Unintended consequences
My office is lit by 4 halogen fixtures. Each will support up to a 300w bulb.
But I have a dimmer. The biggest dimmer you can get that will fit half a double-gang box is 1000w. And that's only if it is by itself; if you have something else in the box it will only support 900w. So I have 225w bulbs in the fixtures. 225w bulbs are not easy to find, let me tell you. But I digress.
So anyway recently, the dimmer stopped working right. I limped along with it for a while, but yesterday I pulled it and replaced it with a regular switch so I could call Lutron with the part number and get a replacement sent ( I love Lutron).
When I turned the lights back on, only 3 of the bulbs lit. "Hm. Must have been dead and I didn't notice. Oh well, I have spares, I'll replace it soon."
But this morning two bulbs are out.
Now, if I had just installed the dimmer, I'd assume it was the dimmer doing bad things. But this is just a lightswitch.
Then it occurred to me what the issue is:
When you turn on the lights with a dimmer, it's a soft start: The power ramps up from zero to your set level. When you turn on the lights with a switch, it's just off, the ON! Not a soft start. So these old bulbs (and while I don't recall which are the oldest, I definitely know that one of the surviving ones is the one I most recently replaced) couldn't handle the sudden jolts and expired.
So I'll be putting off the replacement of these bulbs until after the dimmer comes from Lutron (who are, as always, awesome).
But I have a dimmer. The biggest dimmer you can get that will fit half a double-gang box is 1000w. And that's only if it is by itself; if you have something else in the box it will only support 900w. So I have 225w bulbs in the fixtures. 225w bulbs are not easy to find, let me tell you. But I digress.
So anyway recently, the dimmer stopped working right. I limped along with it for a while, but yesterday I pulled it and replaced it with a regular switch so I could call Lutron with the part number and get a replacement sent ( I love Lutron).
When I turned the lights back on, only 3 of the bulbs lit. "Hm. Must have been dead and I didn't notice. Oh well, I have spares, I'll replace it soon."
But this morning two bulbs are out.
Now, if I had just installed the dimmer, I'd assume it was the dimmer doing bad things. But this is just a lightswitch.
Then it occurred to me what the issue is:
When you turn on the lights with a dimmer, it's a soft start: The power ramps up from zero to your set level. When you turn on the lights with a switch, it's just off, the ON! Not a soft start. So these old bulbs (and while I don't recall which are the oldest, I definitely know that one of the surviving ones is the one I most recently replaced) couldn't handle the sudden jolts and expired.
So I'll be putting off the replacement of these bulbs until after the dimmer comes from Lutron (who are, as always, awesome).