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.
any updates for LED zwave switches?
ReplyDeleteany updates for LED zwave switches?
ReplyDeletehow about for 0-10vDC led Big Ass Light?
ReplyDeleteHi Tanner,
ReplyDeleteI just wanted to say thank you. Your blog post answered a question that has been driving me nuts. I have the CA600 switches and I use them in a ceiling fan light with 3 bulbs. I have Costco Feit LED bulbs in the fixture and they work flawlessly with the CA600. I have a similar fixture in my home office using the same CA600 switch, but it only takes two bulbs. When I put the same LED bulbs in it they glow when turned off. You post FINALLY told me why. The Feit bulbs each use 9.5 watts and apparently 3 of them, (28.5 watts) is enough to stop the glow, but the two in my office are not. If I add a 100 watt incandescent bulb to the office fixture the other LED stops glowing. Awesome!! So now I just need to find two LED bulbs for my home office that are dimmable and that use at least 30 watts. All this time I thought that the CA600 in my office was defective or installed wrong.
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ReplyDelete