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$370 for a smoke detector, not toooo bad !!!!
Was going to suggest you need to stop thinking about what type of bulb and sort out the voltage drop first.
Stick with the chemicals M8
Get yourself a reasonable voltmeter. $25 or so. A lot cheaper than the electrician and you would have found the problem as soon as you checked the switch.
Funny outcome though. For your penance recite ohms law 25 times.
LOL where would you go to get a voltmeter? amazon?
Now my wife thinks the chandelier lights, all bulbs are working, is not as bright as it use to be. We have not changed a bulb for years if ever (been in this home 8 years now when we put this fixture in). This is in the breakfast room which is adjacent to the kitchen where I had the issue on can lights which started my thread. Wife thinks it is not as bright as it once was, but Im not sure it could just be the LED light vs the old bulbs?...
When did your wife last see an eye specialist? Seriously.
As we age, we all get cataracts. Cataracts are a clouding of the eye's natural lens. Usually it happens very gradually. That makes everything dimmer. Colors seem faded. Lighting seems as though it is not as bright as it used to be.
She sees an eye MD annually and has for decades. This thing is super small, its just slightly wider than a piece of thread and its cream colored like the rest of the switch so not easy to see.
She has significant health issues we spend our retired days addressing them but fortunately her eyes are good
LOL where would you go to get a voltmeter? amazon?
Sure. Amazon has dozens.. For $20 you can even get the fancier ones with auto ranging and all that.
I have a high quality one I virtually never use and a 20 year old throwaway from Radio Shack that gets all the usage. I even have an antique oscilloscope that gets pulled out of the closet on rare occasion.
One strange thing about the dimmer is it was as low as it goes. In this position the chandelier bulbs were emitting almost no light. The 4 cans were reasonably bright. When the dimmer is turned to max, the chandelier bulbs are bright as can be and while the cans get brighter the contrast between dimmest and brightest is not near as great.
Put another way if the chandelier bulb are 20 when brigtest, they are 1 or 2 when in dimmest position. The can lights however, 15 when dimmest if bright as they can go is almost 20. Is there another metric on these LED bulbs that indicates the dimness vs brightest setting for them?
Yeah - There are a multitude of designs and no real standards. And these things are heavily cost driven so the cost cutters are always messing with the designs. And many are at least mildly smart...that is the use micro code or such to control behavior.
So there really is no way to tell how they actually work or even that last years version will work the same as this years. Some may have details in their technical specs but many won't share those or will make them hard to get at. If you don't disclose how it is supposed to work no one can say it is working wrong.
I am not thrilled to have to pay nearly $400 to a smoke detector replaced after 5 years on the battery that I was told was a 10 yr life lithium battery when I replaced it a few years ago. I can get a voltmeter, a 20 foot ladder to reach this myself and the smoke dector is $10. The ladder is around $300 (edit to update more like $640 so need to explore renting one). So it this occurs on my watch as homeowner I will do it myself and buy the ladder smoke detector and a voltmeter which I can use to diagnose such issues myself and fix them.
Has anyone else ever seen a dimmer switch where the dimmer feature is a micro slide switch next to the big on-off switch on the wall unit? All the rest of mine are so obviously dimmers with the dimmer switch a very prominent part of the wall switch. I wont miss it again but found no others like this one in my home and I have a few dimmers, 7 and only this one is this design with the small unnoticed dimmer slide. I counted the can lights and found 63 only 4 of which are now LED. Big job ahead of me.. Cost to replace at least $630, savings might payback over 4 years so $60 a year savings or $5 a month hard to see in my bills.
It was an expensive lesson but wow electricians are high prices. They did not charge me a call out charge for my nearly $400 smoke detector job. I need to get a good local electrician with a small company who can help me going foward. This metro is 7.4 Million and huge and many of the big companies like this one and a plumber, HVAC etc contractor do not tell you where they are coming out from so one has to ask to find out the charge for coming out.It almost always rolls in the job cost but one has to make sure its a job worth nearly $400. I paid the same rough cost to have a fan motor fixed in my built in kitchen refrig. They are superb and do the warranty work for the manufacture but generally run this price plus a part if its expensive. They have to make two trips, one to assess and then get the part delivered and come back in a couple of days to install it... both trips are in the quoted price by me.
I am not thrilled to have to pay nearly $400 to a smoke detector replaced after 5 years on the battery that I was told was a 10 yr life lithium battery when I replaced it a few years ago. I can get a voltmeter, a 20 foot ladder to reach this myself and the smoke dector is $10. The ladder is around $300 (edit to update more like $900 so need to explore renting one). So it this occurs on my watch as homeowner I will do it myself and buy the ladder smoke detector and a voltmeter which I can use to diagnose such issues myself and fix them.
Has anyone else ever seen a dimmer switch where the dimmer feature is a micro slide switch next to the big on-off switch on the wall unit? All the rest of mine are so obviously dimmers with the dimmer switch a very prominent part of the wall switch. I wont miss it again but found no others like this one in my home and I have a few dimmers, 7 and only this one is this design with the small unnoticed dimmer slide. I counted the can lights and found 63 only 4 of which are now LED. Big job ahead of me.. Cost to replace at least $630, savings might payback over 4 years so $60 a year savings or $5 a month hard to see in my bills.
It was an expensive lesson but wow electricians are high prices. They did not charge me a call out charge for my nearly $400 smoke detector job. I need to get a good local electrician with a small company who can help me going foward. This metro is 7.4 Million and huge and many of the big companies like this one and a plumber, HVAC etc contractor do not tell you where they are coming out from so one has to ask to find out the charge for coming out.It almost always rolls in the job cost but one has to make sure its a job worth nearly $400. I paid the same rough cost to have a fan motor fixed in my built in kitchen refrig. They are superb and do the warranty work for the manufacture but generally run this price plus a part if its expensive. They have to make two trips, one to assess and then get the part delivered and come back in a couple of days to install it... both trips are in the quoted price by me.
Just venting .....and learning
The electrician charge is unreasonable. Our regular guy charges $100 plus parts for the first hour. Then $75 an hour for the rest. We have a heavy duty electrician for jobs involving running new conduit etc who charges about the same. I generally do my own troubleshooting but I won't get into appliances and am too handicapped to get on a ladder. I also use an electrician if you need to cut walls or such.
On the LEDs simply work out spares that work for you and buy a dozen. Then replace them as they fail. For a high ceiling room I would think about doing them all so as not to have to deal any more with those fixtures. The cost of the guy climbing the ladder should be only a couple of bucks per added fixture if anything.
The LED spec is wattage, color temperature, dim-able or not. Most list the equivalent incandescent wattage. Buy one and try it and then if acceptable buy a dozen. You can often find more information on the web than at the light or hardware stores.
There are also exotics like the Phillips bulbs that can change color under wifi control. they are expensive though.
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