I have a couple of the Cree dimmable LED bulbs from HD installed with my Linear dimmer switches which are supposedly compatible with dimmable LED bulbs but when turning the lights on they flicker slightly at low light levels and the transition is pretty choppy. This kind of ruins the point of my rise and shine app that I have running with this dimmer (in my bedroom). Can anyone recommend either an LED bulb or dimmer switch (or combination) that transitions smoothly? Cirrus Logic bulbs look pretty nice but they don’t appear to be very omnidirectional.
I have a Cree bulb with a GE dimmer plug. It works great at all but the lowest few settings. Then it does flicker. Another off-brand bulb I have does not dim all the way to off. I think if you really need low level dimming with LEDs a connected bulb is going to be the way to go.
I think dimmer z-wave switches are for incandescent bulbs and not necessarily for dimmable CFL or LED. My understanding is that those connected dimmable switches, which often doesn’t require neutral wire, draw tiny amount of electric current to keep z-wave circuit running at off status without neutral or battery source. While incandescent bulbs are immune to such condition, CFLs and LEDs - whether dimmable or not - doesn’t like constant current going through their circuit. It may cause them to malfunction or shorten the lifespan of the bulbs.
I’m stuck with a house with no neutral wiring, so I hope my understanding is wrong and dimmable LEDs do work with dimmable z-wave switches without being damaged. Heck I would even take some flickering or simply use dimmer switch as a on/off switch.
Supposedly if you have more than 40 watts on that switch the flickering should go away.
Supposedly…I’ve not had much luck with this personally. I also use the Cree bulbs from HD. When I had a GE dimmer, they were awful with flickering. I returned that to Amazon and picked up an Evolve dimmer which is MUCH better. Very little flickering, but still some. I think the Evolve works better because it needs a Neutral wire to be connected to it. I would also point out that my dimmer is controlling 4 cree LED’s that are rated at I believe 60 watts.
Jeff
I’ve got some LED bulbs… can’t remember the brand off the top of my head, but I’ve got them on a GE dimmer and they work great. I’ve got 4 of them. The only issues I have is I’ll sometimes see a flicker if I have them on full. If I drop back just a little bit then they don’t flicker at all.
The Evolv dimmer I have which uses a neutral works fine with LEDs
I thought ALL Z-Wave switches required a neutral?
Some can get away with it by passing a small amount of current. However, this doesn’t work with most dimmers.
I have the GE ZWave Wall dimmer switch, and these bulbs, and it doesn’t work AT ALL. Very disappointed.
http://www.lowes.com/pd_472703-75774-LA19DMLEDG2_0__?productId=50109746&Ntt=
Btw, you probably mean they are rated equivalent to 60W incandescent bulbs. The Cree bulbs themselves are 9.5W’s each.