I have 1 GE on/off switch, 2 Kwikset locks, a thermostat that is zwave controlled and 2 GE 45606 dimmer switches. The thermostat, Kwikset locks and on/off switch work fine - it is the 45606 switches that I am having an issue with.
I have one of the 45606 dimmer switches on a dining room light that has 9 bulbs - right now, 3 LED bulbs and 6 regular 60 watt lights. In the kitchen, I have 5 can lights that I replaced with the Cree 10.5 LED lights. I replaced the kitchen lights a couple at a time since they were kinda expensive (39.95 at the local Home Depot). The kitchen lights were working fine when I had 3 LED and 2 regular lights. When I replaced the final two, I started having issues with the kitchen light.
(1) When the kitchen lights are on full, they look good. When I turn on the dining room light, the kitchen lights dim for a second or two then go back to full brightness.
(2) When the kitchen light and/or the dining room light in on and I use the pull chain to turn off the ceiling fan in the living room, both kitchn lights will turn off! The blue ‘spotter’ lights are still on and I can go over and turn the lights back on. I can even change the ceiling fan speeds and the lights stay on but as soon as I pull the chain to turn off the fan, the 2 sets of lights go off.
The light that I have on the on/off switch does not seem to be affected with the other lights/fan BUT it is on a different circuit.
The townhouse isn’t too old - built in 2004. We’ve been in it for 10 months. I have done a heal many times with my Vera 2 and no effect. I replaced one of the dimmer switches, no effect. I have checked the outlets with a tester and they are wired correctly. I don’t know how to check if the wiring for the light switches was done properly. Also, both lights and the ceiling fan are on the same breaker.
Does anyone have a clue as to what the issue is that I am having?
[quote=“gestep, post:1, topic:170056”]Does anyone have a clue as to what the issue is that I am having?
Thanks for reading this long post!
Gene[/quote]
Sounds like there is a common wire (maybe a neutral) where it shouldn’t be to cause the circuits to interact, either that or the LEDs are too light a load for the dimmers.
Have you a test meter, can you check circuit voltages in various states and see if anything looks odd?
Fibaro do a special load module for use with their dimmers when currents are very low to stop strange things happening, one of those might help your dimmers as well.
Can you try temporarily adding an incandescent light across the LED lights and see if it makes things work better?
I put a regular bulb in place of one of the LEDs in the kitchen and the lights work correctly. When the fan is turned off, it does not affect either the dining room or the kitchen light. To rule out an LED that is defective, I moved the 60 watt bulb to another of the can lights in the kitchen (there are 5) and the lights still worked okay with the regular bulb.
I looked at the Fibro website but don’t see where any of their products are available. Is there some other place that I could go to and get something that would load the circuit so that I can take out the 60 watt regular bulb and still have what I need to work?
It concerns me that there might be a wire (the neutral) that might be out of place. Every light that I want to control is on the same circuit so if the issue is bad wiring, it will affect the 2, 3 way switches that I also want to install.
I forgot to add that all the LED lights are dimmable.
I don’t have access to a meter at the moment but I’m not even sure what I would need to check.
Yes, one regular bulb in place of one of the LEDs does make everything work. What else can I do to make it work - looks kinda ugly to have these 4 nice can lights in the kitchen and one odd-ball light as light number 5.
I hate to even call an electrician as there will probably be a large fee while they troubleshoot and I’m not sure how to find someone that has experience with LED lights and the trouble that they may cause.
I did visit the Fibaro site as was earlier suggested as it does seem that if I could introduce a load in the circuit and leave the lights in place, that that would correct my problem. However, it doesn’t seem like any of the Fibaro items are sold in the US.
Would it be worth my while to fiddle with the settings for the switch (ramp rate for example)? Could a different brand of switch work? I hate to buy one as they are pretty expensive just to test it out!
Thanks for any suggestions that anyone can shoot my way!
I did check the price and the Fibaro bypass item would be about $15 US plus shiping costs. Does anyone know if there is something from the US that I could purchase that would serve the same purpose?
I have looked at Smarthome and checked the forums (Cocoon Tech for example) and I haven’t seen anything that would give me that load that I need. I would think that with 5 of the Cree canlights at 10.5 watts EACH would be enough for the GE dimmer switch, but maybe LED watts don’t add up the same way that we would add watts for incandescent lighting.
When I started this project, I really thought that it would be as simple as replacing the on/off switch and the incandescent lighting with a z-wave dimmer and LEDs. Guess I shouldn’t have been so naive
Thanks all!
Best Home Automation shopping experience. Shop at Ezlo!
