Will a lower lumen led dim to a lower level than a higher one before turning off

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06-10-2020, 10:23 PM
djarchow

Will a lower lumen led dim to a lower level than a higher one before turning off

I am experimenting with LEDs to replace the incandescent bulbs in my home theater that are controlled by an old 4 zone Grafik Eye 3000. I have 50 watt par30s in the ceiling cans and 60 watt candelabra bulbs in the wall sconces. I tried a newer version of a 75 watt equivalent par30 Phillips bulb Lutron previously tested and it worked OK, though as expected it didn't dim as low as my halogens before turning off. I could make due with this. Too bad they don't make a 50 watt equivalent version though.I also tried a 60 watt equivalent Phillips candelabra bulb that Lutron said was approved for my Grafik Eye. This also worked OK when on full to medium brightness, but didn't dim down nearly as far as I wanted to match the current scene for movies. I never run the sconces at full brightness anyway so if I switched to a 45 watt or even a 25 watt version of the same bulb would it be dimmer at the low end before shutting off than the higher lumen version of the same bulb? Thanks for any help.Kind regards,Dennis
06-11-2020, 09:05 PM
randyc

Quote:

Originally Posted by djarchow

I am experimenting with LEDs to replace the incandescent bulbs in my home theater that are controlled by an old 4 zone Grafik Eye 3000. I have 50 watt par30s in the ceiling cans and 60 watt candelabra bulbs in the wall sconces. I tried a newer version of a 75 watt equivalent par30 Phillips bulb Lutron previously tested and it worked OK, though as expected it didn't dim as low as my halogens before turning off. I could make due with this. Too bad they don't make a 50 watt equivalent version though.I also tried a 60 watt equivalent Phillips candelabra bulb that Lutron said was approved for my Grafik Eye. This also worked OK when on full to medium brightness, but didn't dim down nearly as far as I wanted to match the current scene for movies. I never run the sconces at full brightness anyway so if I switched to a 45 watt or even a 25 watt version of the same bulb would it be dimmer at the low end before shutting off than the higher lumen version of the same bulb? Thanks for any help.Kind regards,Dennis

Generally speaking, yes. If your dimmer spec says it can go to 1%, 1% of 400 lumens is going to be less than 1% of 600 lumens (I think). The problem is going to be the driver. They vary greatly, even with the same manufacturer. The 600 lumen bulb may go to 1% fine but the 400 lumen may only dim to 5% before it drops off or flickers.

Lutron lists the lower limits for the bulbs they test. You would be surprised how many are in the teens, twenties or even higher. At this point it is trial and error.
06-13-2020, 10:35 AM
djarchow

Randy, Thanks for the information. I appreciate it. I will try a lower lumen version of the bulbs and see how they perform. Lutron's test reports of the ones I bought say they dim down to 10% but that was still a lot brighter than I had the incandescent versions set for in this scene. It seemed like the dimming curve was not as linear as the incandescent bulbs. When I got near the bottom of the dimming range in my Grafik Eye I would still see a definite change in the brightness of the old bulbs with each step lower. With the LED, at some point, three or four clicks of the dimmer control didn't result in the LED getting any dimmer and then it just shut off. Leds have came a long way, but in some respects they have a ways to go to beat incandescent.Now if I could just find a par30 LED that would work with the two dozen 15 year old Maestro dimmers I have in the rest of the house...Again, thanks!