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[Brian H]

I just did a few tests with the CREE 60 watt equivalent dimmable LED bulbs. With an older hardware WS12A and WS467.
Unexpectedly they both functioned correctly with just the one Cree bulb being controlled.

Will be letting one run on a WS12A for an extended time to see if things develop, and also if anything changes with a burn in of a few hours.

Few observations.
They have a glass outer shell with a silicon rubber type coating.
It is mildly sticky and may attract dust.
I have also seen two users report dropping them and the glass will break. Though the pieces all stay stuck to the rubber material.
I have not tried a clip on lamp shade yet to see how badly the sticky rubber acts with the shade.

Has anyone else had any experience with the Cree bulbs and X10 dimmers?

[Brian H]

I got a six pack of the 60 watt 2700K Cree's.
All six worked fine electrically.
The Cree QC department missed some physical problems on one of them and I will have to return it.
The glass envelope is not round. Kind of bulged out on one side.
The E26 socket on the bottom. Was not crimped onto the base just soldered. So it can be rotated.
The plastic housing for the electronics is not tight and also warbles.

[RobsX10]

  Finally, an LED bulb that works with x10 and x10 dimming!  Tested in several sockets of my system and works well.  No need to stock up on 57w bulbs.  A little flicker with dimming on one, but better than expected.  I wonder if this will shorten or lengthen the life of the bulb.  Standard bulbs last longer on dim (I think 'cause of the lower voltage).  Time will tell.

Another great thing about the Cree bulbs, is the warm white is really a nice warm color.  Hard to tell the diff between a standard bulb and the Cree.  Plus the low cost.  Good job Cree  

BTW, I do not work for or have any affiliation with Cree.  I have tried many other bulbs with the X10 without any success and do not want to spend 100's of dollars and many many hours of time to change over the entire house.

[Brian H]

Thank you for the feedback. I am always curious how real world use compairs to my test stand results.

Added information.
One 6 watt Cree bulb 40 watt equivalent does not work correctly with the X10 two wire modules I tried. Get alternately brighter and dimmer as they dim.
Must be too low a load as two of the smaller 6 watt Crees seem to be fine.

I have also no tests or results for the 9 watt Day Light {5000K} models.

One of my six 6 watt bulbs has a piece of glass inside its intact shell. Probably from another bulb that broke in assembly.

[RobsX10]

That makes sense.  The circuit that flickered had a single lamp 40 watt equiv, and the circuit that worked perfect had 2 lamps (both Cree 40 watt equivs).  I think I also tested the 60 watt equiv on the single lamp circuit and it worked.  I will double check.  All of my lamps are connected to X10 switches (I think ws467) and not plug in modules.  Some have been modded to add at the switch dimable.  I will do further testing.  I hope Cree starts making Globe and Smaller ceiling fan configs.

I also had problems occasionally with bright to dim to bright to dim etc etc with standard bulbs.  I had to manually turn the switch off and on with the little slider to stop the cycle.

[Brian H]

Over in the Fixed Lighting section of the Candlepower Forums. Is a long thread on the Cree LED Bulbs.
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?356710-Cree-A19-9-5w-60w-800lm-2700K-for-13-97
Also a whole bunch of Cree related tests and teardowns on you-tube. Along with other LED and lighting sites.

I was surprised they worked with any X10 two wire dimmers.
There still could be some X10 two wire dimmer hardware versions, like the new soft start with resume dim, that could act differently. Than my old hardware ones.
I tried them on a Home Settings two wire ZWave dimmer and it was a 100% failure.

[RobsX10]

I just wanted to chime in on CFLs.  They are all garbage.  I have yet to have one last longer than a couple months.  Many brands too.  For people like myself that do not keep on lights unless they need it, the fail quickly.  The have VERY limited cycles (on and offs), plus when you turn them off and they have not cooled completely before turning them on, they fail even sooner.  Besides not lasting, they have mercury, break easy, low CRI quality, poor color and harm your vision with excess UV.  It is not standard bulbs that should have been banned, but CFLs.  At lease normal fluorescent lamps have electronic ballasts for instant on, long bulb life and high CRI with warm temps.  CFLs offer none of these.  LEDs are possibly a good solution, but after watching the Youtube breakdown video, they too have built in failure of the caps at ~5 years, and a 25 year life is unlikely.  Besides, who keeps receipts or returns a light bulb?  The warrantee is useless, as long as the bulb lasts a few years.  At least the power useage is good on LEDs.

I have been using X10 for 20 years, and it is great that Cree LED bulbs offer a possible solution to the banned standard bulbs.  I hope other manufactures can do it with lower prices!

[dave w]

 

[dave8647]

I bought one of the 40W equiv CREE bulbs from Home Depot back on 5/16/13 and installed it in my rear porch light which is controlled by an X10 wall switch. It worked fine until this evening (almost 4 weeks). It was never dimmed, just dusk on and dawn off. This evening it started pulsating and I had to remove it. I installed the bulb inside, controlled by a regular switch, and it's doing fine so far. I'll try a few more tests and update later.

[Brian H]

Thanks for the update.
On my test rig. A 40 watt Cree didn't work correctly. Two of them did.

[rwgrigg]

Tried a couple of other brands of LED bulbs for my front porch light.  They all flickered or acted irractic.  Tried a Cree bulb and  works just like the old incandescent bulb I used to have.  Just wish Cree had some other bulb designs.  But at least I can use the X10 system on my porch lights now.

[Brian H]

What style Cree LED bulbs are you looking for?
They do make a few other types besides the A shell ones.
http://creebulb.com/

I have a few of the latest 4Flow Cree bulbs and will try and test them on a few X10 switches.

[the other steve]

I have 10 Cree BR30s (flood lights) and a couple of Cree 60 watt equivalent "standard" bulbs.  The BR30s are 65 watt equivalent and are mounted in ceiling cans.

Three are on WS467, not soft start, 2-wire wall switches, two are on lamp modules (one soft start and one not), and the rest are on soft-start 2-wire WS467s.  You might notice that the array of modules indicates that I have been at this for a while...

All work flawlessly although the dimming percentages needed to be adjusted (down in most cases).

They have been running for most of a year or more.

(Home Depot sold the BR30s for under 10 bucks; I am a happy camper.)

The Other Steve

[bkenobi]

Very interesting report on the BR30's.  I've got 6 in a lofted living room that love to burn out on the order of 1 in each can every year (total of ~6/year).  This is not as cheap as the standard A6 bulbs, but incandescent BR30's aren't too expensive for the bulk packs at this point (~$2/each).  The problem is, I use the pole to change them and the can will sometimes rotate and a switch on the side turns it off.  I then have to get out an extension ladder to flip the switch back on.  If I could simply swap these for a set of LED BR30's for maybe 2-3x the cost of a normal bulb, I'd be WAY better off.  I HATE going on that ladder due to the angle it has to be at.  VERY iffy!

These are on normal wall switches, but they can't interfere with other X10 signal.  The fact that yours don't cause issue and are the cheap HD available models means that when I run out of my stash of BR30's, I'll be switching over to LED and skipping the ladder!   

[the other steve]

One more thing...

When I was shopping the HD site, I looked at other locations.  The $10 price was for a location that had incentives from the city - that city was not my closest HD.  I went to my local HD and they immediately matched the discounted price.  Interesting.

The Other Steve