As I mentioned in another recent thread, I put a 3gang dimmer switch in the lounge. It feeds a two three bulb ceiling fittings and one two bulb wall fitting. I was using carbon filament 40w bulbs and none of the fittings or switches were overloaded but a couple of bulbs blew and wrecked two of the dimmers such that they would turn on but not dim.
Last night I turned them on to use the room and one of the broken dimmer units got hot and started smelling burnt. Quick look showed a brown patch in the back of the dimmer unit. The switch no linger worked after i turned that one off. I turned the circuit off at the main board for the night.
The old switch was wired up so that the two permanent lives for the circuit were wired at the switch and not the ceiling rose. Each switch was marked L1,L2, L3. So it was set up with permanent live into L1 switch 1 a bridge from L1 switch 1 to L1 switch 2 a bridge from there to L1 switch 3 and permanent live out from there. L2 was the switched live to the lamp unit and the neutrals were all joined in the back box with a choc bloc connector, same with the earth. See below.
I copied this setup onto the dimmer switch (that was marked common L1 amd L2 on each unit so I used common terminal for the permanent lives and bridged as above. See pic below
Is the wiring all ok like this? And is the dodgy burnt unit due to the fact it has failed or is there an issue with wiring up like this? It all worked fine initially until a bulb blew and ruined the dimmer unit. I now have led dimmable bulbs and two new dimmer back units bit wanted to check the wiring was ok first.
(The dimmer pic above was a quick check to make sure the wiring worked before i opemed up the wall hole)
Last night I turned them on to use the room and one of the broken dimmer units got hot and started smelling burnt. Quick look showed a brown patch in the back of the dimmer unit. The switch no linger worked after i turned that one off. I turned the circuit off at the main board for the night.
The old switch was wired up so that the two permanent lives for the circuit were wired at the switch and not the ceiling rose. Each switch was marked L1,L2, L3. So it was set up with permanent live into L1 switch 1 a bridge from L1 switch 1 to L1 switch 2 a bridge from there to L1 switch 3 and permanent live out from there. L2 was the switched live to the lamp unit and the neutrals were all joined in the back box with a choc bloc connector, same with the earth. See below.
I copied this setup onto the dimmer switch (that was marked common L1 amd L2 on each unit so I used common terminal for the permanent lives and bridged as above. See pic below
Is the wiring all ok like this? And is the dodgy burnt unit due to the fact it has failed or is there an issue with wiring up like this? It all worked fine initially until a bulb blew and ruined the dimmer unit. I now have led dimmable bulbs and two new dimmer back units bit wanted to check the wiring was ok first.
(The dimmer pic above was a quick check to make sure the wiring worked before i opemed up the wall hole)
