Replacing 2 way light switch

[charliecc]

Hi,

I'd like to replace a 2 way light switch with a 2 way dimmer (I think ).

The light switch currently operates 2 ceiling lights in 1 room and these lights are not controlled by any other switches.

The issue I have is that the only wires being used in the current switch are red and there are 5 of them. There are some black wires but these are not connected.

Please see my crude drawing of my two switches.

Untitled

• charliecc
• 2 Mar 2012
• 1

As you can see, I have 1 wire coming into the Top L1, and 1 wire coming into the top L2. A wire going from Top L1 to Bottom L1 and a further 2 wires coming in to Bottom L1. Finally there's a wire coming into Bottom L2.

Given the dimmer layout on the right, i.e. Top C L1 L2 and bottom C L1 L2, which wires should go where. I tried copying the L1, L2 layout from the Switch to the dimmer but I got nothing.

NOTE, I am fitting a plastic dimmer so don't worry about lack of earth.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Charlie.

 

[riveralt]

For the new dimmer the C (common) replaces your old switch L1.
So connect the wires here the same.
The link wire now goes between the two commons.
The switch lives are L1 and L1 on the new dimmer switch.
As for lack of earth - I hope that your light fittings are not metal.

 

[charliecc]

Thanks for the quick reply, much appreciated. So just to be clear, the new wiring setup will look like this.

Untitled

• charliecc
• 2 Mar 2012
• 1

 

[riveralt]

Yes although you could use the L1 rather than the L2 as you switch lives.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Charlie - please learn how lighting circuits work, what switches do, i.e. what happens inside them, how the terminals are laid out etc.

Get, and learn to use, a multimeter so that you can identify conductors.

Doing electrical work without a genuine understanding, i.e. just following a diagram without actually knowing why you are putting this wire in that hole is a very bad idea. Diagrams are great ways to explain things, and to learn from them is fine, but don't start doing things like this until you no longer need diagrams.