Dimmer switch blew bulbs

aj9648

Hi

Just wanted to get some some advice
Yesterday I turned on the dimmer switch to my living room and there was a little spark and the lights did not turn on. The fuse had tripped in the consumer box which I reset. 3 bulbs had gone with this but all other lights on the circuit were working fine, some also on a dimmer.

This morning my son turned on the living room lights and it went pop again and all the bulbs in the chandelier went. I tried replacing with a new bulb but wouldn't work this time at all. All other lights are fine.

So is the problem the dimmer switch, the wiring, fuse, light or something else? The whole place was rewired 12 months ago so I'm not really what I should do.

Any suggestions before I need to call a sparky out?

theEnd

I've had exactly the same thing happen over Christmas.

On the grounds that I'd just changed the bulbs, I'm seeing it as the bulbs blew the dimmer switch. I've ordered a new switch, which I'm hoping will be easy enough to change.

Mr.Generous

what type of bulbs? lots of low energy are not dimmable.

aj9648

Definitely dimmable bulbs

Sam_Fallow

I recently changed my wall lights and they blew after only a short period of time. New set of bulbs didn't work at all.

Turned out that the old dimmer switch was at fault. Replaced that and all is well again.

trailingspouse

This sounds familiar - had the house rewired in 2013, put a chandelier in the lounge on a dimmer switch. All well for a couple of months, then the dimmer popped. Called the electrician who did the rewiring, and he replaced the dimmer. Since then, bulbs have blown on a regular basis. We now have it permanently one bulb short - there doesn't seem to be any point in replacing it, as it'll only blow again within a matter of weeks.

Eventually we will need to find out what the problem really is - but I suspect it's going to get complicated, and we keep putting it off...

aj9648

So I'm going to replace the dimmer. Looking in screwfix there is a 250W and a 400w version. How do I know which one is most appropriate? Or does is not really matter?

Ruski

aj9648 wrote: »

So I'm going to replace the dimmer. Looking in screwfix there is a 250W and a 400w version. How do I know which one is most appropriate? Or does is not really matter?

The rating is how much 'power' the dimmer can handle: 5x40w bulbs is probably the best max for the 250w dimmer, 8x40w bulbs for the 400w dimmer.

Many people fall foul of this - especially if using GU10 50w downlighters...

If you're using LED bulbs then a different type of dimmer is required also....

HTH

Russ

aj9648

Ok so the mrs bought the 400w. It's 5 bulbs on the chandeliers at 40w - I'm assuming this will be ok?

Ruski

Should be fine

Remember to isolate the circuit before swapping out

Russ

theEnd

I swapped mine out for the same as before (400W) and it's ok now. Very simple job.

Thinking about it, should I be on a lower wattage switch? It's only running 3 LEDs (prob 8W each). Do the lower wattage switches work as normal on the mains?