CFL reviews?

Rather than searching for "friendly" CF bulbs, why not just block them from causing a problem. That's the approach I took with the ceiling cans here, and we use several different brands of CF bulbs without a problem.

The fix is simple: Install a small Leviton 6287 Noise Block in the lead from your switch to the CF lights. Then whether the CFs are either a signal sucker or noise source, their effect will be blocked from effecting anything else. The 6287 is rated 5 amps, and can feed a string of ceiling cans. You can install it at the first fixture in the string if there isn't room behind your switch.

FYI, an early Lights of America CF bulb had a cap directly across its AC input. The old Philips "Earthlight" worked fine with X10 - and was even dimmable.

Jeff

That's probably the best solution. It's the one I took after discovering that one batch of GE CFL bulbs caused no problems but the second (as far as I could tell identical) bulk pack did. There's no guarantee that this month's run of bulbs will be electrically equivalent to the next.

-- Bobby G.

filters may be the approach I take, but right now that means 4-5 of those filters, so I was hoping there might be a cheaper approach. I know, taking the cheap way out rarely proves satisfactory and home automation certainly isn't a hobby for the cheap.

Any experience this this product as an alternative:

At least X-10's the cheapest HA gear out there. An X-10 meter's your best bet. Get one now so you don't beat yourself up for all the time you'll have wasted trying to debug an X-10 setup without one.

Shop at Costco or Walmart to find bulbs that work and then stock up. I thought a two 5 packs were enough but they are all gone now. We've switched a lot of lights over to CFL. I've been filtering the various lamps I had left lying around that I know are bad with the X-10 Pro filters until I work up the will to face Sam's Club to look for more.

I'm afraid that as the newer lamps get more sophisticated, they present more and more problems to X-10. I'll probably wish I had bought 50 of the bulbs that presented no serious X-10 issues when they were available.

There's someone here who's posted a URL for a place in California, IIRC, that sells X-10 friendly CFL's but I can't remember enough to run a Google search. Maybe someone else recalls the details . . .

I think it's very similar to the plug-in devices they make. Yes, they work, at least for the bad bulbs I have, which are both noisy AND sucks signals. The worst of both worlds.

I'm facing another issue with X-10's: the increasing number of both CFL and fluorescent worklights that turn themselves back on via the "current sense" circuitry. Since some of these are floor and table lamps, I'd hate to have to snip the diode on the appliance module that controls them because then I would lose local control. Never an issue with incandescents but a royal PITA with X-10.

You can "ballast" such lamps with a nitelight or a small power supply (I have my PC speakers plugged into a powerstrip that the lamp is also plugged into) but again, you lose the local turn on feature. It's really bugging me. Maybe it needs another magic box from Jeff Volp!

-- Bobby G.

Smarthome sells X10 friendly CFLs. If you look at the picture they're made by Greenlite. I found Greenlite bulbs at Frys for considerably less money and they've been working just fine. Otherwise, I use the Leviton filter approach as was suggested.

dickm

I have used that one too, but it doesn't solve the signal sucker problem common to CFLs. The XPNR is a "tank circuit" that will act as a low impedance to noise outside the 120KHz X10 band. The CFL problem is best attacked with a blocking filter like the plug-in XPPF or the Leviton wire-in filter: