Having difficulties with a 2 gang dimmer

[Steve237]

Evening chaps,

Yes - clearly from the title of the thread I'm not a qualified electrician...

I'd like to think I'm not daft, however!

The situation is this; I've recently moved house and got a bit carried away on the chrome switch/sockets front. Fitted over 15 in the house without any difficulty until now...

The last job was the kitchen/dining/conservatory area with a couple of 2 gang switches which I decided to change to dimmers. To fit with the rest of the house, I went for the GET Ultimate flat plate variety. Now, these swines weren't the easiest to fit, probably because I am in a 5 year old house and the mounting boxes are too shallow. But with the 2 gang touch dimmers (see here: GET Ultimate Screwless Flat Plate Electronic Dimmers), it's seems an impossible task, even after trimming all the wires back to the point I can only just connect them.

I am left with a switch that will not fall flat against the wall (only about 3mm gap, but it's noticable). I actually have 3 questions which I hope you knowledgable lot will be able to advise me on.

1) What's the easiest way to get this flat on the wall. I have read online about extension rings that increase the depth of the box. If these exist, will I find them in B&Q? What are they made of? Seeing as I only have 3mm to fill, should I try and fabricate something myself (elastic bands??) or do I need a deeper mounting box? But if I do - will it fit in my 5 year old wall in my house?

2) I think I might have wired it up wrong. When a light is on, the middle button glows red. When it's off, it glows green. I wired the live to 'common' and the neutral to L1. Have I got it the wrong way round?

3) The halogen lights work fine on one switch, but the one on the ceiling fan flickers when I adjust the dimmer in either direction. Do I need a new bulb do you think, or is this ceiling fan bulb just not compatible? It's a JL G9 230V 40W.

Thanks to anyone who may be able to help me out on any of the above!

Steve

 

[Adam W]

If a switch doesn't fit into a backbox I would cut the box deeper if possible, or get a deeper fastfix box, depending on what it's fixed to - obviously fabricating 'solutions' yourself is a bit of a bodge.

Those look like some nice dimmers which I haven't had the privilege of fitting before so I wouldn't know about wiring them up although live to com and "neutral" to L1 would be wrong.
If you're stuck the safest thing would be to get a decent local spark to take a quick look for you.
If you mention which area you're in there may be someone local on here who could pop round; it shouldn't be anything like an 'expensive' problem - at a guess I'd say around £50 to come out and do it for you.

 

[TPES]

The neutral is more than likely not a neutral but a switch live to the fitting but not marked up correctly, which means what you have done is correct, and I'm pretty sure dimmer switches are not compatible with fans.

I have also done dimmers with lights on the switches, it glows red when it's off so you can identify where the switch is when you walk in the room.

 

[Steve237]

Thanks for the replies.

Regarding the wiring, I explained it wrong (few beers last night!). To clarify - whatever went to common in the old switch, I have fed to live on the dimmer. And whatever went to L1 on the old switch, I have fed to neutral on the dimmer. All the wires are brown... I guess they must be the wrong way round if the green/red lights are the wrong way round?

I'm in Winsford, CW7 3LN.

Thanks for any further advice

 

[Steve237]

Can anyone advise the best method in cutting the back box deeper by about 5mm?

Thanks

 

[TPES]

Can anyone advise the best method in cutting the back box deeper by about 5mm?

Thanks

Scutch chisel if it's brick
Normal wood chisel if wood

 

[Jimmy Boy]

Remove the accessory, cut round it with a blade, wiggle out and set a deeper one in simples !
I doubt a dimmer will run a fan, normal light switches are a single pole device, meaning the switch only breaks the Line (live) conductor therefore any wires in there will be Live either permanently or switched any Black wires have not been marked with a Red indicator (Old colours) I hope and pray you have a CPC (Earth) wire in that box if not NEVER fit a metal accessory

 

[Steve237]

Hi Steve. There is definitely an earth wire and I have connected that to the switch (3 threads of earth).

The ceiling fan has a remote, and on the remote is a switch for just the light. So when I switch the light on at the dimmer switch, I then have to switch the light on via the remote. It does dim then, via the switch, but flickers a lot unless on full...

It definitely looks like I will have to fit a deeper box on then. Really annoying because it only needs an extra 5mm! I have never taken one of these off before.. will there definitely be enough space behind the current box to fit a deeper box? The house is about 5 years old.

 

[TPES]

Yes there will be enough space for a deeper box, just be careful as you do it..

Sorry to tell you but your dimmer is not compatible with your fan..

 

[Jimmy Boy]

Depends on the construction of the wall, it is unlikely that a wall will be less than 75mm, if 5 Years old good chance it will be timber or light weight block construction, if there is a cavity behind them a fast fix plasterboard box will solve your problem if block or timber then elbow grease and a chisel is in order as you state your not electrically qualified your unlikely to be able to do a full continuity and loop test but at the very least get a meter and a wander lead and make sure that you have continuity of earth from the accessory and light fitting back to the board I would advise you to do this with all the power off

 

[Jimmy Boy]

In fact as you have fitted a lot of these I advise you to do this on all your metal accessories

 

[Steve237]

Sorry to tell you but your dimmer is not compatible with your fan..

Would any dimmer switch be compatible with the light on the ceiling fan?

 

[Jimmy Boy]

Would any dimmer switch be compatible with the light on the ceiling fan?

I would say no as they have an inductive load and proper control gear would be required, that's an educated guess based on extractor fans I fit at work which require a controller to vary speed and direction of rotation.

 

[TPES]

Steves right in what he's saying, but there is specially ratted dimmers you can buy for fans, in the same way there is for extract fans as steve said.

Copy and paste this into your address bar..

http://www.ehow.com/i/#article_4885311

Have a read