Ongoing CF discussion:Dimmable

[Steven Simon]

I tried my first one.
I tried this model:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000S5RKLE

There is a 1-2 minute warm-up period.
During this time, the dimming feature is essentially useless.
The buzzing at anything under 100% is terrible.
There is also a color shift. All of the warmness vanishes
and it gives any room that eerie concrete parking structure feeling.

After the warm-up period, the bulb performs better. The buzz level
isn't that bad and the bulb does dim.

There are two problems:
1. It does not dim enough. With the dimmer almost all the way down, an
incandescent is a pleasant glow whereas these CFs are still a bit too  
bright
for late-night use, assuming I wanted to automate the 2 minute warm-up
period.

2. If I slide the dimmer to the minimum setting, The bulb goes out. That
indicates that it can't be dimmed to the desired low level. It also  
turns the
dimmer setting into a game of reverse blackjack where I have to see how
low I can go without going under.

Conclusion: The only use for these bulbs is to use them in lamps that  
come
with dimmers on the cord. I had to splice my piano lamp's cord because
dimmables weren't available when I bought it. For most other  
applications,
the parameters don't match the usage model.

- Steve