moving a dimmer switch

J

jeepster

hi all

we have a stud wall in our house and are going to make the opening larger so we can fit french doors in the place of the existing 1.

to do this we need to re site a dimmer switch, looking inside the switch there are 2 red wires and 1 black.

i was going to extend the wire by removing the floorboards in the upstairs room and extending the cable before dropping iut down inside the stud wall.

can someone advise me -

what do the 3 wires do?, is there a positive and neutral? are these the red wires ?

will the positive be live.

which wire will go on which point on the new dimmer switch?
i have read on previous posts people mentioning L1 +L2

we want to replace the old dimmer with a new plastic one as the front is cracked.

thanks
 
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The 3 wires - note their connections, label the wires if nessecary. Chances are there are no neutrals there, just 3 lives.

The 2 reds, if they go to the same terminal, will be permenant live, and other lights in the house will depend on these being connected together.

The black will be switched live, feeding the light.

I strongly suspect this is the case, but if you have other switches controlling the same light, the wiring will be different.

Good luck. Post here again if you have more questions. ;)
 
hi, i have put a tester on the wires,
1 red wire is live, and the others show no current.

this switch doesnt control any other lights and no other switch controls this one.



looking at a similar switch in another room, the black goes to the earth.

the live wire goes to L1 and the other red goes to C

when i extend the cable can i use one with brown / blue and earth wires.
 
Something is not right here, have you done work on your wiring before?There should NEVER be a black wire connected to earth!!If you have now disconnected all the wires from the dimmer switch you are going to have problems without a meter(a neon tester is no use).How many cables( not wires) are going into the box?The 3 reds should be 1 live, 1 switch wire & 1 feeding another lighting circuit, not controling it. I think you may require your electrical system checking properly as it does not sound as if your lighting circuits are earthed.
 
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jj4091 said:
Something is not right here, have you done work on your wiring before?There should NEVER be a black wire connected to earth!!If you have now disconnected all the wires from the dimmer switch you are going to have problems without a meter(a neon tester is no use).How many cables( not wires) are going into the box?The 3 reds should be 1 live, 1 switch wire & 1 feeding another lighting circuit, not controling it. I think you may require your electrical system checking properly as it does not sound as if your lighting circuits are earthed.

hi

there are - there is 1 wire going into the switch box, it doesnt feed any other switches or lights. the wiring hasnt been touched since the house was buildt approx 8 years ago,

in the other dimmer which is working, there are 2 reds - 1 is live and goes into L1.
1 isnt live and goes into c

the third wire is earthed on the inside of the switch box.
 
sorry - i meant there is 1 cable containing 3 wires going into the switch box
 
They did use black sleeve in the past as sleeving for the earth. Is this the case?
 
Dont confuse yourself ny looking at other switches. They may be wired differently. Make a note of where your existing wires go, extend them properly and reconnect.

There may be no 'current' and any voltage may be between earth and the various wires and there's no positive and negative, this is AC not DC. This should be a simple job and you are making it unnecessarily complicated.

TTC
 
since you ony want to move the switch, it doesnt matter what the wires do, so long as you note what goes where, you exttend the cable with same cable / colours and put it into new position and connect it where it was connected in the first place
 

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