I just replaced an Insteon dimmer with the Red Series dimmer and I swear it isn’t as bright. The switch is wired into a 3-way circuit with a dumb switch. It almost seems like it is maxed out at about 80%. Everything I see in Hubitat indicates it is a 99%. Any ideas?
I’ve put an oscilloscope on the output of a dimmer and it does not turn fully on, so it is possible you would notice the lights are a little dimmer on it.
There is a maximum brightness parameter so do make sure it is set to 99%.
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Thanks for the feedback. I did do an exclude and reset everything and verified the 99% setting. So this is known behavior? If so, this is definitely a no go for this switch.
Last picture is a dimmer fully on and you can see the small amount of off time in the current at every zero crossing. I expect this is to allow it to be powered without a neutral.
Just to make sure I wasn’t crazy I wired up a Zooz On/Off and the light output was back to where I expected. It looks like something specific to the switch I received or maybe the model in general.
Also, as a note. I have these dimmers hooked up in my basement to the same model of LED lights and no issue. The only difference is they are not in the 3-way setup.
I thought the same thing when I recently installed a Red Dimmer. Definitely not as bright, but the room was already pretty bright so…
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I was disappointed to find out this thread didn’t really go further into the off time. I have my dimmers hooked up with a neutral wire but the lights still feel a bit dimmer than they were before on a dumb switch. Is there a good reason for this limitation? Shouldn’t a setup with a neutral wire be able to set the max brightness to 100 instead of 99?
No. I’m pretty sure that the max brightness in the Zwave specification is 99. Settings can range from 0 - 99.
Right, I know it’s not valid, but I’m wondering why not. If you have a neutral wire, shouldn’t it be possible to unlock true 100% brightness? On the hardware side, I mean, obviously the firmware doesn’t allow it currently.
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The 99% or 100% isn’t the reason. It’s simply how far the dimmer turns on at maximum, which is a firmware thing but that’s programmed much deeper into the firmware than that parameter.
Does anyone have another brand of Z-wave dimmer? Any brightness issues? Wondering if the issue is specific to this switch. My previous smart dimmer of a different technology worked great. The same with a Z-wave on/off.
Regardless of 99% or 100% I don’t know that I can tell but I definitely think the output at 99% was closer to 80% or lower.
I’d be interested in @EricM_Inovelli’s thoughts then, since he also responded to the other thread about power consumption, and this is a related issue.
I only have Inovelli switches (so far, just started) so I can’t say for sure, but I am reasonably certain that the reduction is not 80%. It’s very subtle, I’m not even 100% sure it’s happening, but both of us in the house thought it “felt” a little dimmer after installation.
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I’d be interested in hearing more too. I have a Red Dimmer in 3-way with a neutral, and the lights are definitely dimmer than they should be. I haven’t started to diagnose yet, the first step will be to replace the switch.
I guess I had the opposite effect when I installed the dimmers at my last house. I felt like the can lights were as bright when turned on at 80% compared to the on/off switch I replaced. Perhaps it was just the type of lights.
I did read somewhere that as dimmer fails they output lower levels of light. Not sure if that is true or not. Regardless, this was a brand new dimmer so unless it was faulty I wouldn’t expect that to be the case. Also, with others reporting a similar experience the odds of all of ours being faulty is slim to none.
Try an older firmware and see if it raises the output. I think you’ll find many of us have different brands of LEDs with different observations. I’m not suggesting you’re not seeing a lesser output from the Inovelli either. I believe there was a firmware tweak that was made because multiple users reported their dimmers would shut off if users placed dimmer at anything above 80%.
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I’m also experiencing this same issue. In this case it’s a single overhead light with single switch [no 3-way]. The lights are noticeably dimmer than they were pre-switch install.
I’ll note that I’m using a bypass for these lights as I do not have neutrals wired up. Could that have any impact as well? @BlakeR, were you able to find any resolution for your issue?
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Unfortunately, no. I just went with a different brand switch. Less cool but the wife isn’t in the dark while in the kitchen.
Bummer - I’m thinking I’ll just go grab some 1,600 lumen bulbs instead and figure that’d give me enough overhead I can lose some to whatever-is-happening. Sorry you weren’t able to get it sorted, but thanks for the thoughts at least!