Aeon Labs Aeotec DSC19103-ZWUS Z-Wave Micro Smart Energy Illuminator

Other Devices & Integrations Lighting & Load Control
1

I just wanted to post about my experience with this dimmer switch. I bought the Aeon Labs Aeotec DSC19103-ZWUS Z-Wave Micro Smart Energy Illuminator to use with the lights in the front of my house. The original thought was that I would use them with existing incandescent bulbs now and maybe replace with LEDs later. By dimming the lights, I could significantly save in energy costs over time. For example, the lights come on 30 minutes after sunset at 30%, when someone opens a door or the garage door they go up to 100% and revert back to the 30% a short time after the door is closed, and are turned off 30 minutes before sunrise.

Later, in reading the documentation from Aeotec, it’s stated that the dimmer won’t work with LED bulbs, bummer. However, in testing I used 3 LED bulbs and I was successfully able to get them to dim with this switch. The only problem was that they will not dim from a greater percentage to a lesser percentage. The solution was to turn them off and then bring them back up to the desired percentage, but I am not sure that they stayed at that percentage. Out of curiosity I also tried to dim some non-dimmable CFLs, that did not work to well at all. One weird observation was that when using just one CFL, it initially dimmed until it warmed up, then it would not dim.

Questions I have.

  1. Would the use of non-dimmable CFl’s, or non-recommended LEDs be damaging to the switch over time?
  2. If I just used the switch as on/off and not a dimmer, could I then use non-dimmable CFL’s?

The reason I ask is that I have a box of crappy CFL’s that were a “gift” from our power company here in NC. They are the worst bulbs I have ever used. The light is useless for any inside application, and the bulbs burn out in short time. So, I would like to just use these in the interim while I wait for the LED market to improve.

Overall, I am happy with the dimmer and would probably buy a few more. To me at 49 vs 44 dollars, I would probably buy the smart version again even if it seems a little gimmicky at the moment, it is cool to see the power usage. Hope this helps someone else.

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I have one of these and my tests are:

  1. a CFL or another not dimmable lamp must be used with dimmer in 100%
  2. it dimerizes led lamps ( I use philips), but you must search for compatible dimmable lamps (you should do tests), sometimes the lamp is dimmable but with that dimmer not runs good (flickes). philips are good for me.
  3. I think if you use low quality bulbs or leds with the time the device will damage. this is valid for all devices. then search for approved and good quality lamps.

I hope this helps you.