Lighting: Double Dimmer/Switch Wall Plate

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#440822 17-Feb-2011 18:00

Ours is a clipsal - came from JA Russels I think - Not sure what it cost either as it went on the cousins account and we sorted him out for heaps of stuff later.

Richard rich.ms

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#443433 25-Feb-2011 15:54

Here is a follow up on my original topic:

I ended up buying 2x PDL 681M20 switch module, 2x PDL 624TM dimmer module and a PDL 684VH grid/cover plate, and it all fits together very well. As mentioned, the dimmers come with two knobs, and the small ones sit side by side fine. The two dimmer modules presented a problem for the old metal flush boxes that were already in the house, however I found a plastic box at Mitre 10 Mega which accommodated them both (I think the brand was 'Arlec' - it looks like a PDL knock-off anyway).

Thanks to everyone who contributed.

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#443443 25-Feb-2011 16:10

Excellent - it's always nice to know the final outcome!

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#443444 25-Feb-2011 16:24

Sorry if it's been covered before, it's late in the day, but please remembe that these types of dimmers only work with certain light bulbs.

I had the exact same setup as your photos above but removed the dimmers to ensure I could use the cheaper eco lightbulbs.

Jaxson

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#443445 25-Feb-2011 16:24

Jaxson: Sorry if it's been covered before, it's late in the day, but please remember that these types of dimmers only work with certain light bulbs.

I had the exact same setup as your photos above but removed the dimmers to ensure I could use the cheaper eco lightbulbs.

Jaxson

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#443446 25-Feb-2011 16:26

Sorry, mods please delete all these duplicates. The advert on the side is blocking the edit/delete button options for me as they are off the right of the frame.

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#443456 25-Feb-2011 17:36

Jaxson: Sorry if it's been covered before, it's late in the day, but please remembe that these types of dimmers only work with certain light bulbs.

I had the exact same setup as your photos above but removed the dimmers to ensure I could use the cheaper eco lightbulbs.

Experience with CFL lighting in my last house has me resolved to only using standard incandescent and halogen lighting, and my halogens are all 240v, so no transformers.

richms

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#443525 25-Feb-2011 21:22

If they are mains voltage and only 50w, they are not real halogens, and my experiance trying to find decent lamps for them was fruitless.

35w IRC halogens are able to give more light and better colour than a 50w mains GU10 based MR16, bulb life will be better since you are not hard starting them and there is no problems with the beam output of them. Worth an upgrade if you can easily.

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#443592 26-Feb-2011 09:52

richms: 35w IRC halogens are able to give more light and better colour than a 50w mains GU10 based MR16, bulb life will be better since you are not hard starting them...

What do you mean "not hard starting them"? IRC is just an infra-red reflector coating, isn't it? You can get mains IRCs at 35w. Was "not hard starting them" in reference to halogens running off a transformer?

The halogens I have so far are mains voltage, 40w G9 based (mounted in pendant/chandelier). I still intend to use MR16 for the kitchen though, so I'm open to any advice.

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#443653 26-Feb-2011 14:07

Yes, transformers soft start the lamps so that you dont end up popping a breaker every time a lamp goes pop like with the mains "halogens" - They are halogen only in name and not in performance, since they do not have a hot enough small enough filament for the halogen cycle to happen.

Transformers will also regulate the over-voltages whereas those will knock out directly connected incandescent lamps.

Unfortunately the G9s are becoming quite a popular lamp in fittings whereas there would have been a 12v capsule lamp in the past - reason being that mis-marketing has made people think the transformer is less efficient and it allows for cheaper fittings with thinner wires in them.

Compare the lux at the middle of the beam from a decent 12v lamp and one of the 240v GU10s and its close to 70% extra light from the 12v because of better beam control from having a smaller filament and therefore not wasting it on side spill. That doesnt help with a capsule lamp but you will still get higher temperatures on the 12v lamp because the filament is smaller.

The only hazard with using 35w halogens is when you put 3 of them in a recessed lamp off a single 105w transformer, some muppet will come along and swap them out with supermarket junk 50w and have the transformer constantly cycle its overheat protection or back the output down making them all dim.

Oh, and because of the higher temperature of the 12v ones, you can dim them quite a bit more before the light becomes totally unacceptably orange.

Richard rich.ms

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#444127 28-Feb-2011 13:48

What do you think about the prospects of LED lighting in the not-too-distant future? Should I cater to or even consider LEDs at all when I'm installing this halogen system? (eg. DC 12v supply?)

I see a lot of 12v LED MR16 replacements, and prices are dropping.

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#444168 28-Feb-2011 16:00

They are too dim, they equate them to a halogen based on the brightest part of the beam, which is typically smaller and has less spill so they are totally hopeless for room lighting. Any decent LED fittings will not be simple retrofit MR16 sized devices

Richard rich.ms

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#444296 28-Feb-2011 23:22

i looked at LED lighting a couple of years back. it was a lot safer - being cooler - and long time before replacing bulbs, but it was way more expensive and i didnt like either the light amount, or colour/temperature.

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#444819 2-Mar-2011 15:15

I thought I'd give a little review on these PDL 'stainless steel' cover plates I bought. I purchased a room's worth of the things, but I soon reverted to the plain white plastic ones.

From directly in front, or at a distance, they look really good:

However, when viewed from a angle you can see they're not so great:

The stress marks from the pressing process are VERY noticeable, and can look really quite ugly (from some angles more than others). The notches/depressions that let it clip onto the grid plates don't help the look either.

Also, the wall edges are none too straight, and haven't even been deburred.

I should add that they are NOT stainless steel, despite what was printed on every label. They are brushed aluminium, so why didn't they just say so.

A bit disappointing from PDL.

Out of intesrest, has anyone tried the Clipsal branded 'Chrome Shadow' plates?

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#444821 2-Mar-2011 15:25

i user the plain white plastic ones, thinking i'd upgrade to one of the flasher ones later. after i put the plastic ones in i decided they looked bloody good and didnt want to change them :)

i have a lighter shade for my walls - if i had a dark shade, e.g. black, then perhaps i might have needed something silver

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