Will a dimmable LED allow me to shine a light similar in intensity to a candleflame?

Question

I've become rather attached to the dimmable lights in my home, but I'm thinking about upgrading with dimmable LED bulbs as the incandescent ones are becoming less available.
I know that it will be a considerable investment of time and money (more-so time) to upgrade, so I wanted to ask if the hardware can do what I want.
Basically, I use my dimmer-switches to turn down the intensity of the lights in the bedroom and bathroom to somewhere near that of a single candleflame so that I can go about my business getting ready for bed and make night-time trips to the bathroom with minimal exposure to light.
I'm wondering if this is possible with dimmable LED bulbs without experiencing flickering or the like.

gbronner · Accepted Answer

Here's what I did:

I went to a certain big box store known for its 'Treasure Hunt' atmosphere and, pre-pandemic, free samples

I bought a 'feit electric dimmer switch 2 pack'

I installed them. It was really easy, though it does require a neutral.

I purchased the a large box of 'feit electric soft white led dimmable bulbs.  The new ones light up to the base (similar to the old incandescent bulbs and look much better).  Conveniently, my local utility was subsidizing them, so I think that they were really cheap.

Here's a similar product: https://www.feit.com/product/800-lumen-2700k-dimmable-led-8/
Total cost was less than $50, and I think that some of these parts have gotten cheaper since.
Note:  I've reliability issues with the LED bulbs with the plastic bases -- perhaps my fixtures are too hot, but I find that they often flicker or crack and die.
On another note:  I have a few boxes of incandescent bulbs that I'd be happy to get rid of -- I run a bunch of hallway lights 24/7, and installing LED lights is a huge win, even over compact fluorescent.

Harper - Reinstate Monica · Answer

Dimming LEDs (using existing fixtures and wiring) is an extremely ugly hack.  It uses triac dimming, a 1960s technology chosen because it is cheap to implement for incandescent bulbs only, and their peculiar characteristics.    For LED screw-in bulbs don't want to work with this technology at all; it is incompatible with what they are.  However, some LED bulbs are made with some "on-board smarts" to effectively reverse-engineer what the triac dimmer is trying to do; and try to set that brightness level.
TLDR: the existing "don't change anything" dimming scheme is a very ugly hack, and you pay for that in preciseness of control. Expect it to hop from "off" to 20-30% bright, with no fine control in the lower range. Which is what you're after.
If you really want that kind of fine control of LEDs, your best bet is to change technologies.  For instance switch to 12V/24V "PWM" dimming, or install additional wires to support 0-10V dimming.  None of these are trivial.

Will a dimmable LED allow me to shine a light similar in intensity to a candleflame?

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