Where's the problem with our electrics? educated guesses please!

Brie

So in our dining room there are 2 dimmer switches, one for the chandelier & one for the wall lights.  The wall lights work fine but are very dim (need more powerful bulbs?) but the chandelier lights sometimes flash on and off but will stop if you dim them a bit.  Never have all the bulbs worked at the same time.  One alarming time it was like a disco with them turning on/off in turn. 

The next room also has a dimmer switch to the chandelier.  And the lights occasionally flash on/off but not as often as the dining room.  And again the dimmer switch sorts the problem. Never had disco lights.

The next to that is the lounge with again 2 dimmer switches - again wall lights and chandelier.  The wall lights have never worked properly but the chandelier has been fine.  Until a couple of weeks back.   

There's no problems with anything plugged in in any of these rooms.  

No other rooms have problems but they are all straight on/off switches.  

What is most likely the source of the problem?  The switches or the fixtures?  Possibly both??  How disruptive might it be to sort this all out?  I assume if it's not the actual wires then it's just going to a be a minimally intrusive job.  Or am I being too optimistic?

There's a brand new switch box next to the meter so that bit is (I assume) ok.  

Brie

Thinking this through - in the first 2 rooms in the chandeliers it's always one light at a time that's a problem. 

ciderboy2009

What sort of bulbs do you have in the lights?  If led ones then are they dimmable ones and is your dimmer switch compatible with dimmable led's?

housebuyer143

This sounds like the bulbs are not suitable for the  dimmers installed. You might have replaced halogen with led dimmable? Sometimes they don't work without flashing even with a dimmer switch because you need a compatible dimmer switch.

Rather than sort this issue with mine I just changed my bulbs to colour changing ones and I dim them with a remote. Much easier. 

Brie

@ciderboy2009 & @housebuyer143
Thanks - that might explain 2 of the rooms but not the 3rd as no lights have been changed in there lately and I wouldn't expect all the bulbs to go at the same time.

Meanwhile I'll see about trying to get the right bulbs.

MysteryMe

If they were inserted at around the same time the bulbs could fail shortly after another, especially if one bulb failing affected the others in the same fitting.  Might be worth changing all the bulbs in room 3 to the type you know are going to be compatible to test it out.

ThisIsWeird

Some LEDs are not suitable for dimming. Some of those that are still require a specific dimmer control (leading or trailing edge).

Do you know what bulbs you are using? (Philips Warmtone/Dimtone are superb). And, can you remove the dimmer plate to see the type of unit - take a photo?

Some dimmers are programmable, and can be swapped from Trail to Lead, and even have their max and min brightness levels set. If you want to know whether the dimmer switch is wot's keeping some bulbs dull, try them in a non-dimmed fitting.

Veteransaver

If the bulbs are less then it can be a problem getting them to work well with dimmers, even the supposed special led compatible ones.
If not LED bulbs then it's probably a faulty dimmer.
I gave up on ours and just replaced the dimmer with a normal switch.

Eldi_Dos

There was a similar thread on here before and one poster suggested pressing rotating switch in and holding for X amount of seconds.
Did that with ours and everything has been fine since.