Hi folks - I’m planning to install some soffit lighting around my house, driven by a Blue Dimmer I’ll install in the garage. The total load will be between 240W - 270W of LED lights. I live in Texas, and the garage can get quite warm in the summer. Ideally I’d have it all one one dimmer, but I am bit nervous about being that close to the max load, particularly in a warm garage. If needed I could split the load across two switches. Thoughts?
A few more details would be helpful. What LED lights are you going to put in the soffit? I presume they’re dimmable? LED tape strips work well in a soffit, and the power draw can be minimal.
If they don’t need to be dimmed from the switch, I’d use an On/Off.
To error on the side of caution, I’d split the load if it’s really that high. You can also try that load on a single dimmer and then monitor the temperature at full brightness.
How hot does the garage get? The max ambient temp spec if 95° F. This is really a separate issue aside from the load. Others here that have warm garages/out buildings should be able to provide some comments here.
I’m planning to put 25-30 of these in: 4" Black Round Slim LED Recessed Lights | NuWatt. They’re 9W each. Definitely want them on a dimmer.
I’m not sure how hot the garage gets, but the outside temp regularly exceeds 100F. I would expect that the garage temp will be a few degrees lower.
if possible I would split between 2 dimmers I had 250w on one and it had issues (Most likely LEDs were not rated correctly) Once I split them, everything was fine.
I would tend to agree. Split it across 2 dimmers and use Zigbee bindings to create a group that controls both of the dimmers together and it will be seamlessly controlled from your hub as if they were on the same dimmer.