What's your favorite brand of dimmable non incandescent light bulb?

[fasttimes]

Spotlights, reading lamps, etc, I still can't find a decent bulb that gives a full range of dimming as those of incandescents. Are there any decent bulbs out there yet?

[lilyoyo1]

Philips warm glow LED bulbs work great for me. I have the br30's and standard bulbs in that line

[jtara92101]

You will not find one that does architectural (<1%) dimming on an SCR dimmer. It is impossible.

 

Warm glow bulbs do "OK" due to a side-effect of their "color temperature changing" trickery. There are a few LEDs that are always on at a constant level and they have a lower color temperature. They are driven by a circuit that will work at very low voltage levels. As the voltage is reduced, the few LEDs with the warmer color temperature dominate the emitted spectrum. It is not so difficult to make a circuit that can drive those few LEDs at a low voltage input as it is to drive ALL of the LEDs at a low voltage input. I guess one could make an also "OK" bulb that does not have changing color temperature by doing something similar with all of the LEDs at one color temperature.

 

But, really, the scheme involve extreme and silly over-complication in order to accommodate existing control devices (e.g. SCR dimmers).

 

Almost ALL bulbs with INTERNAL dimmers can dim to architectural levels with no problem. This includes e.g. Hue bulbs (but which may suffer from OTHER glitches) and many commercial troffers that use old-school analog 0-10V dimming signal or that use some proprietary or standard (e.g. DALI, DMX512, etc.) digital signaling scheme.

 

I think this link will "shed light" on the subject. This is ONE of the new solutions in the offing:

 

http://www.enlight-project.eu/user/files/insta_ledotron-article_25_09_2013.pdf

 

The basic issue is we are trying to retrofit existing wiring. The kind of LED bulbs we screw into standard outlets will be an odd curiosity from a few years of history in the future. They are a strange transitional adaptation that will never work really well.

 

Save them for your children's retirement! They will be worth a bundle! You can make-up for the childhood toys that you failed to leave in the box, unopened, or the Apple I you threw in the trash!

[lilyoyo1]

Trickery or not, it works really great. Even with my edison bulbs, I never go down to 1%. All of my bulbs are on a 2 second fade. These are the only ones that I have found that allows me to fade on and off properly. They don't have that instant on affect like other leds that i've come across

[gweempose]

I will second the recommendation for the Philips warm glow LED bulbs. I have them all over my house and couldn't be happier.

[larryllix]

I have had good luck with Philips. I can't afford any more and their prices are too high here. It is cheaper to stick with tungsten types over the course of their, or my expected life and current hydro rates.

 

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[giesen]

Larry note that the Philips Warm Glow bulbs qualify for an instant rebate from Hydro One. It's only a few bucks off but may help with the cost a bit.

 

http://www.hydroone.com/MyHome/SaveEnergy/Pages/Coupons.aspx?utm_source=Radio&utm_medium=Radio&utm_campaign=Coupon_Event_Fall_2015#lighting-coupons

 

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[larryllix]

Larry note that the Philips Warm Glow bulbs qualify for an instant rebate from Hydro One. It's only a few bucks off but may help with the cost a bit.

 

http://www.hydroone.com/MyHome/SaveEnergy/Pages/Coupons.aspx?utm_source=Radio&utm_medium=Radio&utm_campaign=Coupon_Event_Fall_2015#lighting-coupons

 

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Thanks. I have used  lot of them so far and it helps.The other brands end up being in the few dollar range each, but Philips has maintained it's prices too high. I had enough of ther CFL bulbs (about $500 worth) burning out  in less than a year or two.

 

I never did buy any of their silly flat bulbs they tried to start a fad with. After HD sales people telling me the crowd just loved those odd looking bulbs, they ended up being sold off for about a dollar in their junk clearance shelf. LOL

 

I have noticed that Philips has a new bulb with three functions inside it. I couldn't figure out how it switches modes. Probably power cycling.

[sfhutchi]

How do these Philips warm glow lights 'turn on' when fading up?  I understand that an LED light won't turn on light an incandescant bulb, but my experience has been that even the ones that say that they dim from 10-100%, abrubtly turn on at about 30%+ but you can then 'back down' to something lower if wanted.  Gives an awful scene transition.

[mikewu99]

How do these Philips warm glow lights 'turn on' when fading up? I understand that an LED light won't turn on light an incandescant bulb, but my experience has been that even the ones that say that they dim from 10-100%, abrubtly turn on at about 30%+ but you can then 'back down' to something lower if wanted. Gives an awful scene transition.

I have a bunch of warm glow BR30s in recessed lights. I just checked using MobiLinc and they definitely turn on at 10% (the finest resolution I can get through MobiLinc) and seem to increase smoothly in brightness as I step up 20%, 30%, etc.

 

I really chose these bulbs because their light gets warmer as they dim. I find the unchanging color temperature of all other dimmable LEDs creepy at low light levels. The superior dimming performance is just a bonus.

 

I bought them in packs of six from Amazon for a little less than $6 per bulb.

 

Also, not all Philips bulbs are warm glow - they will be specifically identified as such.

 

 

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