[beerdog]

I mistakenly put non-dimable flourescent bulbs in a light fixture. Not only did that fixture not work correctly, but another Halogen light fixture on the same fixtre was working strange. It would flicker and dim when operating the other lights switch. And...when the flourescent light was on the other halogen light would not dim correctly. I need to understand why this was happening?

Naturally, I put regular bulbs in the new light fixture and everything works correctly.

 

[joed]

CFL have electronic circuits in the big bulb at the base. Those electronics are designed for full voltage. When you start dimming you never know how they will react. The electronics gets confused and can even burn out.

 

[PaliBob]

Here is a post from two weeks ago with pics of the circuits inside a CFL:
http://www.diychatroom.com/f18/cfl-circuit-42564/
.