I have a reflected lighting system I installed in my living room, using 4 banks of 3 halogen 50 watt indoor floods. I was using an X-10 system to control it (dimming, on-off) for years but it would freeze up on certain banks periodically. I switched to using a GE Z-wave system a few months ago. I have a couple of 45601 controllers and 4 45602 lamp module dimmers. Everything was fine, until a halogen bulb blew. It disabled the lamp module when it blew. I tried resetting it, re-programming it, but to no avail. I ordered another (at $45) thinking it was a fluke. A month later, another halogen bulb blew in another bank of 3, and it disabled the associated lamp module again. I can’t afford to keep replacing these expensive lamp modules. I wrote to Jasco who makes it, and their only answer was to use the appliance module; that is useless as it has no dimmer capabilities. I then thought perhaps I’d replace the halogens with LED indoor flood lights. I tried one out alone, only to encounter the flickering problem. I don’t have that flickering problem when I use the LED flood light with the X-10 system I still have in another room. Unless I can come up with a solution, I’ll have to scrap the expensive Z-wave system and go back to X-10 (and order spare everything for when they freeze up). Can anyone help? Much appreciated.
That sucks. I wouldn’t think that a halogen bulb would behave differently than incandescent when it blows. You’ve tried connecting it to a different load (light) and also tried excluding it? How many watts did you have on it, since it is only rated for 300W? The manual has a concerning section for your situation, “Additional over-current protection is provided by an internal fuse which is not user serviceable.” :o I would at least try returning them under warranty. There are other Z-wave brands that are constructed differently that you might try.
I had three 50 watt halogen bulbs plugged into a short extension cord, plugged into the Z-wave unit, so 150 watts total. This was in each case. Halogen bulbs can make a high flash when they blow; I don’t know if the surge is great enough for one 50 watt to cause the total of 150 watts to exceed the 300 watt limit. It seems unlikely. I never had that trouble with the cheaper X-10 system. It’s looking like I’ll have to return to that, which sucks. The Z-wave system I have was expensive enough that I won’t try another brand just to see if it works.
Halogen lights blow differently, not sure how but I think they can short out briefly when they do. I have had several cases where dimmers (regular ones and Z-wave) got damaged in the process.
Some dimmers have a fuse for this reason. My Duewi Z-wave modules do… when I pulled the fuse holder out, I even found a helpful spare fuse clamped in the holder above the live fuse.
Your experience is concerning, but if you google something like ‘halogen bulb blows damages dimmer’, you’ll find many reports of halogen bulbs damaging dimmers. Here’s a particularly informative thread. As intveltr wrote, it’s both z-wave and non-z-wave. If it was common with z-wave, I’d expect to see many reports, which there aren’t. Has this happened with different brands of halogen? Depending on your bulb type, you might also consider using incandescent which are mostly still available.