Home Settings Intermatic HA20C Switches

[DieselvRR]

I just installed 2 Home Settings Intermatic HA20C Switches. I am very dissapointed they make my bulbs flicker. I have both swtiches installed in a 3 gang box. I can sometimes get one of the switches to stay on solid without flickering, however when I turn on the 2nd there is a 100% chance both lights will flicker. Most of the time however, it flickers with both lights on or only 1 light on. There is also a slight leak when the switches are off, you can see the bulb light very dim at night.

Anyone else see this issue?

 

[BrettS]

I just installed 2 Home Settings Intermatic HA20C Switches. I am very dissapointed they make my bulbs flicker. I have both swtiches installed in a 3 gang box. I can sometimes get one of the switches to stay on solid without flickering, however when I turn on the 2nd there is a 100% chance both lights will flicker. Most of the time however, it flickers with both lights on or only 1 light on. There is also a slight leak when the switches are off, you can see the bulb light very dim at night.

Anyone else see this issue?

I assume you're using compact fluorescent blubs. If that's the case, then that's the problem. CF bulbs are not designed to be used with dimmer switches and those are exactly the symptoms you will see. You can get dimmable CF bulbs and they should work without any of the above problems.

Brett

 

[DieselvRR]

Brett,

I read some postings about the CFL lights last night after I posted. I dont know what kind of bulbs are in there now, I just moved into the house and I cannot see through the outdoor light fixtures to see what kind they are. Hopeing to open them up tonight if weather holds. Hopefully that is the issue.

Have you heard anyone having had this issue with regular fluorescence bulbs?

 

[BrettS]

Brett,

I read some postings about the CFL lights last night after I posted. I dont know what kind of bulbs are in there now, I just moved into the house and I cannot see through the outdoor light fixtures to see what kind they are. Hopeing to open them up tonight if weather holds. Hopefully that is the issue.

Have you heard anyone having had this issue with regular fluorescence bulbs?

The flickering will happen with pretty much any fluorescent bulbs except for the special dimmable CFL ones. There shouldn't be any problem with regular incandescent bulbs, though (just 'regular' light bulbs), so the easiest thing might be just to put regular bulbs in the fixtures. You'd lose the benefits of the CFL bulbs, but at least they would work with your new switches.

Brett

 

[123]

My guess is that all PLC dimmers use a TRIAC, or similar device, to perform the dimming function. Basically, it screws around with the AC signal (chopping cycles) to send less power to the load. I suspect some of this activity is present even if the dimmer is set at 100%. An incandescent bulb couldn't care less because, hey, it's a wire that heats up and glows. However, CFLs have onboard electronics that may object to receiving adulterated AC.

I had installed an X10 Switchlinc 2385 switch that used "silent electronic control" and my CFLs flickered. I replaced it with an X10 Switchlinc Relay 23885 (uses a relay) and the CFLs no longer flicker.

 

[DieselvRR]

Just dropped the light fixture cover and sure enough, CFL bulbs. I'll run out tomorrow to get some dimmer CFLs, hope that fixes it.

 

[CollinR]

If you have outdoor cameras that are supported by this light just use incandescent bulbs, not only will they have no problems dimming but true 24 hour cameras gain much more from then then CFL.

Like crazy more.

 

[DieselvRR]

Interesting......

So I went out and bought some GE dimmable CFLs 15w. I have 3 lights, 2 controlled by 1 Intermatic HA20C switch and 1 controlled by another HA20C. I swapped out the old n:vision 14w CFL bulb on the one lamp...doesnt work. It looks like it tries to turn on but flickers. Same with the pair of lamps, with both bulbs changed, the will not turn on, just flicker.

However with the pair of lamps, if I leave 1 old n:vision CFL in and one new GE dimmable, they both light up. and do not flicker.......what gives!!! They are light bulbs, shouldnt be this hard.

So for now, I have replaced the 1 lamp with a regular bulb and left 1 old n:vision and 1 new GE Dimmable in the pair of lamps. Hopefully the shades are the same.....

 

[BLH]

If the switches steal power through the load; even a dimmable CFL will not work. The fact that one regular bulb in the circuit seems to cure this shows power is using the bulbs to power it.

If the switch does not have a neutral power return and only two wires Line and Load also would indicate a switch that steals power through the bulb.

 

[macromark]

The HA20C is a 2-wire 600-watt Z-Wave dimmer that's designed to work with filament-style bulbs (incandescent or halogen). Reason for this is pretty simple... the switch is powered by completion of the circuit through the filaments (or by 'stealing power' per BLH). In fact, the switch goes completely dead when the bulb blows out or is removed from the light fixture! In some cases, this can be a problem for Z-Wave networks with just a few nodes as the switch functions as a routing slave for the network.

Anyway... it's a wonder you got the bulbs to do anything at all! Also, the flickering phenomenon with CFLs is pretty common, even for 3-wire dimmers. FYI

-Mark

 

[DieselvRR]

Well, looked last night and the shades on the different 2 CFLs are the same, so I guess I will keep those in. I just went with incandescent bulb in the 1 light fixture...hopefully I wont have to swap that one out too much.