My electrician recently put a light switch in as we are decorating and he put the cable in for wall lights. After finishing decorating we wanted to change the light switch which has separate switches for both main light and wall lights to a dimmer switch (with two switches) . Following the original wiring of the light switch the dimmer switch does not work - we have also tried another one but that does not work either. Is there something different we need to do to install a dimmer switch

Sharon Long, February 2009

yes you must find the red wire that comes from the fuse box the one that is live the power wire you need a tester to find the red live wire BUT be very careful because you have to keep the three red wires apart to find the live wire and when you do put it on the C for common no the dimmer and put a link of wire from that C to the other C to give live power to the other switch on the dimmer now we have two red wires left one for the main light and one for the wall lights put one red wire in the connection marked L1 or L2 next to the C for common on the first dimmer and the other red wire the same for the other dimmer so behind your switch you have two C two L1 and two L2 use the L1 for one way switching ( I do recommend to get some one qualified to find the red live wire be careful ) Hope this helps.

CLIFF T., February 2009