Dimmer Switch Help!

Brutus76 · Feb 25, 2013

Hi there,

I am diy'ing in a bedroom and a corridor and wanted to see if I can figure out how to attach a lot of wires from wallamps & other dimmers etc..Currently the wall lights do not work.
I guess I may have to call an electrician for this, but any help is greatly appreciated!!

Some explanations to the conondrum since inside of the dimmer switch back box (plastic, the one I am fixing) there are 14 small wires from 5 cables:
- My dimmer switch is standard 1-way, with 3 ports: C, L1 and L2
- There was one roof lamp in the room from before (removed with wires isolated in box).

- 2 cables with 6 wires come from 2 wall lights: blue, brown and neutral.
- 1 cable with 3 wires come from another socket: blue, brown and neutral. The other socket should work independent of this one being switched on/off.
- 1 cable with 3 wires come from ??: This one is old and has White, Blue and Red wires. Could this be to roof lamp or Electrity incomming?
- 1 cable with 2 wires come from ??: This one is old and has Black and Red wires. Or this may be to roof lamp or Electricity incomming?

From before all of the blue wires (and one black) were somehow bundled together behind the switch. There were a few red/brown / one white inside the dimmer switch, but then again this did not work..so perhaps pointless information..

Thanks a lot for help, and excuse my ignorance!

Rgds, Henrik

steptoe · Feb 25, 2013

Brutus76 said:
Hi there,

I am diy'ing in a bedroom and a corridor and wanted to see if I can figure out how to attach a lot of wires from wallamps & other dimmers etc..Currently the wall lights do not work.

I guess I may have to call an electrician for this, but any help is greatly appreciated!!

Some explanations to the conondrum since inside of the dimmer switch back box (plastic, the one I am fixing) there are 14 small wires from 5 cables:

- My dimmer switch is standard 1-way, with 3 ports: C, L1 and L2

- There was one roof lamp in the room from before (removed with wires isolated in box).

- 2 cables with 6 wires come from 2 wall lights: blue, brown and neutral.

- 1 cable with 3 wires come from another socket: blue, brown and neutral. The other socket should work independent of this one being switched on/off.

- 1 cable with 3 wires come from ??: This one is old and has White, Blue and Red wires. Could this be to roof lamp or Electrity incomming?

- 1 cable with 2 wires come from ??: This one is old and has Black and Red wires. Or this may be to roof lamp or Electricity incomming?

From before all of the blue wires (and one black) were somehow bundled together behind the switch. There were a few red/brown / one white inside the dimmer switch, but then again this did not work..so perhaps pointless information..

Thanks a lot for help, and excuse my ignorance!

Rgds, Henrik

it sure is old, circa pre 1972 at a guess!

are you sure its white and not yellow?

SPECIAL LOCATION · Feb 25, 2013

Have the wall lights ever worked?

is there more than one switch working the lights?

you mention "another socket"

1 cable with 3 wires come from another socket

do you mean another light switch box mounted in the wall??

ProDave · Feb 25, 2013

blue, brown and neutral

With the greatest of respect, given statements like that, it is clear your knowledge of electrics is tiny.

Therefore I strongly suggest the best course of action is to call a local electrician to sort it out.

Quite apart from anything else, you will probably want a 2 or 3 gang switch. I can't imagine you want the wall lights coming on at the same time as the ceiling lights.

What's needed is someone with an understanding of electrical circuits to go through it all methodically and identify what wires go to what and re connect it all. With the best will in the world, nobody on a forum will be able to tell you just from your description with any degree of certainty what goes where.

Brutus76 · Feb 25, 2013

Thanks for answers all, very much appreciated.

To clarify if I can:

- Yes, one cable is definitely White, Red and Blue.

- There is only one switch to work the wall lights (2 of them at the same time). I removed ceiling light and isolated, but did not want to remove wiring from dimmerbox since I did not know which of the 2 cables above that went there..

- Sry, my bad!, I meant another light switch in another room (corridor).

- ProDave, my bad! - i meant earth, not neutral!, and thanks for advice, I think I may have to get an electrician, but it just seems to easy with really only 3 different cables (3 are the same)..

Thanks again! Henrik