Dimmer - correct type

[baleineau]

Some help needed desperately.

I have a room in the house that serves as a lounge-diner. There are two lights in the lounge and one in the diner area. The lights are powered by one socket point in the room. There is no other socket that controls them.
The lounge lights each take 4*40w halogen bulbs, therefore 160w capacity each. The diner lamp takes 12*10w halogen bulbs, thus 120w. The total wattage is 440w.

I have bought a 3-gang 2-way 250w dimmer from b&q. Is this sufficient? Does each gang support up to 250w? Will a 2-way dimmer work, considering that this is the only socket/switch controlling these lights? Could I get away with the 250w dimmer but simply remove some excess halogen bulbs?

Thanks for some help

Martin

 

[PrenticeBoyofDerry]

You'll need a higher rated dimmer if the watts value exceed that on the product, as this is the limit you can load it, if these loads exceed the switches rating, you will have problems. So take the item back and buy a higher rated one, which will allow it to carry the load.

 

[johnnykc]

to answer some of your questions....each gang will control up to 250 watts and a 2 way dimmer switch (push/push) can be used on a 1 way circuit.

 

[baleineau]

It sounds, then, that the dimmer I've bought is suitable if each gang can support up to 250w. The Diner is 120w max, and the two separately contolled lounge lamps are 160w each.
Thanks guys, now just got to go about installing it.

 

[Taylortwocities]

Before you dive in (may be too late) take a photo of the back of the old switch with the wires attached.
You won't believe how many people take the old switch off and then cannot remember where the wires went!

 

[baleineau]

That's my new struggle. Installation!
The old switch puzzles me. It has 3 switches, one controlling each light. There are a mass of wires. The only ones going into the switch are brown ones. Three go in to the bottom, and the tops are connected by brown wires that loop between the switches. Blue wires come through but they don;t connect to anything. Then there is a green-yellow earth cable (well insulated) that sits there looking pretty. The old switches are plastic-encased.

The new metal 3-gang dimmer tells me to connect the brown cables in 3 places at the bottom (marked with a symbol). Three blue cables also have to connect (into L1) on each gang. Then the green-yellow connects into the metal outer-casing (as earth). I understand this, however, which of the multiple brown wires need connecting? There are more than three coming out of the back.

Puzzled.

Would it help if I post photos?

Martin

 

[sparkybird]

It's a feed through switch, with live links to each of the dimmer modules. Here's what to do.

Switch off the lighting circuit

Leave the blue (neutral) cables connected together as they are.

You will need to earth the new metal switch, the best way is to get a small piece of 1.5 mm earth cable and connect it to the dimmer plate and then back to the existing earth connection.

The 3 brown cables coming out of the bottom of each of your existing switches are the supplies to the 3 lights. Put each of these into L1 of your new dimmer modules.

The brown cables that loop across the top of the switches are the live loops - connect these into the common terminal of each of the dimmer modules. However, there will be one live feed brown cable (coming out of the wall, which you need to also put into one of the common terminals - this is your 'live' in.


Hope this helps

SB

 

[ban-all-sheds]

It would help if you didn't follow the instructions, for that way lies pops, bangs, sparks, blown fuses and wrecked dimmer switches.

The instructions assume that your lighting loop runs from one light to the next, but yours runs through the switches.

See the diagram at "2 gang using Terminal Block enclosed within the light switch" here: //www.diynot.com/wiki/electrics:single-way-lighting

You should have 5 cables (4 if it's the end of the line) - loop in, possibly loop out, and 1 to each light.

Make a careful note of what goes where in your existing switch before you remove it.

Keep the same arrangement - leave all the blues in the connector block, where your instructions show the browns put the 1 or 2 browns that are in the terminals currently linked together, and similarly link the ones on the dimmer switches.

Where your instructions show the blue wires going, put the browns currently in individual switch terminals that are not linked.

You might have a problem getting the switch back though - dimmers are deeper, and you've got a lot of wires in there - how deep is the back box?