GE 12730 Smart Fan control with only lights

Lowes was out of GE switches on my last trip so I bought 2 fan controls thinking they would work like dimmers for some 500 watt floods I have outside. Well it doesn’t. It doesn’t even turn on. Has anyone got these to work as a switch for lights at all? I don’t understand why it wouldn’t work.

quiet ceiling fan controls usually switch small capacitances to change fan speeds. It definitely won’t dim a light, but I would have expected the light to at least turn on. Maybe 500+watts is too much power for the fan speed switch since a ceiling fan is usually less than 2 amps/200watts.

definitely a misapplication, don’t use fan speed control on lights, might start a fire, too many unknowns. Switch may now be burned out.