How do I control fluorescent and halogen lights with X10?
Lamp modules and standard X10 wall switch (e.g. X10:WS467) generally do not work well anything other than incandescent lights. There are several reasons why this is so. Both lamp modules and wall switches cut out part of the power sine wave to dim the lights that are connected to them; the waveform available at the load is no longer a simple sine wave, but a sharply-truncated version of a sine wave. Even at full brightness, there is some power cut [Can anyone confirm this?]. This is not too critical for a simple incandescent light. For a compact fluorescent lamp that has some electronic circuitry in the base to drive it, however, this is not a good idea since the circuitry is designed around the expectation of a stable waveform at standard voltage. Trying to dim a compact fluorescent by modifying the input power supply is like trying to turn down the volume on your radio by putting it on a dimmer circuit. It may sort of work with unpredictable results, but cause damage to the load bein
