Dimming led and incandecent/ halogin with the same dimmer

[FRANK ELECTRIC]

I have a property with roughly 100 (GU 10) 50 watt, 120 VOLT bulbs in it, they are split up throughout the rooms and no area exceeds 600 watts, each area is dimmed by a standard, cheapo lutron dimmer. They were installed in 2008 and seem to have been working fine although at times it seems I have a larger number of bulbs that burn out then usual. Is not a problem changing them although they are in the price range of $4 to $5 each, My question is: Does anyone have any experience with dimming both LED's and halogin's on the same dimmer? The reason I ask is since I would like to start to replace the halogin lights with led's as they burn out.

Ultimately I know the best thing to do is to replace each area that is switched seperately all at one time due to led's having a different look as well. I'm just curious if anyone has any experience combining the two style bulbs on the same dimmers. At this point I have not contacted lutron or any other manufacturer since this is just something I may possibly want to do in the future to both save energy and increse bulb life.

 

[LarryFine]

I would think that, if the LED bulbs are able to work on standard dimmers, there's no issue.

 

[Sierrasparky]

I suppose it will all depend on the type of power supply on the LED. Most Led's today use a solid state transformer. This could e a problem for most standard dimmers.

 

[Lady Engineer]

I have a property with roughly 100 (GU 10) 50 watt, 120 VOLT bulbs in it, they are split up throughout the rooms and no area exceeds 600 watts, each area is dimmed by a standard, cheapo lutron dimmer. They were installed in 2008 and seem to have been working fine although at times it seems I have a larger number of bulbs that burn out then usual. Is not a problem changing them although they are in the price range of $4 to $5 each, My question is: Does anyone have any experience with dimming both LED's and halogin's on the same dimmer? The reason I ask is since I would like to start to replace the halogin lights with led's as they burn out.

Ultimately I know the best thing to do is to replace each area that is switched seperately all at one time due to led's having a different look as well. I'm just curious if anyone has any experience combining the two style bulbs on the same dimmers. At this point I have not contacted lutron or any other manufacturer since this is just something I may possibly want to do in the future to both save energy and increse bulb life.

Well the only problem I can see is making sure you have the driver that can dim the LEDs. Now dimming Halogen isn't really the greatest thing to do, because it may, shorten the lamp life, because they are made to burn at a certain temperature. However, from what I can see...not real impact grouping them on one circuit.

 

[LarryFine]

Halogens can endure dimming as long as they're burned at full brightness periodically. Otherwise, the glass darkens prematurely.

 

[dicklaxt]

I am not a LED expert( or anything else )but believe they are powered with a DC source from the driver mentioned in the above post by Lady Engineer , so wouldn't the dimming need to be done on the rectified voltage rather than the 120v line voltage, varing the input AC voltage would certainly affect the DC output voltage and it is critcal to the operation of an LED arrays.This in it's self could also be designed to work for different varibles but now becomes cost prohibitive IMO

I guess it could be done with a common dimmer but probably not be worth the effort and head scratching it would take to get it all coordinated as one functioning system,,,,,even if done by areas ,I think it would not be a fun game.

Someone tell me if I'm full of #$@* or not with this logic,I got a good night's sleep so have a thick skin to repel abuse today.



dick

 

[Electric-Light]

Dimmable electronic transformers sometimes require reverse-phase dimmer.

Reverse phase dimmer is also specified sometimes to reduce radio frequency interference with regular incandescent.

Standard forward phase dimmer can not be used with a electronic xfmr requiring reverse phase, however a reverse phase dimmer maybe used to control such transformer and ordinary incandescent or halogen operated at line voltage, however the level of dimming may not be uniform.

As for short lamp life, if line voltage is on high end, (126v or so) running the dimmer at a hair below full will substantially extend lamp life.

The lamp life @ 126v is about half that of rated life at 120v.

 

[resistance]

To add: The best thing to do is to call the manufacture, or search their site for the recommended dimmer for your LED's.

I believe Cree is using some Lutron products.