Controlling Large Chandelier

Community Playground General Discussions
1

I have a large (18 light) chandelier in the foyer, which currently has 60 W bulbs in it, so that is 1080 Watts right now. I want to add a 3 Way Dimmer to it, but without thinking just bought the standard GE 3 way dimmer switches, which are rated at 500 W.

If I change the bulbs to compact fluorescents the equivalent CFL would be about 15 W, which would mean I would have 270 W, but would the GE switch work with CFLs? And is this the best solution?

2

Probably not. In order to use dimmers with compact fluorescent lights you need a special CFL plus a dimmer that will manage them. If you look on the GE/Jasco page (http://www.jascoproducts.com/z-wave/Z-Wave-Products.asp), the only products listed for CFLs are not dimmable.

3

I bought some dimmable CFL’s from Ebay awhile back and have them installed in a couple of table lamps. Have Intermatic HA03 modules controlling them. They are working fine. Don’t see why you couldn’t put a whole bunch on the same module as long as the CFL’s are all the same.

4

Thanks for the advice, decided to go with 25W standard bulbs, which will give me 450W, which should be fine for lighting requirements. I did look at the dimmable CFLs, but they were $9 each at Lowes, so $160+ for light bulbs seemed a bit much :o

5

RF9536-N - 1000 watt Z-Wave Dimmer (Cooper Aspire RF)

6

Decent alternative, but expensive and I don’t need that much wattage from this light really anyway.

Guess this also explains why the fixture had 2 separate leads from it, I guess in case you wanted to split the load.