# LED/CFL Dimmer



## HARRY304E (Sep 15, 2010)

A Little Short said:


> Anyone know what brand dimmer would handle 1000W incandescent/halogens or 300W LED?
> 
> I prefer the Lutron CL series but don't know if they have one rated more than 600W/150W.
> 
> Customer may start out with regular BR40 but most likely will change to LED in the near future. I just want to make sure to put in a dimmer that will handle both.


The best you'll find for CFL/LED dimmers is 150 watts...:no:


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## A Little Short (Nov 11, 2010)

HARRY304E said:


> The best you'll find for CFL/LED dimmers is 150 watts...:no:


I wonder why they make them for 1000W incandescent and only 150W for LED/CFL?


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## FrunkSlammer (Aug 31, 2013)

A Little Short said:


> I wonder why they make them for 1000W incandescent and only 150W for LED/CFL?


Probably because of power factor.


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## Electric_Light (Apr 6, 2010)

There's a limit of something like 15-20 CFLs per 20A circuit. Some CFLs will specify this limit. This is to avoid nuisance trip from the inrush current. If you're using commercial grade ballasts, you can actually load the circuit to NEC limit. 

Commercial grade ballasts are usually built with a delay and a soft-start since it is expected that a large number of them will be used together. It waits maybe a tenth of a second or so after power up to pull the peak current to protect contacts from pitting and welding. It also protects themselves. Unrestricted starting current is hard on diodes. It's just like how transmission is stressed if you were to floor the gas at every light. 

Disposable ballasts in CFLs and many residential grade externals do not, but this is not likely an issue. If you exceed the limit, there's a very good chance that you'll blow the dimmer upon power-on fairly soon.


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