Sunday, April 05, 2015

LED bulbs that won't incessantly buzz when you dim them

I was excited to swap out the incandescent and compact fluorescent bulbs in my house with LEDs. LED bulbs provided the low power consumption of CFLs with the dimmability of incandescent.

I went to my local Costco and found this 3-pack of Feit LED bulbs. Dimmable, soft-white, and a 3-pack. What could go wrong?

Well, one thing did go wrong: buzzing.

Depending on the dimmers in your home and the bulbs you use, your dimmable LED bulbs may emit a buzzing sound when the dimmer is engaged. The dimmer the light, the louder the buzz. I installed two of the Feit bulbs on a pair of wall fixtures, turned on the lights, and dimmed them. The buzzing sound was very noticeable. I unfortunately had to move the bulbs to some non-dimming fixtures and continue my search for something that wouldn't drive me crazy.

After some research online, I decided to go with Philips LED bulbs. Every Philips bulb I've purchased is high quality and emits no audible buzz unless you put your ear right up next to the bulb.

I'm starting to switch out my 60-watt equivalent bulbs with the Philips 10.5 watt dimmable soft white, and my 100-watt equivalent bulbs with the Philips 19 watt dimmable soft white. They're not the cheapest, but you're paying for a great bulb that should last for years.

Here's what the bulbs look like - fairly similar to incandescents.



Note: Philips also makes a Slimstyle LED bulb that buzzes a lot. Avoid it. It looks like this.