Flickering living room lights

[aab203]

Hi there,

I can no longer use my living room lights as each time I turn them on they flicker. No other lights on the same loop have this problem; just the ceiling light in the living room.

I replace the light fixture, which didn't do the trick. I checked the wiring at each switch (2-way dimmer switches) and everything thing seems to be ok.

I'm totally stumped as to what is wrong as the lights just all of a sudden started to flicker - i've not done any work to the house.

I'll will probably have an electrician come over to inspect - but I would very grateful for any advice / suggestions from this forum.

Thanks in advance!

 

[vibrobullit407]

Could be a loose connection somewhere.

 

[RMS]

I checked the wiring at each switch (2-way dimmer switches) and everything thing seems to be ok.

Are you saying that the light is controlled by two separate dimmer switches?

This may be your problem. You will probably have to replace one of the dimmers for a standard switch as they may not be designed to work with each other. Are they new?

 

[vibrobullit407]

I checked the wiring at each switch (2-way dimmer switches) and everything thing seems to be ok.

Are you saying that the light is controlled by two separate dimmer switches?

This may be your problem. You will probably have to replace one of the dimmers for a standard switch as they may not be designed to work with each other. Are they new?

Good spot m8!

 

[aab203]

Could be a loose connection somewhere.

Hi vibrobullit407,

I've checked the connections at the switches and they seem to be fine. I put in a new light fixture - so the connections there are also solid.

Is there anywhere else there could be loose connections?

I checked the wiring at each switch (2-way dimmer switches) and everything thing seems to be ok.

Are you saying that the light is controlled by two separate dimmer switches?

This may be your problem. You will probably have to replace one of the dimmers for a standard switch as they may not be designed to work with each other. Are they new?

Hi RMS,

Yes, there are two switches controlling the living room light (one at either end of the room). They are both dimmers. I've been living here for just over two years, and everything was working fine... until a little while ago.

The original light fixture took candle bulbs. When these original bulbs blew I replaced them with energy efficient bulbs. I'm pretty sure the energy efficient bulbs were able to work with dimmers - but maybe not! Could this be the cause of flickering? The new fixture now takes the little halogens - which also flickers.

 

[riveralt]

Unless they are wired as master and slave you shouldn't have two dimmers on the same circuit - the poor things might get confused.
What is the load on the circuit - most dimmers have range printed on the back somewhere.
It could be that your halogen lights exceed the load prescribed.
You could also have damaged one of both of the dimmers which is why you are getting the flickering.

Check the load, take one of the dimmers off and replace with a normal two way switch, as suggested by RMS. If it still flickers try the swopping the other one. If both flicker try with normal switches - if that flickers then you may have a loose cable somewhere on the circuit.

 

[YorksSparks]

My money is on one or both of the dimmers being knackered when you put energy savers in there, seeing as you need suitable dimmers specifically for the energy savers.

As riveralt said, change one, then both of them for normal 2-way switches to see which, or both, of them are knackered.

 

[aab203]

Thanks both,

I'll give switching the dimmers for normal switches a go and see if that does the trick.

Out of curiosity, I have some dimmers that work (i.e. they dim the lights) and some that don't dim the lights - even though the actual dimmer units at the back of the switches are identical (same labelling and everything). Any ideas why this is the case; is it intentional or have the non-working dimmers been damaged in some way?

Thanks again.

 

[aab203]

Ok - so I think it is fixed now - but had nothing to do with the dimmer switches themselves - it was my silly fault! When I replaced the light fixture I only put in 1 out of the possible 5 halogen bulbs (20W), to test whether or not I would still have the flickering problem. Little did I know, until I was looking to buy new dimmer switches, that there was a minimum load as well as a max load for dimmers. So I've just inserted the other bulbs and... no more flickering

However, there is a buzzing noise coming from the fixture when the bulbs are on full brightness. The noise gets more apparent when I dim the lights, but I expect that. Is there any reason why the fixture buzzes on full brightness. Is this ok, or does it mean something might be wrong with it?

Thanks both,
Out of curiosity, I have some dimmers that work (i.e. they dim the lights) and some that don't dim the lights - even though the actual dimmer units at the back of the switches are identical (same labelling and everything). Any ideas why this is the case; is it intentional or have the non-working dimmers been damaged in some way?

Anyone able to answer this question as well?

Many thanks!