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Thread: Dimming %age Best Practices

  1. #1

    Dimming %age Best Practices

    I notice it seems like the dimmers out of the box default to 75%, but without thinking I've been setting all my keypads to hit 100% when things are on. Should I instead be defaulting to 75% as my "On" and only using 100% in special circumstances?Thanks!

  2. #2
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    The default is "Locked Preset" and the setting is 75%. I typically turn this off. The dimmer will then go to last level with a single press. For keypads, I set everything to 75%. Then I tweak it based on the individual zone. This gives me/the owner the ability to turn up the level if they want. I know it sounds odd, but if you set everything to 100%, you have no options to offer the owner.
    Convergence Technologies Raleigh, North Carolina
    www.convergenceusa.com

  3. #3
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    As with anything it's so dependent on the final user and/or contractor. Have one contractor that wants three buttons at the main entry. Show, Mood, Exterior, Goodbye. That's it. all other ky are left blank. Then when I get the call house is sold or ready for move in I then program generically so anyone can walk in the house and use the system. If I have met the owners then I'll get some ideas from them. All this to say my general setup is keypads go 100( except MOOD and ROOM LO) and dimmers are set to 100. Generally. One down fall of the Maestro line is the dimming rocker can be used by the uninformed as the on/off. But dimming all the way down doesn't turn it all off. So you may have lights on very, very low and no one knows. Next person comes in taps the dimmer and no light come on. They call me and I tell them to dim it up. Or maybe you want a toilet light to always come on low but all others high. Or the wife likes her bath high and he like his bath low. If it's a rental property whole nother ball game.

  4. #4
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    Also had another house where all where set to default 75%. With most LED you won't see a diff from 100-75. Sometimes 100-50 may not even change much. Then you have to play with the min/max settings. This customer saw everything going to 75% on the app and had me change it all to 100. There was no diff to the naked eye.

  5. #5
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    I try to use bulbs that are brighter than I would normally need them to be, and default the dimmers and scenes to a pleasant level (usually 50% to 75% unless it's a low light scene). That way, I can double tap a dimmer (or add a "Cleanup" scene with all dimmers in a room at 100%) and it gives me lots of extra light for cleaning the room. I see this as an added benefit of LEDs. Lots of extra light without overloading a fixture.

  6. #6
    Quote Originally Posted by gt3mike View Post
    I try to use bulbs that are brighter than I would normally need them to be, and default the dimmers and scenes to a pleasant level (usually 50% to 75% unless it's a low light scene). That way, I can double tap a dimmer (or add a "Cleanup" scene with all dimmers in a room at 100%) and it gives me lots of extra light for cleaning the room. I see this as an added benefit of LEDs. Lots of extra light without overloading a fixture.
    +1 Especially in a retrofit scenario. Feit retrofit fixtures perform really well with RadioRA 2 dimmers. Costco has them for less than $10 per fixture. But they're all 75w equivalents. So the dimmers all get set to 75% default. So glad I went with full RadioRA 2. This is a major negative for RA2 Select and Caseta. Even much cheaper Z-Wave devices have default on levels.And I too have a cleaning scene that turns on all lights to 100%. Works great.

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