Dimmer or RGBW

[JanSchuijling 0]

Hi all, were building a new house and want to install LED lights. Anyone a suggestion what are the best to install, RGBW controller and 12V LED or the dimmer module with 240V LED.

Of course we would like to know what LED's to use.

thanks heap..

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[Dalle1985 16]

What type of lights are we talking? RGB, led strips, spots, bulbs? If you are installing spots, or E27 bulbs I would use something completely different. The V4 firmware has an interface for Philips Hue (or you can just use a vd, I have a few I'd be happy to share), so buy a hue bridge and buy some Zigbee light link compliant bulbs (doesn't need to be Hue). I am using both Philips Hue GU10 and E27 and Osram Lightify GU10 (240V) bulbs and everything works brilliantly together.

The bulbs are expensive, no doubt about that, but I have found Osram Lightify (non-rgb) GU10 bulbs on ebay for just 30 USD a piece. And the nice thing about those is that though they can't light up your room in blue, they can adjust color temperature. The E27 bulb is a bit more expensive at around 40 USD. So unless you expect to control a lot of bulbs on the same module, then the saving by buying conventional LEDs and modules is relatively small.

The good thing about this setup, is that the bulb itself becomes the dimmer and they can be grouped together, so the same bulb can be part of several groups. This is cool because you can then choose individual bulbs to turn on together. This is nice if you have i.e. a hall way with several rooms leading into it. I use this feature at night to light up both the hallway and the bathroom with every second bulb at the lowest dim-setting to show the way to the toilet, but avoid waking up the entire house and blinding someone.

If you do want to use z-wave modules, I would personally go with the RGBW module and then use 12V bulbs, simply because it is safer (less risk of inrush overheating). The dimmer module is prone to overheating due to inrush effect and there is often issues with the use of dimmers on LED bulbs, even the dimable types.

I deliberately avoided installing dimmers on the lights where I use LEDs. Instead I have zigbee light link bulbs (6 Hue E27 RGB, 15 Hue GU10 RGB and 10 Osram Lightify GU10 Adj. white and 8 Lightify E27 adj white). Unless you have a need for strangely colored light, I would suggest going for bulbs with simply adjustable white, they adjust from 2700-6000K and give a really nice light. The Hue RGB bulbs can adjust down to 2000K, but at that color temperature, the glow is very orange and unnatural glow (unless ofcourse you are upgrading from candles to electric bulbs, in which case it is going to seem quite natural albeit VERY bright

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PS.: you can still install a switch in your wall sockets to control the lights, either by switching off supply to them or by using the S2 connector on the module and then use a scene in the Homecenter (activated by "sceneActivation") to turn on or off your lights.

[petergebruers 1,268]

I have absolutely no doubt about it, if you compare RGBW and dimmer: RGBW for LED. Dimmer will make you happy with incandescent light. Dimmer + LED or CFL = not good. Search for e.g. 'flicker' and 'bypass' if you want to know more about some of the obstacles. I have no opinion at all on zigbee lights, see opinion of Dalle1985, I trust him

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Or even better: see if you can get a demo of both (and zigbee)...

[Dalle1985 16]

BTW: I just read somewhere in the weekend that Cree has introduced a bulb they call "Cree Connected" (they really had to think hard to come up with that name, huh?) which is also light link compliant and can be bought for just 15 USD. It has no color temp adjustment, and use quite a bit of power (11,5W) and I'm not sure it will work with proper voltage (it is a US product so it might only be designed for 110V). But if you want to save a little and have true connected lighting, it might be worth checking out:

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[JanSchuijling 0]

Hi guys, thanks heap . you gave me some things to think about. I'll use the RGBW modules with down lights. Just need to find the right LED though.. Live down under. I'm experimenting in my old home with a few RGBW modules. The RGB strips are doing great. My LUA is resonable. My main concern is the current in/out modes of the RGBW device. Only usable with momentary switches, won't accept the toggle. This can be solved with push buttons. All options are still open. The planning of the building will be next month. We would like to use build in spots, some narrow beam for reading (in bed

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/emoticons/default_icon_razz.gif" alt=":-P" /> ) and the rest wide beam. All the lights need to be turned on/off by switch. So again thanks for your advice.

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[Dalle1985 16]

IF you want to see the responsiveness of the bulbs, check out my video on youtube of my custom interface in action:

These bulbs are Hue RGB, but the Osrams work in the same way. The latency you see on the interface updating is not down to slow response from the bulbs, but the way I had set up the status update on my interface, response time from command is sent until lamp reacts is around 150-200 ms and the return time for the status update from the controller is 250 ms. So from you change the bulb settings until it has taken effect and you have been informed of it takes less than 500 ms.