[artman60]

Not knowing all the specs involved in the question, I know for 120 volt incandescent lighting there are dimmers that slide all the way down to off. You can actually feel the detent as the lever enters the off position. To turn it on you just slide it up through the detent and it starts brightening up. I would imagine by now, that there are led labeled dimmers that do the same. If I’m not understanding the question correctly, I apologize.

 

[DesertRatTom]

Not knowing all the specs involved in the question, I know for 120 volt incandescent lighting there are dimmers that slide all the way down to off. You can actually feel the detent as the lever enters the off position. To turn it on you just slide it up through the detent and it starts brightening up. I would imagine by now, that there are led labeled dimmers that do the same. If I’m not understanding the question correctly, I apologize.

That's kind of what I was looking for, but the problem is that there is a minimum level of brightness (voltage, really) below which an LED bulb will begin flickering. So LED dimmers go down to that level, but not necessarily all the way off. Taking the light down to that minimum level is the point of the adjustment I mentioned in my last post. I will be experimenting with that adjustment most likely this weekend and will see what happens. The dimmers in my house (it's all LED now) do go all the way to off, but they are not suitable for theater style light dimming (hard to get a grip on them), so I have some hopes the ones at the church will go down to zero, but we shall see this weekend.

For us fixer upper types, LED installation is going to become a common task, so I want to get to the solution since several members have mentioned having the same problem. Might even do a separate post with pictures and drawings.

 

[artman60]

Tom, since you are on this forum, I’m gonna assume you are reasonably (or far better) capable on the net. Some of the led manufactures, and some lighting controllers (leviton, Lurton etc) may be very happy to help you with some suggestions/tech help. If I was still working as a contractor I would be able to give you some sites to start with. If you have any lighting/electrical supplies close they may have some. I work for a municipality in Massatwo****s, and they come out and do site evals for us quite often.

 

[DesertRatTom]

Artie, Good suggestions. CREE has been very helpful so far. What amazes me is how difficult it was to get the basic information I really needed. In fact, what I've put together so far has not appeared anywhere in one place. I put it together only after a lot of fiddling and thinking and searching. With LEDs taking over the world, this kind of information needs to be clearly spelled out. And dimmers should be able to be preset to the lowest possible light level, then go to black, and more importantly, should have that feature prominently displayed on the packaging.