Hi All,
First post here but looks like a great forum
I'm after some help with changing the light switch in my lounge, what I thought would be a simple job! I'll try to explain the best I can but can upload photos if needed.
When we moved into the house a few months ago the house only had a set of wall lights in the lounge. The owner had removed the ceiling light at some point however the rose and wiring was still there. He had also replaced the switch next to the front door with a single dimmer, the other switch located at the bottom of the stairs was left as it was. This all worked fine, dimmer would control the wall lights on\off and dim, and we could use the other switch to turn them on\off when needed.
What I wanted to do was get the ceiling rose working again, ideally with a double dimmer in place of the single one and the leave the other switch as it is. After buying a 2 way, 2 gang dimmer and coming to install it last night I realised I only had one live on the socket I was replacing (the dimmer seemed to require 2).
After much messing about we eventually just put a choc block on the end of the live and ran 2 seperate wires to each of the live terminals on the switch. This has now resulted in one of the dimmers controlling the lights and the controlling the ceiling light (fine) however the wall light dimmer also dims the ceiling light! Also the other switch at the bottom of the stairs now either turns all the lights off (if they were all on) or if one is on it turns that one off and the other one on!!
I'm thinking I might be better changing back to a normal switch and not a dimmer however will I have the same problem wiring that and is there a particular type of switch I need? 2way, 2 gang, 1 pole???
Thanks in advance
First post here but looks like a great forum
I'm after some help with changing the light switch in my lounge, what I thought would be a simple job! I'll try to explain the best I can but can upload photos if needed.
When we moved into the house a few months ago the house only had a set of wall lights in the lounge. The owner had removed the ceiling light at some point however the rose and wiring was still there. He had also replaced the switch next to the front door with a single dimmer, the other switch located at the bottom of the stairs was left as it was. This all worked fine, dimmer would control the wall lights on\off and dim, and we could use the other switch to turn them on\off when needed.
What I wanted to do was get the ceiling rose working again, ideally with a double dimmer in place of the single one and the leave the other switch as it is. After buying a 2 way, 2 gang dimmer and coming to install it last night I realised I only had one live on the socket I was replacing (the dimmer seemed to require 2).
After much messing about we eventually just put a choc block on the end of the live and ran 2 seperate wires to each of the live terminals on the switch. This has now resulted in one of the dimmers controlling the lights and the controlling the ceiling light (fine) however the wall light dimmer also dims the ceiling light! Also the other switch at the bottom of the stairs now either turns all the lights off (if they were all on) or if one is on it turns that one off and the other one on!!
I'm thinking I might be better changing back to a normal switch and not a dimmer however will I have the same problem wiring that and is there a particular type of switch I need? 2way, 2 gang, 1 pole???
Thanks in advance
