I can totally see the rationale for doing this - I only wish that there were better means of dimming CFLs - I use my bulbs dimmed at least 70% of the time, because I find that it suits my evening moods better. Whilst you can buy very expensive CFLs that operate at 3 or 4 levels of brightness, they do not have the smooth gradation that you get on an incandescent bulb.
I totally agree. I went through our house to replace incandescents with CF's but there were only two rooms where the light I use isn't on a dimmer. Even my front exterior lights are on a dimmer. (It's a very attractive effect, by the way, especially when your near a city street light and don't need bright lights in your yard.)
Anyway, they can have my incandescent bulbs when they pry them from my cold, dead hands, or perhaps when they come out with CF's or other "approved" bulbs that work on my existing dimmer switches, and emit warm light.
Silly question, but why not use smaller wattage bulbs? I guess you would have to have a secondary lamp if you wanted a bright room on occation. Or there are those multi-bulb lamps.. one bright one, one dimm one.
Its really about the gradation - you can get it just perfect with the incandescent, and its altogether smoother for my attempts at balchelor-esque seduction routines. Clicking the light on and off four times to get it down to dim just isn't the same...
You can buy dimmable indoor flood bulbs at any big-box home improvement store. They cost more, but they do dim smoothly. They don't dim quite all the way... only down to 20% or so, but they do dim "smoothly", not in "steps".
There are plenty of dimmable CFLs on the market. I bought some at least 5 years ago that work fine with the same dimmer switch as an incandescent and I think there have been dimmable ballasts for tube bulbs (not screw-ins) for even longer.
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I can totally see the rationale for doing this - I only wish that there were better means of dimming CFLs - I use my bulbs dimmed at least 70% of the time, because I find that it suits my evening moods better. Whilst you can buy very expensive CFLs that operate at 3 or 4 levels of brightness, they do not have the smooth gradation that you get on an incandescent bulb.
I totally agree. I went through our house to replace incandescents with CF's but there were only two rooms where the light I use isn't on a dimmer. Even my front exterior lights are on a dimmer. (It's a very attractive effect, by the way, especially when your near a city street light and don't need bright lights in your yard.)
Anyway, they can have my incandescent bulbs when they pry them from my cold, dead hands, or perhaps when they come out with CF's or other "approved" bulbs that work on my existing dimmer switches, and emit warm light.
...or maybe I meant they can try to pry the "cold, dead bulbs from my warm, living hands."
One of those...
Silly question, but why not use smaller wattage bulbs? I guess you would have to have a secondary lamp if you wanted a bright room on occation. Or there are those multi-bulb lamps.. one bright one, one dimm one.
Its really about the gradation - you can get it just perfect with the incandescent, and its altogether smoother for my attempts at balchelor-esque seduction routines. Clicking the light on and off four times to get it down to dim just isn't the same...
You can buy dimmable indoor flood bulbs at any big-box home improvement store. They cost more, but they do dim smoothly. They don't dim quite all the way... only down to 20% or so, but they do dim "smoothly", not in "steps".
There are plenty of dimmable CFLs on the market. I bought some at least 5 years ago that work fine with the same dimmer switch as an incandescent and I think there have been dimmable ballasts for tube bulbs (not screw-ins) for even longer.