Hello everyone!
This is my first post on the board, so be gentle on the newb.
I am a lighting designer here in LA, CA. I also do home automation.
I attened Light Fair International ( running joke this year there was LED Fair International) this last spring in Las Vegas, and it was all LED lamps, and fixtures.
It was overwhelming! I mean EVERYTHING was LED.
I must have seen 10K LED lamps (bulbs).
All of the manufactures stated that their bulb dimmed, had a good warm color, blah blah blah.
EVERY! and I mean EVERY retrofit lamp I looked at had problems. Not one dimmed well. They would have color shift once you start dimming them, they would flicker at lower levels, and would not start in a low dimmed position without a POP to get it started.
Now I am not saying there are not some really good looking retrofit lamps. I was really impressed with temprature color (kelvin), color rendering index (High CRI), lumes / watt, But I would never dim any of them. I have used lots of LED lamps in landscape lighting, retail lighting, office lighting, and hospitality.
I LOVE LED technology! It is our future!
But when it comes to dimming retrofit lamps, I would never give any of my clients anything that is on the market today. Tomorrow maybe?
There are however some really great LED recess cans, and fixtures out there that do dim very well. All of them are using the Lutron Hilume LED driver.
Lutron now has a section tool on their website that will show you who is partnering with them.
The new Lutron website kinda sucks, but you can also call their 24/7 tech line for LED questions.
Also if you want to stay up on LED technologies, there are some great resouces out there for you. The DOE has great information. There is also Lighting FACTS online, And LEDs MAgazine is a great online magazine.
