Fitting a dimmer in my electric funhouse with extra orange/grey cables? Pics attached.

[Tessa James]

Just moved to a new house with... interesting wiring to say the least. Friend came by to install a dimmer switch, the result being that the lights switch on, but at their lowest brightness, and don't go up or down from there. It's a double-dimmer.

At first i thought maybe it was the bulbs, so I tried a whole load of options, wattages etc... Nada.

Then i thought maybe the switch was knackered, so I unscrewed it and found a bunch of extra wires in there... it's like electric sudoku. Now I'm wondering if it's just been wired up wrong cos it's not symmetrical and there are a bunch of extra wires in there to... i dunno.

If anyone likes a brain teaser - perhaps they can give me some pointers of what should go where and what to do with the other cables? Attached some pics if anyone thinks they're up to the challenge...

 

[telectrix]

If you have 2 way switching and the other switch is a dimmer, then that's a problem , as if 1 dimmer is set to low, the other will not turn the lights up.

 

[Pete999]

Just moved to a new house with... interesting wiring to say the least. Friend came by to install a dimmer switch, the result being that the lights switch on, but at their lowest brightness, and don't go up or down from there. It's a double-dimmer.

At first i thought maybe it was the bulbs, so I tried a whole load of options, wattages etc... Nada.

Then i thought maybe the switch was knackered, so I unscrewed it and found a bunch of extra wires in there... it's like electric sudoku. Now I'm wondering if it's just been wired up wrong cos it's not symmetrical and there are a bunch of extra wires in there to... i dunno.

If anyone likes a brain teaser - perhaps they can give me some pointers of what should go where and what to do with the other cables? Attached some pics if anyone thinks they're up to the challenge...

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Tessa, hunestly, you need an Electrician on site to find out what and where these cable are going/coming from, with the best intentions it will be nearly impossible to see what has been / needs to be done from your pictures,post your location there may be someone close by who may be able to help.

 

[Tessa James]

Yeah, I was afraid you might say that. Just thought I'd post in case the solution was obvious... Back to plan A then.

 

[suffolkspark]

"orange"

 

[telectrix]

it's not orange, it's brown. total confusion with the stupid EU colours that are supposed to be harmonised, but only the UK follows. all other EU countries use whatever they want or can get at knock-off price.

 

[Idpost]

Is that a LAP dimmer? I only ask I went to fit one a while back, but couldn’t as like the one here, it had a common live for both dimmers - the switch in question was on 2 separate circuits.