Can You Dim Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs

Compact fluorescent lamps cfls are replacing incandescent light bulbs at a rapid rate due to their tremendous energy savings and longer lifetime.

Can you dim compact fluorescent light bulbs.

I tried reading. Both bulbs are very dim but evenly lit along their length and both the same as each other. However it requires a dimming ballast which can be quite expensive and the amount of dimming is limited to about 20. Is this a sign the ballast needs to be replaced.

Yes compact fluorescent lamps can be dimmed. A fluorescent lamp works much the way a neon tube does. Eventually the bulb simply won t light. We can say it is actually possible to dim fluorescent tubes but not without also saying that we highly discourage you to do so.

Another reason you need more lumens is that a cfl will dim over time. A quite tricky point and therefore the tough question to answer. Fyi fluorescent lights do not dim well at all. Incandescent bulbs also lose lumens but the life of these bulbs is extremely short compared with that of cfls.

Our kitchen light which uses two 4 foot fluorescent light bulbs is very dim. While an led bulb is not the same technology as a cfl there are the same types of dimmer light bulb compatibility issues. If you re thinking of using a. Additional energy savings can be achieved by dimming but the electronic ballast required to control the lamp has a higher cost and is difficult to design.

The answer is yes. Shows you how he did it. And what about an led light bulb or fixture. It will lose 20 to 25 percent lumen power after 4 000 hours 40 percent of a cfl s 10 000 hour rated life.

Take a bulb from a fixture working properly and test it in the flickering fixture. Often a failing fluorescent light bulb will begin to darken or even look black at one or both ends. There are electrodes at each end that are heated in order to reduce the amount of strike current required to excite the gas in the tube. This morning they were completely dark at first but are now very dim again.

Since it started doing this one time it lit fully for about five or ten minutes. It is not recommended that you use regular compact fluorescent bulbs with dimming switches since this can dramatically shorten the bulb life. Fluorescent dimming how fluorescent fixtures work. It is not recommended for your pocket time nor your expectations.

Also look for black or other discoloration in the flickering bulb.