Properties with traditional incandescent fixtures on dimmers

[Sam Leon]

Fellow landlords, I am curious if you are doing anything about lighting fixtures inside your rental properties that use incandescent bulbs wired to traditional dimmers.

In my lease agreement, tenants are responsible to replace light bulbs as they go out.

Some of them buy and put in LED bulbs, and when they slide the dimmer switch up and down, they either don't dim, or flicker.  That's because these LED bulbs (or CFL) don't pair well with traditional dimmers.  So they complain...why can't I use LEDs?

I have a number of fixtures with this issue:

(1) Traditional bedroom ceiling light fixtures;

(2) Kitchen pendant lights;

(3) Banks of recessed lights;

(4) Ceiling fans with a light kit

Any suggestions?  Seems I have these options:

(A) Do nothing, keep insisting on incandescent bulbs if they want to use those fixtures.

(B) Investigate into replacing with LED compatible dimmers.  This is most likely going to be costly not only because I may not have a neutral conductor in the wall switch box, but also I may have a hard time finding replacements for the specific ceiling fan/light single gang combo switch that pair with the fan.

(C) Ask the tenant to buy LED bulbs that work with traditional dimmers, and live with the flickering or buzzing that may or may not occur at various light levels.

(D) Change out the dimmer switch to just ON/OFF switch.  No more dimming, no more problems.

(E) Give the tenant the option to use incandescent bulbs as originally intended, or you will solve the problem permanently and go with option (D).

Thoughts?