In my living room, I have a ceiling rose and two wall light units. The ceiling rose has 3 bulbs, and the wall lights two bulbs each. All the bulbs are candle bulbs, 50W with SES fittings. My problem is that whenever a bulb blows on either the ceiling rose or a wall light unit, the corresponding dimming function on the dimmer switch blows too. The dimming function only blows on the circuit in which the bulb has blown - i.e. if a ceiling bulb blows, the dimmer still works for the wall lights, and vice versa. However, once the dimming function has gone on one gang, when another bulb blows on the one remaining working gang, the whole switch goes completely kaput. If I replace the switch, everything's fine until the next bulb blows. I've tried expensive switches, and cheap ones off eBay. The problem's exactly the same whether i spend £20 or £4.99. The fact that the same fauly is apparent whether it's a ceiling light or a either of the wall light bulbs, makes me think it's not the liht fittings that are the problem. No other light in the house gives the same problem, although the living room is the only room in the house with a dimmer switch. Any advice would be gratefully received. Thanks, Fred
This is very common, make sure the dimmer you fit has a rating well above the total wattage of the lamps connected to it, ie, for 100 watts of lamp power use a 250 watt dimmer. Not a guaranteed solution but usually works and is worth a try.
Cheers, Seneca. The rating on my dimmer switches states 60-400W, which I thought would be OK. My bulbs are 60W each, so 180W total on the ceiling rose, and either 120 or 240W on the wall lights depending on whether I have one or two on at the time.
The common consensus is that the above happens because as the lamp blows pieces of filament fall across the terminal inside the lamp causing a brief short circuit. It tends to happen more when lamps are fitted upside down as they often are in wall lights. Even in houses without dimmers this often results in a tripped MCB or even, in older properties, a blown fuse. In you case the triac inside the dimmer is taking the hit. As Seneca said up-rating the dimmer might be a workaround but you could also consider changing the lamps to a different type - LEDs possibly. As a matter of interest do you have a modern type consumer unit with MCBs or an older type "fuse box"?
That's what I usually advise UP, sometimes get away with it but more often they say, "oh no, we really like dimmers"!
. . .and to complicate matters now, marrying a specific dimmer with a specific LED dimmable lamp, there's a can of worms!
Thank you everyone for the advice. The bit I missed in my original post, was that then the bulb blows, it trips my MCB as well. I do get the comment about bulbs being upside down, and all mine are, both in the wall lights and the ceiling rose, but it's every single time a bulb blows that it blows the triac, which seems excessive. I have been thinking about replacing the dimmer switch with a normal switch. Yes, I do like having the dimmer, but I dislike changing it as often as I have to, so a regular on/off switch may well be the answer. I have one double dimmer switch left - from last batch! and when that's gone, I'll fit a regular switch I think. I was hoping there would be something obvious that I was doing wrong. Thanks again folks.
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