Dimmer Dilema

talula · 23 Nov 2007

I have tried to wire a one way dimmer as the old switch was wired and the light came on but would not dim. The original switch was wired as follows; 2 brown wires into L1, one brown wire into L2 and an earth into the back of the casing, there are also 3 blue wires coming out of the wall which all go into a block cable connector with nothing coming out of the other side.
The dimmer has the following connectors; L1, L2, a wavy line with an arrow going through it and an earth.
Any suggestions on how I can get it to work?

comms · 23 Nov 2007

Try putting the two browns into the terminal with the arrow/wavey line.
The single brown into L1.
Leave blues in the connector block.
Connect the earths to the earth terminal.

talula · 24 Nov 2007

Works perfectly. Thank you very much.

stewcant · 16 Mar 2012

Hi I have just changed my bathroom light switch with a dimmer. It has 3 brown going into COM and two going into L1 (as it was with the normal switch). The dimmer seems to work, turns light on and off and also dims.

However when i dim half way through the light bulb flickers and also the bulb seems to smell. Any suggestions?

Thanks

Taylortwocities · 17 Mar 2012

What type of lamp are you trying to dim - if its low energy then you'll have problems because you can't dim most of those.

other reasons for flickering are because the lamp load is either too big, or too small for the dimmer.
Compare the wattage of the lamp(s) with the allowable range of the load - its usually written on the back of the dimmer itself.

stewcant · 17 Mar 2012

Its just a standard bathroom ceiling light pendant that i am trying to dim. What should the wattage of the bulb be?

riveralt · 17 Mar 2012

stewcant said:
Hi I have just changed my bathroom light switch with a dimmer. It has 3 brown going into COM and two going into L1 (as it was with the normal switch). The dimmer seems to work, turns light on and off and also dims.

However when i dim half way through the light bulb flickers and also the bulb seems to smell. Any suggestions?

Thanks

And looking at your last post - you say this feeds a single incandescent ceiling lamp.
But you appear to have two switch lives as per L1 so there is likely to be another lamp linked to that switch somewhere.
By the way you should have started a new post and not hijacked another persons.

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Dimmer Dilema

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