Sometime lurker first time poster.
As some of you may know, I wanted a very bright play area for my
unique kids room basement project.
I purchased a pilot number of these:
GE R30 Compact Florescent Lamp (CFL)
They claim to dimmable. From the package “works with most dimming switches”
They work very well on a regular single pole configuration.
I believe them to be of type: Magnetic Low Voltage MLV – CFL.
I purchased this dimmer from
Lutron Maestro the only where it said it was for incandescent was in Spanish so I missed it. While it is clear that they make types specifically for MLV, this dimmer seems pretty “standard” to me. So,as you may have guessed, it didn't work.
So, I returned to my favorite money sink:
Lowes and purchased a different model of dimmer that specifically, on the package, said is was for Magnetic Low Voltage-type devices. It was of the type
Cooper Wiring Devices ASPIRE™ Slide Dimmer
Hooked it up and guess what? It didn't work either.
So I said “
this, to hell with the environment” and hooked up the original Lutron dimmer back up and started counting the number of regular incandescent fixtures I would need.
It was dark, no lights duh, and I replaced the first of 6 lights with an old incandescent I had.
Here is where our story takes a twist: All the lights came on. In fact, the incandescent worked correctly and the CFLs dimmed to some degree. :huh:
You should know that I had a professional wire this system and the CFLs work on a regular switch and also the dimmer works with regular bulbs. (scientifically tested.)
Questions:
- Am I correct? Are these actually MLV-type ballasts?
- Any technical reason why the Lutron dimmers didn't fit the type of “most dimming switches.”
- Any hypothesis as to why the replacement dimmers didn't work?
- Any recommendations as to how this turkey can be made to fly?
