Help with LED Dimming

[David John]

Hi everyone

Fitted a Varilight v-pro dimmer switch, 400w 1 gang on 2 led downlights, luceco fire rated, 6 watts each.

When the light turns on, it’ll dim up and down but then turns itself off and to get it back on you have to switch it off and back on and the same happens.

Had this same problem with the 2 downlights in before but thought the issue was tht the lights were not dimmable?

Had a neighbour that has a 24w led strip light and the same thing happened when the switch was fitted - v pro varilgiht 400w

Any suggestions on what’s going wrong or how to fix?

 

[buzzlightyear]

Had this same problem with the 2 downlights in before but thought the issue was tht the lights were not dimmable?

you have hit the hammer on the head not dimmable then. wired up wrong .

 

[buzzlightyear]

Any suggestions on what’s going wrong or how to fix?

IMO ,get a spark in .

 

[buzzlightyear]

Had a neighbour that has a 24w led strip light and the same thing happened when the switch was fitted - v pro varilgiht 400w

your wiring attached to your next door person house .is it a two way to next door .

​

 

[David John]

The thing is, I qualified not long ago, I just can’t think why this isn’t working! With LED lights I thought the rating of the switch - 400 Watts is divided by 10 equaling 40w maximum, I’m using 12 watts and there’s no minimum

 

[chris gray]

If you look on the fitting it should tell you wether it’s dimmable

 

[David John]

That’s what I meant, the 2 existing lights probably were not dimmable!

The new lights I’ve put in are dimmable and this is still happening!

 

[chris gray]

It should do. If not find the part code and google it or contact the manufacturer

 

[Grant webber]

The v pro have 3 different modes, google the instructions or use the ones it comes with to set a different mode. See if that makes any difference.

 

[Octopus]

Personally I don't rate VPro ........ had too many issues with them ....especially the newer ones.

 

[MJPD29]

Did you go through the different setting on the dimmer to see if any others work? I think there is 3

 

[chris gray]

On them v-pro I think they have a minimum wattage. I may be wrong. Especially the 400w led version. I think you need to swap it for the 100w version as that has a lower minimum rating

 

[telectrix]

On them v-pro I think they have a minimum wattage. I may be wrong. Especially the 400w led version. I think you need to swap it for the 100w version as that has a lower minimum rating

that's probably the answer. he needs a dimmer with a min. load < his LED load.

 

[Marvo]

On them v-pro I think they have a minimum wattage. I may be wrong. Especially the 400w led version. I think you need to swap it for the 100w version as that has a lower minimum rating

Agree with this, 12 watt load on a 400 watt dimmer is insufficient and making the output stage unstable especially at low dimming levels. I'd also go with a 50 or maximum a 100 watt dimmer.

 

[Midwest]

How old is that 400w dimmer? Varilight don't seem to do them anymore.

 

[David John]

How old is that 400w dimmer? Varilight don't seem to do them anymore.

Got it from screxfix on friday

 

[David John]

Agree with this, 12 watt load on a 400 watt dimmer is insufficient and making the output stage unstable especially at low dimming levels. I'd also go with a 50 or maximum a 100 watt dimmer.

I thought that with a dimmer and LEDs that you had to divide the load by 10 so it would be 40 watts maximum for LEDs or am I tripping?

 

[chris gray]

I think I’m right in saying it’s recommended to run led dimmers at a max of 60% of the rated value

 

[David John]

I changed it for a LAP 100w dimmer switch and it’s fine now! Found out that my neighbours light isn’t dimmable which explains that too!
Thanks

 

[john watts]

I think there is a minimum load with the varilight dimmer.
The varilight dimmers are usually a maximum of 40% of the total wattage, so a 400w dimmer would be 160w maximum , and with only 12w total on this dimmer I think thats too low

 

[john watts]

I changed it for a LAP 100w dimmer switch and it’s fine now! Found out that my neighbours light isn’t dimmable which explains that too!
Thanks

Yes I believe switching to a lower wattage dimmer worked because it had a lower minimum load