So, I spent last weekend finally making the move to LED bulbs throughout the house. Thought it was a smart choice – save on electricity, longer-lasting bulbs, better for the planet. But now, I’ve got flickering lights in the dining room, a buzzing sound in the bedroom, and a living room dimmer that’s stuck on full brightness or off, no in-between. Turns out, after some online sleuthing, that LED bulbs need specific dimmers. Those old dimmers from 2008 that came with the house were made for incandescent bulbs and don’t jive with LEDs. Something about voltage regulation versus how LEDs draw power. Wish I knew this before buying 30 bulbs.
So, here are my options: 1. Swap out all the dimmer switches with LED-compatible ones. Looking at spending about $25-40 per switch, and I have 6 that need replacing. That’s $150-240 plus my time. 2. Revert to incandescent bulbs in those fixtures, which totally defeats the purpose of going LED. 3. Just deal with no dimming on those lights, which stinks because we actually use the dimmers. What bugs me is that every article on “switching to LED” talks about saving energy, longer bulb life, and color temperature, but no one mentions the dimmer issue. Is there a compromise I’m missing? Are there LEDs that play nicer with old dimmers, or do I bite the bullet and upgrade the switches?