load to a triac dimmer, or worry about inrush current having bad effects on the dimmer, and other such problems. ![]() For luminaires, ie complete light fixtures that include a driver, not retrofit bulbs, my understanding is that the phase-cut dimming control (w/ coincident power, ie typical "legacy" existing installation) input for the driver is generally desired to be ELV / reverse phase per the luminaire manufacturer.
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