CFL Bulbs Flicker When "OFF" Upstairs but Not Downstairs?

[wolfdown]

Please help. I've tried to figure out whats going on but nothing seems to work.

I have Leviton VPI06-1LZ dimmers upstairs and downstairs which do not connect to the neutral. Using the trick to add a 1.5k ohm resistor in parallel to the lighting circuit, the CFL bulbs work perfectly on three controls (two different breakers) in my kitchen and living room.

However, I'm now doing the same setup in my upstairs bedrooms, and on two different circuits, the CFL bulbs flicker when the controls are in the OFF position. What is going on?

* I tried two dimmers, and they both flicker. I'm getting more this week, which will confirm its not a problem with the dimmers.
* The controls and wiring are the same.
* The CFL bulbs are the same make and model.
* The inline resistors are the same.
* I isolated the HOT from an entire branch, and just connected to just the dimmers, and it still flickered.

Yes, the incandescent work fine, but I was just hoping to use the CFLs for now since I already bought them.

Is there anything else I should try to fix this?

 

[gatchel]

That dimmer says incandescent. I didn't see LED or CFL anywhere in it's rating.

Are there the same quantity of bulbs on each controlled circuit?

IMHO is resistors or other "cheater" methods are needed to make the system work, I would seek out alternatives like getting a neutral in the switch box...

 

[wolfdown]

The working ones are 3 and 5 each. The upstairs circuits are all 4 each.

The box has a neutral. The dimmer just does not have a connection for it.

At this point, I think the issue might be caused by bulb variation. I was able to switch out enough of the bulbs with ones of the same brand, that do not flicker. No idea why this is.

 

[BLH]

The two wire dimmer gets it power through the load.
The CFLs electronics may try and start with the current feeding the switch.
Different bulb electronics may give different results or a larger quantity may allow more current and not flicker.

The electronics in the bulbs may have changed.
I have some of the Philips 12.5 watt dimmable LED bulbs.
The originals had 18 LEDs in them I beleve they redesigned them and now they have less LEDs driven harder and they act different on my Insteon Devices and X10 Devices I use for tests.
The only thing I could see different was a -1 suffix in the part nunber stamped on the bulbs.

 

[wolfdown]

Ya, its strange cause I bought all the bulbs at the same ... oh well.