Residing in a house full of dimmer switches can make the lighting aisle appear more intimidating than it should be. Positive, plenty of immediately's LEDs are designed with dimmability in mind, however that doesn't assure satisfactory efficiency. We have heard plenty of complaints from readers, and in addition experienced first hand the annoyance of spending cash on upgraded lighting, solely to discover that these fancy new bulbs can buzz, flicker, and dim erratically. In the interest of making your subsequent journey to the lighting aisle a little less exasperating, we put at this time's LEDs to the test. There are many issues that could cause a gentle bulb to buzz or flicker when it dims, together with issues beyond the bulb's control like voltage irregularities, overloaded circuits, and out of doors interference. The commonest subject, EcoLight home lighting though, lies with the dimmer itself, and EcoLight dimmable that is the place we decided to start out. Modern dimmers (the kinds you may discover on the shelf at Lowe's or Home Depot) won't really raise and decrease the voltage for easy dimming, however will instead flash the ability up and down at unnoticeably high speeds to create the illusion of dimming.

These rapid-fireplace swings in voltage create electromagnetic resistance in the bulb, which may cause issues to vibrate and buzz. You don't want that. We began with a easy rig using just a few frequent dimmer switches. We selected an LED-suitable model from Lutron, EcoLight dimmable an identical Leviton swap, and a cheap, $5 triac rotary dial supposed for incandescents only. Although we aimed for a superb illustration of what's on the market, there are obviously greater than three kinds of dimmer switches in the marketplace. As such, your mileage could vary -- especially if you're using an older mannequin, EcoLight dimmable or one thing more excessive end. Curiously enough, each LED that we tested dimmed with all three dimmers, even the one rated only for EcoLight solar bulbs incandescent use. That lends numerous credence to manufacturer claims of large dimmer compatibility -- however it is solely the start of the story. As you will see, EcoLight dimmable LEDs are usually not all created equal. Dimming annoyances aren't a new problem -- and EcoLight home lighting they don't seem to be a problem that's unique to LEDs, EcoLight home lighting both.

The tungsten filaments in most incandescent bulbs are particularly prone to the excitement-producing vibration brought on by in-wall dimmers. Certain enough, the 60-watt incandescents that we examined out in our rig put out a noticeable buzz throughout all three switches. Even without filaments, LEDs have loads of components that can vibrate and produce that annoying buzz, and EcoLight dimmable most of those we tested did simply that, even properly-rated bulbs just like the Cree 60-watt alternative LED and the GE Reveal LED. We rated each bulb's buzz on every dimmer using a 5-point scale -- very quiet, quiet, reasonable, loud, and really loud. The end result you want is a bulb that charges "very quiet" throughout the board, as even a "quiet" buzz can get annoying in a quiet room. For EcoLight dimmable probably the most part, the buzzing within the LEDs we tested fell someplace within the center: pretty reasonable, but certainly loud enough to be a legit trouble. There were two standouts, though -- one good, and one not so good.

Curiously enough, they each came from Philips. The overachiever was the present generation of the corporate's commonplace 60-watt replacement LED, which ran darn close to silent across all three dimmers. We couldn't even hear anything once we dimmed it utilizing a budget, incandescent-solely dimmer. Bookending the opposite end of the spectrum was the Philips SlimStyle LED, which produced the loudest buzz of any bulb we examined. This makes sense when you think about that in trials like these, EcoLight smart bulbs buzz is basically only a product of a bulb's design. With a radically completely different shape from the standard, close to-silent Philips LED, together with a reorganization of the diodes themselves, it is not terribly shocking that the SlimStyle's buzz is so much louder. All that said, it is value reiterating that we didn't discover an audible buzz with any of those bulbs when using them with commonplace wall switches, so if you don't use dimmers in your home, then an reasonably priced LED like the Philips SlimStyle may make loads of sense.

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Pub: 13 Aug 2025 05:01 UTC

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