ENCJP Posted April 19, 2017 Posted April 19, 2017 My house was built in 2015 and has a host of LED Sylvania RT6's. In the living room, I there are six RT6's and a 4 way circuit, one of the switches being a Lutron manual dimmer. I bought three 2466DW toggle dimmer switches to replace the switches and dimmer. I can link all the switches as per the documentation and control on/off for the lights. They do not respond to dimming commands. If the insteon dimmers are not compatible, what are my options short of swapping out the RT6's (might the micro dimmer module work)?
larryllix Posted April 19, 2017 Posted April 19, 2017 I use Insteon SwitchLincs with many Luminus BR-40 LED bulbs and they work fine down to about 8-10% dimming. I don't see why your bulbs wouldn't work but I have no experience with this brand. Usually, problems can be cured by adding on small incandescent bulb to the circuit somewhere. I don't think you will know for sure until you actually try it. With multiple bulbs on one dimmer, your chances of working well are very high. Off glow and flicker don't usualy happen with more than one bulb on a SwitchLinc. You may exeperience some slight flickering at certain levels which you could avoid in your ISY scenes.
ENCJP Posted April 19, 2017 Author Posted April 19, 2017 Ok, I just temporarily added an incandescent to the circuit and the lights dimmed beautifully. Other than actually adding an incandescent, do you know of a way to mimic an incandescent load on the switch?
Teken Posted April 19, 2017 Posted April 19, 2017 Ok, I just temporarily added an incandescent to the circuit and the lights dimmed beautifully. Other than actually adding an incandescent, do you know of a way to mimic an incandescent load on the switch? If you determine the lights share an outlet on the same electrical circuit you can simply add any device to replicate the same load.
ENCJP Posted April 19, 2017 Author Posted April 19, 2017 I'm going to add a plug in "nightlight" to the circuit in the attic. Will report back on performance.
jtara92101 Posted April 19, 2017 Posted April 19, 2017 (edited) It is strange that you have a problem with this much load. I only have one place where I have a similar issue. In that case, the total load is probably no more than 30 watts. If I go to full brightness, it goes into a dim/brighten endless cycle, doh! You will have better luck I think if you use LED retrofits that have "color temperature changing" feature - like some Phillips. That is, they lower color temperature at low brightness. But, actually, they just have a few low color-temperature LEDs in the array that are "always on" at a constant brightness. So, it puts a floor on the load. How old are your Switchlincs? Newer Insteon products do a better job at low load than old ones. My problem lighting track is currently fed from a very old Lamplinc. But in my bathroom, I have a SL that works fine with a 16W load. It's actually not particularly new - not even dual-band. Edited April 19, 2017 by jtara92101
Teken Posted April 19, 2017 Posted April 19, 2017 I'm going to add a plug in "nightlight" to the circuit in the attic. Will report back on performance. Please do and keep in mind the 2466 is one of the last Insteon switches that are still (Single Band). Meaning it sends its signal via power line and not (Dual Band) power line & RF. The 2466 toggle switch is also one of the few pieces of hardware that hasn't seen any internal hardware updates either. Unless you have a pressing need for the toggle switch look ~ Your best served installing a micro dimmer in place to offer dual band capability and 2017 hardware technology.
ENCJP Posted April 19, 2017 Author Posted April 19, 2017 2 Nightlights at 4W apiece (8W total) were not enough. I plugged a shop incandescent "fixture" with clamp in with a 60W bulb and it works. It's going to look like I have a squatter in my attic. I used the Togglelincs because when I built the house I chose toggles instead of Decora. I'd rather not have a combination of different switch styles especially since I'm now up to 12 Insteon toggle style switches
Teken Posted April 19, 2017 Posted April 19, 2017 2 Nightlights at 4W apiece (8W total) were not enough. I plugged a shop incandescent "fixture" with clamp in with a 60W bulb and it works. It's going to look like I have a squatter in my attic. I used the Togglelincs because when I built the house I chose toggles instead of Decora. I'd rather not have a combination of different switch styles especially since I'm now up to 12 Insteon toggle style switches In the future you can simply install the micro dimmers in the JB. This assumes there is enough clearance as older homes didn't have enough but since your home is fairly new (2015). JB space shouldn't be an issue in the box . . .
Recommended Posts