Hi everyone,
Go easy on me, I'm a newbie to the forum and have got myself in a bit of a pickle.
We're doing up our basement.
The basement has a single light switch at the top of the stairs that controls two bulbs - one at the top of the stairs (where the single switch is) and one under the stairs.
At the bottom of the stairs is a double switch. One controls the same two bulbs as the single switch at the top of the stairs, the other controls 6 flush ceiling mounted spots only.
We wanted to swap out the 2 gang switch at the bottom of the stairs for a 2 gang dimmer (leaving the single gang switch at the top of the stairs as is).
I've done this kind of thing before, and whilst FAARRR from being an expert it's usually been pretty simple, a case of moving wires from like for like connections usually.
However, this is NOT the case in this house.
Here's how the double switch at the bottom of the stairs was wired in when I took it off -
Now that it's all disconnect I can see that I have 4 cables running to the box - all with different (it would seem) core wires!
These are the 4 -
Cable 1. Unlabelled, but I believe this is for the spots. Seems to be 4 core - Red (live), Blue (neutral) Yellow (?) and the yellow and green (earth)
Cable 2. (Labelled 'down' - so assume under stairs light).
3 core - simple - Brown (live), Blue (neutral) and an earth. Incidentally all 4 earth cables just run into a single terminal block...does that seem right?!
Cable 3.
(Labelled 'landing' - so obviously the upstairs light by the single switch at the top of the stairs).
3 core - simple - Brown (live), Blue (neutral) running to the same terminal in a connector block with the black wire from cable 4 (labelled feed - see below) and an earth (running to that connector block).
Cable 4. Labelled 'feed'.
3 Core - Red (live), Black (neutral) running to connector block with blue with from cable 3 (Landing) and earth running to connector block with the other 3 earth wires.
So I have a pretty good idea of what everything IS....but I have absolutely ZERO idea what goes where when I look at the back of this 2 way, 2 gang dimmer.....was expecting to see L1, L2 etc.....
Apologies for the long post, but wanted to give as much info as possible.
If someone can tell me what goes where (in language a toddler would understand then hopefully I've got half a chance of being able to sort this!
Thanks so much in advance....so glad to have found this forum, think I may be posting a lot....I have a lot of great ideas....but not so much skill or experience!
Go easy on me, I'm a newbie to the forum and have got myself in a bit of a pickle.
We're doing up our basement.
The basement has a single light switch at the top of the stairs that controls two bulbs - one at the top of the stairs (where the single switch is) and one under the stairs.
At the bottom of the stairs is a double switch. One controls the same two bulbs as the single switch at the top of the stairs, the other controls 6 flush ceiling mounted spots only.
We wanted to swap out the 2 gang switch at the bottom of the stairs for a 2 gang dimmer (leaving the single gang switch at the top of the stairs as is).
I've done this kind of thing before, and whilst FAARRR from being an expert it's usually been pretty simple, a case of moving wires from like for like connections usually.
However, this is NOT the case in this house.
Here's how the double switch at the bottom of the stairs was wired in when I took it off -
Now that it's all disconnect I can see that I have 4 cables running to the box - all with different (it would seem) core wires!
These are the 4 -
Cable 1. Unlabelled, but I believe this is for the spots. Seems to be 4 core - Red (live), Blue (neutral) Yellow (?) and the yellow and green (earth)
Cable 2. (Labelled 'down' - so assume under stairs light).
3 core - simple - Brown (live), Blue (neutral) and an earth. Incidentally all 4 earth cables just run into a single terminal block...does that seem right?!
Cable 3.
(Labelled 'landing' - so obviously the upstairs light by the single switch at the top of the stairs).
3 core - simple - Brown (live), Blue (neutral) running to the same terminal in a connector block with the black wire from cable 4 (labelled feed - see below) and an earth (running to that connector block).
Cable 4. Labelled 'feed'.
3 Core - Red (live), Black (neutral) running to connector block with blue with from cable 3 (Landing) and earth running to connector block with the other 3 earth wires.
So I have a pretty good idea of what everything IS....but I have absolutely ZERO idea what goes where when I look at the back of this 2 way, 2 gang dimmer.....was expecting to see L1, L2 etc.....
Apologies for the long post, but wanted to give as much info as possible.
If someone can tell me what goes where (in language a toddler would understand then hopefully I've got half a chance of being able to sort this!
Thanks so much in advance....so glad to have found this forum, think I may be posting a lot....I have a lot of great ideas....but not so much skill or experience!