Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Zwave Dimmer Switch and LED light bulbs

Hey Guys, long time no post. I have been trying to establish myself the best I can online. A lot of people don't realize how competitive online retail really is but I am grateful for all of my customers. You keep me going researching different products for home automation. Well in this post I want to clarify the LED and Zwave dimmer switch common problem. 
Across the board all Zwave dimmers have issues with LED light bulbs. On/off switches no problem but dimmers another story. 

The reason: LED light bulbs use far less power then the normal incandescent light bulb. All Zwave dimmer switches have a minimum load requirement. Most of them are right around 40 watts. This is not always posted and sometimes leads to trial and error efforts of end user. The other reason is that some LED bulbs are just not made to work well with dimmers. Because the large demand for LEDs everyone is manufacturing them (and all differently). Pretty much any LED that you pick up from your big box store will work with zwave dimmer switches, you just have to be over 40 watts. My goal is to find a high quality LED bulb that will work for under 7$ a piece (I'm still searching....). 




Example 1: My kitchen I have two 9.5 watt LED light bulbs and Five 55 watt halogen lights bulbs on one circuit connected to a Intermatic CA600 Zwave Dimmer Switch. It works great no problems. But as soon as you take out all of the halogens and turn the switch off the LED flickers and stays on at a very low setting. This is because the two 9.5 watt bulbs do not add up to the 40 watt minimum load.  


Example 2: In my living room I have 4 LED 12.5 watt LED can lights on one circuit. Connected to a GE 45612 Dimmer switch. Work perfectly until I take out one bulb. Then I get the flicks. 





Dimmer Recommended Switches




 GE 45612 



If money is no option Vizia RF VRM10-1LZ 



Dimmer Non Recommended Switches

I'm really not putting Evolve down but at the price point of $49.99 and you know they are made by JASCO the same company that makes the GE 45612 ($42) you realize that you are paying 5$-8$ more just for the Evolve name brand. They are the same exact switches.