# Linear LED Solution



## Electric_Light (Apr 6, 2010)

randolph333 said:


> I'm looking for a dimmable warm linear wall-mount *LED solution *that's appropriate for a *residential design*. Please help me before I:
> 
> Specify a really ugly Lithonia commercial solution.
> or try building it out of LED tape!
> PS: anyone worked with eldoLED drivers? They look really cool—dim to 1%, or just black—though they are probably rather expensive. Any experience out there?


Why restrictive to that certain type? Is that the only way City Light will substantially subsidize? :whistling2:

Appropriate for residential design means it must pass the aesthetic expectations of the customer as well as the required codes. You didn't provide enough information. What is the purpose of this linear wall light? 
Which area in a home?


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## randolph333 (Feb 10, 2015)

It's going into a closet temporarily converted into a nursery. The main reason for going LED is dimming; by the time one has purchased a dimming ballast for a fluorescent, one has spent as much as one would on the LED fixture, and it doesn't turn _purple_ when dimmed.

The LED tape turned out to be a winner, at least in simulation--in fact it was the only thing that seemed to light the space decently--and that's what I ended up recommending. Then the owner decided that perhaps that was too much.

Oh, well. It was a small job.

I think LED tape, BTW, is one of the best things about LED technology, because it does things that can't be done in other ways. I rather suspect it's going to be the LED equivalent of the Mazda lamp--ubiquitous and simple.

Still got to solve the driver and control problem, though!


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## Chris1971 (Dec 27, 2010)

randolph333 said:


> It's going into a closet temporarily converted into a nursery. The main reason for going LED is dimming; by the time one has purchased a dimming ballast for a fluorescent, one has spent as much as one would on the LED fixture, and it doesn't turn _purple_ when dimmed.
> 
> The LED tape turned out to be a winner, at least in simulation--in fact it was the only thing that seemed to light the space decently--and that's what I ended up recommending. Then the owner decided that perhaps that was too much.
> 
> ...


The LEDA tap is very versatile. Looks like you made a great choice based on the application you described.


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## randolph333 (Feb 10, 2015)

Looks like this one is going to happen after all. Yay!

I had a visit from the LED channel fabricator today, so I have more of a sense of the product. Yeah, I think it's gonna work. Also got a look at low-end LED power supplies. Well, er, ah. Don't go the very low end. It flickers and it wastes 25% of its input power as heat. (And you will need an MLV ballast.) The next step up wasn't bad at all, though. Only dims to about 5% or so, but OK.

There's two ranks of LED drivers. There's the cheapies that hook up to MLV dimmers and then there's the high-end stuff from companies like Lutron and eldoLED. Those are nice—eldoLED makes some that dim all the way to black—, but also relatively expensive, and require expensive dimmers or controls as well.


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## Electric_Light (Apr 6, 2010)

randolph333 said:


> Looks like this one is going to happen after all. Yay!
> 
> I had a visit from the LED channel fabricator today, so I have more of a sense of the product. Yeah, I think it's gonna work. Also got a look at low-end LED power supplies. Well, er, ah. Don't go the very low end. It flickers and it wastes 25% of its input power as heat. (And you will need an MLV ballast.) The next step up wasn't bad at all, though. Only dims to about 5% or so, but OK.
> 
> There's two ranks of LED drivers. There's the cheapies that hook up to MLV dimmers and then there's the high-end stuff from companies like Lutron and eldoLED. Those are nice—eldoLED makes some that dim all the way to black—, but also relatively expensive, and require expensive dimmers or controls as well.


75% is a fairly common run of the mill power supply efficiency. Premium T5 and T8 ballasts can get into 95%+ on 277v. Dimming to <1% is something available on F32T8 as well


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