Halogen to LED Dimmers

[Crawlspace71]

Dear all,

I currently have a 5 bulb chandelier (image attached) that holds 5 240v 42w Bayonet bulbs; these are controlled by a 1 way dimmer switch. We have had this set-up for a while without issue.

We thought we would start moving to LED bulbs so bought some LED Filament dimmable candles. These are 4w (equiv 25w) bayonet bulbs.

New bulbs inserted in light fitting. Switched on and 4 of the bulbs fully lit with the fifth flickering. Then after 2 mins all LED bulbs were flashing (like a disco). I powered off dimmer switch and checked bulbs were inserted correctly, powered on again and only 2 lit!

Is this to do with the light fitting, dimmer switch or both?
I have read something about the dimmer switch (leading edge and trailing edge) i believe ours to be Leading edge and we maybe need a trailing edge kind?? This is all very confusing and all wanted was to save some money on some new bulbs....

Can anyone help me please?

Regards

Mark Scowcroft

 

[PrenticeBoyofDerry]

What is your dimmer rated at, they generally have a low and high load. You may have not exceeded the lower load. You need a low load dimmer.
It is important to read any information given by the manufacturer of the lamps, they often offer information of compatibly of products.

 

[winston1]

This is all very confusing and all wanted was to save some money on some new bulbs....

Can anyone help me please?

Regards

Mark Scowcroft

So you have dropped from 110w to 20w, i.e. 90w. Spent about £25 on new bulbs. You also need a new compatible dimmer. Have you worked out how long to break even?

 

[Crawlspace71]

PrenticeBoy, I will check out the Dimmer rating as I think it may be this causing the issues....Did some Googling last night and read more on the Trailing Edge dimmers, these seem to be the ones to get for LED bulbs.
I have a new 3 bulb lamp with LED's in my lounge and it has a new LED dimmer and have had no issues!

Winston1, I am hoping to save money on the electricity used in the long term, not the short term expense on the hardware.

 

[PrenticeBoyofDerry]

PrenticeBoy, I will check out the Dimmer rating as I think it may be this causing the issues....Did some Googling last night and read more on the Trailing Edge dimmers, these seem to be the ones to get for LED bulbs.

It is not that leading edge dimmers cannot dim LED lamps, it is about the loading of the dimmer, if the dimmer is not loaded within it's range they will play up and possibly go faulty.

But as you have gone from a much higher load to a low load, then I would assume the dimmer cannot deal with the low load.

Saying that, in simple terms, trailing Edge dimmers have been designed for the lower load, thus ideal for dimming when changing incandescent and halogen lamps for LED lamps.

 

[flameport]

Almost certainly the dimmer. Try it with one of the 42w bulbs and the other 4 LED - if it works with that, the problem is the minimum loading of the dimmer.

 

[Crawlspace71]

Yep, tried it with one of the incandescent bulbs and they light up.
But, looks like two of the LED bulbs may have blown the circuitry as they did not light at all
Still have the receipt so may try and swap them out

So, looks like a Dimmer change!

Thanks for your help all.

 

[PrenticeBoyofDerry]

Yep, tried it with one of the incandescent bulbs and they light up.

Did they dim?

But, looks like two of the LED bulbs may have blown the circuitry as they did not light at all

Oh dear, have you tried them with just a normal rocker switch and not the dimmer?

Still have the receipt so may try and swap them out

Cheeky

So, looks like a Dimmer change!

Have you actually checked the loading rating on it?

You may have some faulty LED lights, you need to check the load rating on dimmer first.

 

[Crawlspace71]

Yep, they did Dim all be it the LED's were very bright then dimmed not very smoothly at all!
not tried on a rocker...will check in bedroom.
At £4 a pop I may as well try it.
Not sure on Load rating...I have taken a photo of the rear of the dimmer.....

 

[PrenticeBoyofDerry]

Rating is 60-400w, so for the dimmer to stand a chance, the load needs to be between those two values.

 

[Crawlspace71]

Ah OK, so no good for my LED's then.
Tried the faulty LED's on a rocker switch and no good so def' need replacing.
Time to start looking for some 'Trailing edge' dimmers then.

 

[PrenticeBoyofDerry]

Ah OK, so no good for my LED's then.

Not no good for LEDs, no good for the load you have put on it.
The load needs to exceed 60W!

 

[ericmark]

42W not 40W sounds like a quartz lamp, so should not have been using dimmers to start with, as already pointed out at 4W you need 15 bulbs at least to hit the 60W minimum, however since bulbs can work without a dimmer can hardly blame dimmer for failure of bulbs unless marked as not dimmable. I have also moved to low maintenance bulbs, it's not the power they use, in summer don't use lights until around 9:30 pm as time they are on is very short, and in winter the heat is not wasted, in fact it saves heating the air so hot so less heat is lost with air changes so likely tungsten lamps save more energy in heating than they waste. So the tungsten bulb should be called energy saving.

However the tungsten bulb was high maintenance. I seemed to be swapping a bulb a week, since going to LED I have had 4 fail and they were silly 0.58 W G5.3 MR16 replacements form pound world, so swapping to low maintenance makes sense. To my mind this included removing the dimmer switches, they were an 80's craze I have grown out of.

 

[winston1]

and in winter the heat is not wasted, in fact it saves heating the air so hot so less heat is lost with air changes so likely tungsten lamps save more energy in heating than they waste. So the tungsten bulb should be called energy saving.

But heat generated electrically is three times the cost of gas. So not really money saving.

 

[PrenticeBoyofDerry]

But heat generated electrically is three times the cost of gas. So not really money saving.

So should we go back to gas lamps then?