Light bulb suggestions needed

[Jon Dent]

Hi. I recently noticed that our auditorium lighting is a mixture of different LED fixtures and I think this is causing some issues with our Kelmar dimmer (even with the LED addon installed). I'm looking to replace all 8 bulbs in our auditorium. What has been an effective bulb for others? 8 of them are going to be illuminating our 30x40ft theater so they need to be reasonably bright as well (we don't have separate work lighting)

[Leo Enticknap]

They wouldn't work with your existing dimmer, but our Architectural Lighting Fixture would give you both walk-in house lighting and cleaning lights in the same unit.

[Carsten Kurz]

Call Kelmar and ask them, I'd say. They should have a list of working LED bulbs.

[Brad Miller]

If you have either 5 inch diameter or 6 inch diameter regular can light fixtures, I can happily pass along that these lights work amazingly well with a regular Kelmar triac dimmer. They fade ALL THE WAY down to 0%, and when turning back on they start very low, about 5-10% and then fade up perfectly. I've not found any other LED light that has performed this well with a triac dimmer to date.

Note these lamps also have a selectable 2700K / 3000K / 3500K / 4000K / 5000K color temperature switch on them. They are also VERY bright.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01N95BH3E

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

Yes... if you call Kelmar and talk to Tom, he does have a short list of lamps that will work. I generally used Cree as they were commonly available.

[Randy Stankey]

I generally used Cree as they were commonly available.

I second that.

I try to buy Cree whenever I can. You can usually find them at Home Depot, pretty reliably.

I was told that Cree is the creator of the LED bulb or was, at least, first to market with them.
The same person who told me that also said that most other companies that sell LED bulbs buy their LEDs/COBs from Cree then build them into their own products.

Cree sells dimmable bulbs and, IIRC, you can get them up to 125 watt equivalent in both daylight and soft white.

[Leo Enticknap]

I was told that Cree is the creator of the LED bulb or was, at least, first to market with them.

Philips won a government prize in 2011 to bring to market what was supposed to be a direct, screw in LED replacement for the ubiquitous E27 filament bulb, and I do remember that it was the only brand on the shelves at Home Depot for a while. The actual diodes in them may have been Cree, though. In the beginning, they were so expensive as to make no sense for the average consumer - around $30 for the 60w equivalent and $40 for the 100w equivalent, if I remember correctly.

[Jon Dent]

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll end up putting in a call to Kelmar.

Turns out 6 of the 8 'bulbs' are actually integrated fixtures that were installed by a local electrician. I can pretty much guarantee they didn't do their homework on our dimmer first