Receptacles for Dimming Use

Greetings All,So I bought a CAR-15-HDTR so I could dim some nightstand lamps and used a PD-5NE-WH dimmer to dim these lights. Everything works great when there is a load applied --- but what is the best practice when there is no load. The dimmer goes into this constant search pattern -- keeps trying to turn the lights on/off. Is there a best practice here or something I missed? If I were to move out, this dimmer would forever be turning itself on and off.Would the LUT-MLC provide enough of a load to keep the dimmer happy in the off position?Thanks!

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Originally Posted by rage_fury

Greetings All,So I bought a CAR-15-HDTR so I could dim some nightstand lamps and used a PD-5NE-WH dimmer to dim these lights. Everything works great when there is a load applied --- but what is the best practice when there is no load. The dimmer goes into this constant search pattern -- keeps trying to turn the lights on/off. Is there a best practice here or something I missed? If I were to move out, this dimmer would forever be turning itself on and off.Would the LUT-MLC provide enough of a load to keep the dimmer happy in the off position?Thanks!

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Make sure you have power in on the black lead, out to the lights on the red. There should be nothing attached to the blue screw. You must connect the neutral.

The MLC isn't recommended for use with dimmers. Some have used it successfully.

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Originally Posted by randyc

Make sure you have power in on the black lead, out to the lights on the red. There should be nothing attached to the blue screw. You must connect the neutral. The MLC isn't recommended for use with dimmers. Some have used it successfully.

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Yea, it's definitely hooked up correctly. I was under the impression that if it had a neutral, that it wouldn't require a minimum load but after having this issue, I looked it up and it shows that the PD-5NE requires a minimum load of 10W.Any ideas on how to make the switch behave normally if nothing is plugged in yet?

Try adding the MLC. It originally was not intended for dimming use, but Lutron has softened on it. I have used it several times with moderately good success. Having the neutral allows the dimmer to remain powered and "online" when no load is present (also allows for adding dimmer to app without the load present), but the minimum load for the dimmer to operate consistently is 10W. It may not solve your issue, but it you have one, it's an easy check to see if it works. For interest, why are you unplugging the lamp? The purpose of the dedicated dimming receptacles is that they never need to be unplugged. No other device should be able to plug into that position anyway.

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Originally Posted by SDR-Mike

Try adding the MLC. It originally was not intended for dimming use, but Lutron has softened on it. I have used it several times with moderately good success. Having the neutral allows the dimmer to remain powered and "online" when no load is present (also allows for adding dimmer to app without the load present), but the minimum load for the dimmer to operate consistently is 10W. It may not solve your issue, but it you have one, it's an easy check to see if it works. For interest, why are you unplugging the lamp? The purpose of the dedicated dimming receptacles is that they never need to be unplugged. No other device should be able to plug into that position anyway.

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So I have a 4 bedroom house but one bedroom is an office. I was redoing the house with Caseta and wanted the bedrooms to be ready for lamps. I have no intention of ever putting a lamp in my office, but it should be setup correctly if it would become a bedroom one day. I guess the other option is remove the dimmed outlet and put a pico in and use the smart plug...but a bunch of wall warts isn't very clean looking.

I'm not a fan of dimming outlets. I would use the PD-3PCL. Except for a couple of gray buttons, it is white and a little smaller than a plate. For the most part it will disappear. Plus you can always move it to another location.