Dimmer that Works with LED Lights

LESLIE: Mike in Georgia is on the line with a question about a dimmer. How can we help you?

MIKE: My kitchen is in the center of my house, so I get very little light from the windows.

TOM: OK.

MIKE: And I tried an LED light. I have five 60-watt cans in there. I heard you mention about a dimmer that would work with the LEDs? My question is: is there a particular kind? I need one that works with a three-way.

TOM: Yeah. You can go to The Home Depot and you can pick up the Lutron Skylark Contour C•L Dimmer. That’s the Lutron Skylark Contour C•L. This is a dimmer that’s designed specifically to work with energy-efficient bulbs. It works with CFLs and it works with LEDs. And specifically, it’s adjustable so that you can get the lowest level and then the highest level of light. And therefore, when you move the dimmer up and down, it controls that.

Typically, with standard dimmers, you can get a flicker because at some point, you’re going to be not putting enough power in to bring that bulb on. So you get this sort of flickering effect?

MIKE: Right.

TOM: But with this Skylark Contour C•L line of dimmers, you can adjust the low end and this way, it’ll always be on when you turn the switch on. And then you can bring it up from there.

MIKE: Yeah, I was afraid with five cans in the middle of the house, it’ll look like Yankee Stadium at nighttime.

TOM: No, actually – I actually have one of these dimmers in my kitchen and I’ve got five cans on this dimmer, so I have exactly that situation. And I have LEDs in the lights. I have the Philips LEDs in there: the ones that are yellow. And they turn really super-clean white light when you turn them on. And I’ve got that Skylark dimmer controlling the whole thing. Now, that’s not a three-way but I’m sure it will work on a three way.

And the thing that’s cool about Lutron is as you’re putting this together, if you have a question, they have an 800 toll-free, tech-support number. You can call them and there’s somebody always standing by to kind of answer your wiring questions. If you can’t figure out where the extra wire goes, they’ll tell you.

MIKE: OK, great. Thanks a lot.

TOM: You’re welcome, Mike. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.