I’ve tried two different well known brand dimmer switches on a ceiling fixture containing five 60 watt incandescent bulbs. The dimmers are rated at 600 watts but I still get that distrating humming sound with either switch unless the switch is fully on, which I don’t always want. How to get rid of the sound?
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Teach them the words.
You will get some hum/buzz at settings other than full on If it's loud either you have a poor quality dimmer or it's mounted in a lightweight plasic box that amplifies the sound.
But of course you really should get LED lamps instead. Most are dimmable, and they will draw much less current and hence produce less hum.
T
list the dimmer models and numbers, not all dimmers are the same.
or call the manufacturer to see if rated for incandescent.
I find it hard to believe that any dimmer (other than perhaps a super-special industrial/institutional one) is not rated for incandescent lamps.
Ok
And having dealt with lighting changes over the past 30 years in remodels, I've used this tactic:
I talk with my supplier about what works with what so I don't have to guess or change out a change out. In the past, often speed controls/dimmers were mismatched to the type of ceiling fans. Then came the clash with halogen, xenon and other early low voltage systems. Electronic or magnetic?
The usual problem, buzz. Further goofs when the dimmer would only go down so far, b/4 shutting down completely.
hell, he might try 130 v bulbs , thicker filament. Or go to full on to warm it up, then drop back to dampen the degree of light.
Constant hum at all the settings to me sounds extreme. Something is not kosher. So my first call would be to my local electrical house, perhaps even my long time electrical subcontractor. And for some further information to the original poster, I've never heard it suggested that a plastic box v. Metal resulted in that humming noise. Not that I wouldn't add it to a possibility if it proved true.
type of dimmer?
I'm not an electrican, but like Calvin I usually supply fixtures and try to coordinate fixtures and switches with my supplier. One thought that may be of issue is the type of dimmer (i.e. magnetic vs. electronic). Usually this is important when matching the type of transformer in a low voltage fixture. I'm not saying your fixture has been transformed to low voltage, but it could be a possibility.
so the reply I get from Lutron is somewhat along the lines of some of these posts. It's not a receptacle box issue, not a mis- wiring issue, not a low voltage issue. With Led or cfl lights matching up dimmers is important, with incandescent not really. Tech support guy says thinner filaments in bulb are vibrating in the partially dimmed mode and I need thicker fillament bulbs. I wonder if anyone knows if any maker puts out a heavy duty 60 watt bulb with beefed up fillaments which theoritacally would suppress this background hum?
solved this problem with low tech solution. As bulbs had burned out in the past I replaced with different brand/different wattage bulbs I had at home. So now I changed all the bulbs to same wattage (57) and didn't mix the Sylvania and GE brands in together and no hum. So maybe there's something to be said for equal wattage and same brand bulb usage in a five light fixture. Maybe more important than how thick the filament is which was the Lutron guy's advice.
Well, as the late Click would say, "Boooogus". With incandescent bulbs watts is watts, and it doesn't make any difference if the filament is thick, think, curlicue, or a rhomboidal helix. There may be, however, certain "sweet spots" of more or less wattage where the hum gets better or worse.