Electrical - 2 gang to 1 gang switch

AmDaMan

AmDaMan

AmDaMan

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Joined
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Wellington, NZ
I'm looking at putting a 1 gang remote dimmer switch in place of an ordinary 2 gang switch. The reason is because i'd like both lights to do the same thing instead of individual switching.

Is is possible to just place the 1 gang switch in place of it or do I need a 2 gang one regardless?

Cheers.
 
I would imagine you could just wire both to a 1 gang switch,
only difference you would see would be both lights working simultaneously.
 
Anders0n said:
You need a 1 gang 2 way switch I believe. 1 switch but controls 2 lights.
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A 1 gang 2 way switch is just a single dimmer with a push on/off plus a turning dimmer, it doesn't mean its for two lights - I've just been shopping for dimmers :)

Keyser Soze said:
I would imagine you could just wire both to a 1 gang switch,
only difference you would see would be both lights working simultaneously.
Click to expand...
This should work, I've got a single switch working two sets of lights (going to be separated dimmers) at present (waiting on leccy to finish).

I'd just add that make sure you don't overload the switch with high voltage bulbs etc.
 
Yes you can do this, just make sure you dont overload the dimmer, wont be an issue if i can take "both lights" to mean that you have only 2 fittings.
 
cheers for the replies.

I was just worried about putting two sets of wires to a single point on the back of the switch. Think it's rated 400w and the bulbs aren't energy savers but they will be dimmed down and there will be 10 lights in total (2 celing fittings).

So just to confirm a 1gang / 1 way switch is fine as opposed to a 1gang 2 way?

cheers
 
Yes , but why not just buy the 1 gang 2 way ?

The other dude is talking pants about it having a push button aswell as a dimmer , thats not the true meaning of two way.

A normal two way switch will have one input and two outputs.
 
cableguy2003 said:
Yes , but why not just buy the 1 gang 2 way ?

The other dude is talking pants about it having a push button aswell as a dimmer , thats not the true meaning of two way.

A normal two way switch will have one input and two outputs.
Click to expand...

No it wont. A two way switch is for use on two way lighting circuits. it wont work in this situation. How many watt's is each "blub" (lamp really) taking up?

as you have 10 of them i think you said they need to be a max of 40w each.
 
Threads like this are the reason we don't allow medical queries!

Does it have two incoming lives or one?
 
I'll check the lives in a bit as this is my worry, 2 lives in one 'socket' surely isn't good practice.

I think the bulbs are 60w but i'll buy 40w later one, what happens is you exceed the wattage of the switch as I was going to have them permanently dimmed anyway.

cheers.
 
AmDaMan said:
I'll check the lives in a bit as this is my worry, 2 lives in one 'socket' surely isn't good practice.
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Don't forget there were originally two circuits running into the switches, depending on how they wired it they could have run 2 independant circuits, or shared the incoming live between the two common inputs.

AmDaMan said:
I think the bulbs are 60w but i'll buy 40w later one, what happens is you exceed the wattage of the switch as I was going to have them permanently dimmed anyway.
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If you exceed the rated wattage the the dimmer pack will overheat and fail. This could be a fire hazard and would result in your household burning to death.

Even though it's dimmed you'll still be pulling the full wattage of the bulbs.
 
SB118 said:
If you exceed the rated wattage the the dimmer pack will overheat and fail. This could be a fire hazard and would result in your household burning to death.

Even though it's dimmed you'll still be pulling the full wattage of the bulbs.
Click to expand...

Actually neither of those are true, if you dim a bulb it does not draw the same current, rheostats are very efficient! :confused: They are also 99% of the time protected against overheating and will shut down.
 
Well the ones i fitted got silly hot and went pop when the customer added another 10 bulbs to the circuit, so it must just have been fluke.
 
You must have bought the 1% which aren't :p

Anyway, obviously he should not exceed the stated power, whatever protection is in place.
 
Sorry to dig this up but i've only got around to doing this.

I've just had a go and when the electricity comes back on one of the lights is permanently one and only one works off the switch.

On the back of the dimmer I have C/L1/L2

So I've put the two red wires in C and the 2 red wires in L1 (this is how it states it on the instructions).

Is that wrong?
 
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