[stereocilia]

It's too bad I have to take them back.  They make gobs of nice light with only 5.8 W, but they buzz.  It's not a loud buzz, but it's audible.  No good.

[Wayner]

So you didn't tell us:

What brand they were.
Were they used in an audio listening room.
Was the LED lighting itself buzzing?
Was the LED causing something else (audio?) to buzz?
Where would the drivers have been mounted or are they in the head of the track flood?

and lastly, why would you use track lighting to light up your ceiling?

[stereocilia]

So you didn't tell us:

What brand they were.
Were they used in an audio listening room.
Was the LED lighting itself buzzing?
Was the LED causing something else (audio?) to buzz?
Where would the drivers have been mounted or are they in the head of the track flood?

and lastly, why would you use track lighting to light up your ceiling?

These are all good questions.

1.  "Hampton Bay" from Home Depot:  $34.99 each.
2.  Yes
3.  The light itself was buzzing.  I suspect a transformer is involved in the track head.
4.  No, the light itself buzzed.  I can't say if the audio system was affected because it was off.
5.  There is no bad place to mound a driver if it fits, even in a light fixture.

and lastly, the track came with the house when I bought it.  Besides, what do you have against parabolas of light stretching forth in glory across the ceiling?

[Atlplasma]

I have a bunch of LED lighting in my new house. The lighting designer said it was essential to use compatible switches (especially dimmers). I know the electricians weren't wild about installing the LEDs since they had had bad experiences with them in the past. With my install, they didn't have any problems since we followed the designers product advice.

[Wayner]

There are bad places to mount drivers. They, like their fluorescent brothers, also give off heat, it does have a step-down transformer in it, and usually some SMDs to help smooth out the DC (ripple). Many LEDs that are higher power, give off tremendous amounts of heat, more then you would think, especially at the higher outputs. I have 3 Toshiba LED par 30s in my vinyl room and those lamps have die-cast aluminum heat sink fins all around them and up towards the base.

My comment about the odd aiming angle of the track merely aligns with traditional use of track lighting, which your application is not.

On another, more constructive note, low voltage lighting may have this same noise problem as, obviously, the low voltage stuff needs a step-down transformer as well.

Might I offer a suggestion to your situation. Perhaps you might consider buying regular incandescent holders for your track lighting, and install a self-ballasted LED lamp in it. This eliminates the driver and possible step-down transformer noise. Then you can of course, aim them in any angle you please, despite my comment, and you would then have a nice, quiet, listening room.

[SteveRB]

The lighting designer said it was essential to use compatible switches (especially dimmers). ... With my install, they didn't have any problems since we followed the designers product advice.

As a Lighting Designer, I love this.

[stereocilia]

I was thinking of drivers as in loudspeaker components. 

There is a dimmer connected to the track, but the lamps claim to be dimmable.  The ceiling is only about 7'6"  so I can't really have low-hanging lights.  The old halogen ones were nice and small, but then I couldn't find the small 40 W halogen bulbs anywhere, so I replaced a few of them with 10 W bulbs I actually could find.  Weak.  But now, I can't find those either.  There is a shelf around the rim of the room and the old track lights were aimed to light the perimeter along the self.  With such a low ceiling the angle is shallow. 

Unfortunately the track heads big enough to hold an old-school screw-in flood light would be pretty low.  A ceiling fan would become a decapitator.  A chandelier would become an unintentional piñata.

I dunno.  It may be time to ditch the whole track and get a more standard overhead lamp.

[srb]

Dimmable LED lamps work best with a dimmer that is specifically compatible with them.  That being said, I've seen lower quality "compatible" dimmers that still caused noise, hum or buzzing, and in many cases when replaced with a high quality Lutron dimmer, the lighting system was silent.  You might want to try and bypass your dimmer to see whether it is the contributor to the buzz or if it's the LED bulbs themselves.

Steve

[stereocilia]

Good idea.  The dimmer does say "Lutron."  It looks like good quality but who knows.

[stereocilia]

here is a (low light  ) snapshot of the dimmer.

[invstbiker]

Hello,

Lots of factors involved with LED

Are the drivers (transformers) electronic or magnetic?

Dimming with LED and electronic transformers is a bit difficult, especially a retrofit (existing) system.

I have track lighting in my music room and the dimming is via a Lutron DVLV 600P low voltage dimmer.
My transformer is magnetic. Works perfect, no buzzing at all.

If you are sold on LED, try mocking it up before a full blown install. Feel free to PM me

[ctviggen]

I'm definitely sold on LED, assuming the light they produce is suitable for the application (I've run into some with horrible color temperature -- they make everything grey).   I'd try a dimmer that says "LED" on it:

http://www.lutron.com/en-US/Education-Training/Pages/LCE/DimmingCFLsandLEDs.aspx

Also, if they really are magnetic/transformer type, there are special dimmers for that.   See:

http://www.lutron.com/en-US/Education-Training/Pages/LCE/DimmingBasics.aspx

[MaxCast]

What is the purpose of the lights?  General light or to light up the shelf?  If it is just for the shelf maybe rope lights would work up there??

[ctviggen]

Oh yeah, and assuming they have LED lights for the application that aren't insanely expensive.  I can't find candelabra bulbs yet with a good color temperature that are bright enough (would like 60W equivalence) and are cheap enough (don't want to pay $30/bulb).  I bought some candelabra bulbs from Costco that are 40W equivalents and about $3.33/bulb, but they produce a horrible light (make everything grey).  For our foyer (with 20 -- yes 20 -- 40W bulbs), this is OK (went from 800 watts incandescent to less than 100 watts LED), but for ceiling fans in the kids' rooms, the light is hideous.  The kids literally look as if they're ashen and sick with the LED bulbs installed.

[Wayner]

Some LED, self driven lamps are compatible with triac type dimmers. Professional LED stuff has drivers and RGB controllers to change color and intensity. They are very expensive, but if you have the resources, the controllers can be DMX controlled for color and intensity and even produce lighting "shows" if you wish.

If you want an LED that has the same kind of warm color that the incandescent lamps have, look for something that is around 2700° to 3000° Kelvin. Higher color temperatures will produce more white color (like 5000° K) which I do not like in my home environment.

[Atlplasma]

Good idea.  The dimmer does say "Lutron."  It looks like good quality but who knows.

I have all Lutron switches and outlets in my home. While ordering them, I learned Lutron has a gazillion components in their catalog and that it's important to pay attention to the part numbers.  The LED dimmers can be especially pricey. The three-way electronic dimmer I used retails for over $100 but can be found for about $67. Electronic Bargain Stores had the best pricing as far as I could find online.

Overall, I really like the light I'm getting with this design. In the past I've always favored warm incandescent bulbs. (The 2700 to 3000 Kelvin variety Wayner mentioned.) These bulbs are all of the 5000 K bright white variety, and I'm finding it very appealing.

[stereocilia]

What is the purpose of the lights?  General light or to light up the shelf?  If it is just for the shelf maybe rope lights would work up there??

General light, but the ability to aim the lights so I'm not staring into them is helpful.

[stereocilia]

By the way:  here is the full product page.  http://www.homedepot.com/p/Hampton-Bay-1-Light-2-56-in-White-LED-Dimmable-Track-Lighting-Fixture-16031KIT-WH/203278168?N=5yc1vZc7nd

[srb]

A 22-item Specifications table and none of them are Color Temperature or Lumens?   

Steve

[SteveRB]

Really is, you are not going to get the same performance (dimming, colour, output) of an MR16 out of an LED replacement system -- especially in a residential system -- especially from Home Depot.

The home dimming switches are ELV (electronic low voltage). They trim the voltage to lamp by either cutting the leading or the trailing edge of the sine wave. A burning filament dims incredibly well on this; a low voltage transformer CAN dim very well on this. LEDs do not dim on this at all. They require electronics inside the lamp/driver to interpret the amount of power coming in to then lower the light output of the diode. Phillips has done great work incorporating ELV dimming compatibility into many of their LED retrofit products -- can't say Hampton Bay is all that sophisticated...

Commercially, all LED dimming is done with a separate signal wire that controls the electronics in the driver or the lamp. Yes, two sets of wire in separate conduits: one for 120VAC and one for dimming control. The best protocol for this is DMX; 0-10v control is also acceptable.