For the house we just moved into, we bought front and back door lights that have a dusk to dawn setting and a motion sensor. The light is supposed to be at half brightness until motion is detected, then it goes to full power.

Being obsessive about saving energy through the use of CFL's, I figured that I should get dimmable CFL's for these lights. I'm not sure is half power and full power settings qualify as "dimming" per se, but I figure that would be the best bet...especially since the base of typical CFL's say "Not for use with dimmable switches" or something like that.

But bug season is upon us, and I'm wondering what would happen if I were to put a CFL bug light in these sockets. Am I going to start a fire by freaking out the circuits?

BTW...has anyone heard of B to A adapters in regards to light bulbs?

We picked up a couple Neptun dimmable CFL's and they're just ok. They sometimes flicker a bit when dimmed (work fine at full power, and have no delay), and work best if you start them on the highest setting, then dim them. My guess is that for your application, they would be safe, but may flicker. I wouldn't use a regular (non-dimmable) CFL in the device you're talking about.

YES! You can cause a fire by using a non-dimmable CFL in any application that chops the power to the lamp. Don't Do it!


http://www.times-news.com/local/local_story_140093007.html

http://www.wtopnews.com/?sid=1395955&nid=25

http://www.10tv.com/live/content/nationalnews/stories/2008/05/01/bulb.html?sid=102