0

Reporting from the northeastern United States. I am thinking through installing a cable lighting system on a circuit in a hall in the 55 year old house. I've since installed a LED dimmer switch for the light, which works fine with the current fixture and a LED bulb. The new fixture is a low voltage cable light system which was made to use halogen MR16 bulbs without the dimming capability.

What opinions on safety or practicality may you folks have. This is a fixture that is dimmed low all the time 24/7. I would feel accomplished if it can all work with LED MR16 bulbs.

this is an imgur album/dossier of the hardware involved here

I thank everyone in advance for their wisdom and opinions.

Improve this question
2
  • LED's draw very little current halogen lamps have a very high current draw this may be a problem for the ballast or driver that is powering the lights. verify the wattage of all the halogen lamps do not exceed the wattage of the driver. Another problem with halogens and switching type ballast is they create a huge harmonic that if you have arc fault breakers may cause tripping.
    – Ed Beal
    Aug 18, 2016 at 13:34
  • Thank you. How would things change if I keep the halogen bulbs?
    – reportsfromLuke
    Aug 18, 2016 at 13:39

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
1

Back when every lamp was an incandescent bulb, things were simple. Then Mr. Tesla came along... In this day and age, you can't just slapdash random hardware together and expect it to work together.

The dimmer is not listed to drive a DC power supply, is therefore not legal to use with it, and in any case, is unlikely to play nice.

Some DC power supplies are multi-voltage. Dimming is completely ineffective on them, they see dimming as lower voltage, and draw more current to compensate, potentially overloading the dimmer.

If you want to go Low voltage lighting, you will need to get a power supply compatible with whatever LEDs you expect to use in the future, and then get a dimmer designed to dim those LEDs and halogens.

Improve this answer

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge that you have read and understand our privacy policy and code of conduct.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.