When I renovated my HT room a couple of years ago, I installed 3 circuits of 6 recessed lights each, which use GU10 bulbs - 50 watt halogen bulbs came with the fixtures. I also installed Lutron MIR-600 dimmers for each circuit. That's 900 watts when all lights are on at full brightness. As high as that is, the lights were on for such short periods, that I wasn't overly concerned about the power consumption. Since then, my wife has started working from home and now the HT room also serves as her home office, where she spends about 25 hours per week. She uses the centre circuit when she's working, so now the power consumption is a bit more of a concern.
The price of LED bulbs has recently come down and the power rates have gone up, so I can easily justify replacing the halogen bulbs in that circuit. This morning, I went to Home Depot to get bags of lime for the lawn, so I picked up 6 x 6 watt Phillips dimmable LED bulbs. I replaced one bulb and turned on the circuit - the quality of the light was very nice and in fact, seemed a bit brighter than the 50 watt halogen. I tried the dimmer and it worked perfectly. So, I continued changing bulbs and when all 6 were done I turned on the lights again
WTF!?
They flickered for a few seconds and paused, flickered a few more seconds and paused - you get the picture. I turned them off and scratched my head - "what's going on here?", I wondered. I removed one bulb and replaced it with a halogen - the circuit worked perfectly, including the dimmer. I put the LED back in - problem returned. Time to look for the dimmer manual. And I quote: "Do not use where total lamp wattage is less than 60W...". Sonofa...!
Solution - leave one 50W halogen bulb in the circuit.
So, instead of going from 300W to 36W, I'm only going down to 80W. Oh well, it's an improvement...
