Re: dimmable cfl's ?


"Ken Weitzel" <kweitzel@xxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:52sfe.1279990$Xk.373708@xxxxxxxxxxx
>
> Hi...
>
> Anyone happen to know what the diff is between
> dimmable cfl's and the regular ones?
>
> Friend has a chandelier with half a dozen bulbs in
> it, and would like to use cfl's. Confusion is that
> the dimmable ones cost about 4 times as much, and
> regular ones work real real wierd :)
>
> Thanks, and take care.
>
> Ken
>
>

If you look up ballast controller chips and look at the datasheets you'll
see the difference. The dimmable ones are quite a bit more complex, they use
a somewhat different power supply design and they provide a separate voltage
to keep the cathodes in the tube heated when the tube is dimmed. I have a
few and they're mediocre, they're large and clunky and flicker if you dim
them too far but they worked ok in the rec room in the last house I lived
in. In the one light in my house that's on a dimmer now I use incandescent
lamps, it's not on very much anyway.


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