Why is this Lutron dimmer so pricey?

[mtfallsmikey]

Arcing Lutron 3-way dimmer switch, one of 4 in a conference room, need to replace it, $162.00 from a local wholesaler, anybody paying less? Ridiculous IMO.

 

[JFletcher]

I looked up the part number, that price seems about right. Also looked up 120V dimmers, they are quite a bit cheaper, so no doubt 277V is a smaller production run/more expensive. $162 isnt bad, one place listed the same at $60 more. Fluorescent compatible is probably the other biggy, aside from being a 1000W (1500W?) dimmer.

 

[cpinetree]

277v fluorescent = $$$

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/LUTRON-NTF-103P-277-FLUORESCENT-ECO-10-PRESET/dp/B004XIBWHA

 

[peter d]

Try ebay.

Fluorescent dimming? How has that not been relegated to the trash heap yet?

 

[Electric-Light]

Nova T(star) is architectural grade. Look up Nova T for any load type and the list price is quite high.

 

[mtfallsmikey]

Try ebay.

Fluorescent dimming? How has that not been relegated to the trash heap yet?

In this case, no. This Lutron system has been in the building since 2005. Unless the dimmers/ballasts are discontinued, and no longer available, we will be maintaining them. The ballasts are around $100. The auditoriums in both of my buildings have Lithonia dimming systems, breaker panels have built-in manual control panels, and aux. computer controlled controls.

 

[Electric-Light]

I looked up the part number, that price seems about right. Also looked up 120V dimmers, they are quite a bit cheaper, so no doubt 277V is a smaller production run/more expensive. $162 isnt bad, one place listed the same at $60 more. Fluorescent compatible is probably the other biggy, aside from being a 1000W (1500W?) dimmer.

That's a Lutron 3-wire system.

Dimmer electronics doesn't handle the load and it's functionally similar to 0-10v and has a slight advantage but it is proprietary and 0-10v has taken the majority share. You have two hots. One is connected directly to power through a switch, the other one is dimmed like a normal dimmer and served to each ballast but it is only watched as dimming reference.

The slight advantage is that phase angle communication isn't affected by voltage drop like 0-10v and is more resistant to interference. Dimming doesn't affect harmonics or power factor much and do not cause buzzing or RFI because each ballast receives full line voltage and dimmer doesn't manipulate power handling line.

 

[GoldDigger]

Sounds like that dimming ballast would be pretty pricey too in that case!

 

[morekoda]

Hi Mtfallsmikey,

Yes, that is a bummer, but the Lutron dimmer is actually worth the price. It has loads of really great features such as auto-load sensing capability, green LEDs to indicate light level, 10-year power - failure memory, acoustically quiet operation, voltage regulation, color consistency, universal dimmer, and many more.