Originally Posted By: Dignan
Just a small update: I actually ordered a ZWave LED bulb (because my whole network is ZWave) and well, it's probably a tiny bit worse. I'm guessing this is a bulb-by-bulb issue, so I don't know if a Hue bulb can get darker. I wouldn't be surprised, since it's probably a little better made than this one.

For now, I'm going to put a 40W bulb in the "nigh light" lamp and dim it to an extremely low level. It won't be quite as low energy usage, but it'll be close. I'm basically trying to ween my son off of a night light completely, so I need to be able to go reeeeally low, and LED's just can't do it, it seems.
LED bulbs can be covered with a coating or fabric that absorbs some of the light output. Just don't clog any air venting or cooling fins. You could experiment with draping or wrapping the bulb to reduce the effective light output.

Don't do this with incandescent bulbs, of course.

The theatre lighting world used to use neutral gray and colored filter gels all the time, I imagine that sort of thing is still available.

Other Industries also have similar films. You can layer the films to multiply the light reduction.

http://www.solargraphicshome.com/Neutral_Density_Film.html

This video shows the sheet neutral gray filter material, 1:58 mark.


Edited by K447 (20/09/2016 21:07)