Varilight Intelligent Safety Dimmer

[kpclarke1]

Hi all,
I have a tandem light switch in my hall - one switch is for the porch light and the other is for the hall light. I purchased a Varilight Dimmer (also a tandem) from B&Q and thought it would be a simple swap over - but no..... The switch plate i have removed had a wire in each \\\"L1\\\" slot and i\\\'ve moved these to the \\\"LIVE\\\" slots on the dimmer. There was also a short wire going from one \\\"COMMON\\\" slot to the other \\\"COMMON\\\" slot on the old switch plate. I\\\'ve put that from one \\\"SLAVE\\\" slot on the dimmer to the other \\\"SLAVE\\\" slot. The only other slots available on the dimmer are called \\\"LOAD\\\".
One of the lights now work fine (hall) - the dimmer dims and turns on and off, but the other (porch) won\\\'t dim and actually stays on all the time. I\\\'ve tried different combinations to the above, but none seem to work. Am i missing something obvious or is the new dimmer switch plate just not appropriate?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Steve]

Did you read the instructions?

Firstly, if either of these lights is switched from elsewhere as well, the varilight dimmer wont work, though from your wiring, it doesn't sound as if this is the case.

If either of the lights has an energy saving lamp in it, again, the dimmer will not work.

As far as i know, in the varilight dimmers, the SLAVE terminal is not to be used unless you're wiring slave switches up for 2 or 3 way operation, which is not applicable here.

Try this:

COM in old switch >>> LIVE in new switch
L1 in old switch >>> LOAD in new switch.

Link the LIVEs as the COMs were linked. You dont mention a wire coming into the switch to the COM terminal, just the link wire. There must have been another wire to the COM terminals.

Let us know how you get on.

[kpclarke1]

Hi Crafty, thanks for the suggestion.... i tried it and exactly the same scenario..... one light works the other is permanenlty on. No energy saving bulbs are involved. And you were right, i forgot to mention the line going into the old common which was linked.....

[Steve]

It sounds like the dimmer's had it then.