Remote control dimmer switches

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Caporegime
Joined
13 May 2003
Posts
34,591
Location
Warwickshire
Hello

I see a lot of people here saying that they use their remote controls to control their 'ambient room lighting'. Since I'm getting a Logitech Harmony 555, I fancy a bit of that also, however I can't see any on B&Q.

What remote dimmer switches do people have and where can I get decent ones at a good price?

Many thanks.
 
I bought a cheapy one off eBay, you program it with your own remote. Works great. Are we allowed to link to auctions? :p
 
I got my remote controlled touch sensitive dimmers from B&Q, and yeah, you teach it to learn any remote by tapping the lightswitch 5 times in a row, and then pressing the button on the remote you want to control it with.

Only problem I found was they have a tendancy to overheat and fry when running lighting with a potential close to the dimmers maximum, even when dimmed all the time. The diy store only sold 250W dimmers, but I found the manufacturer made 400W dimmers, and I managed to buy some from a trade supplier instead :)

Seems now they even make 600W versions.. Anyway the brand of the dimmers is Varilight. They are not bad, but the 250W ones are somewhat hit and miss when it comes to reliablity.
 
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Personally I use X10 Lamp modules to control my lighting, bit more costly but gives me a lot of options. The newer lamp modules have soft fade on and off, and remember your last dimming level.

Valve
 
I also have the B&Q model, pretty sure it is the Varilight Brand.

I think they are great and it works perfectly with my Logitech remote.

Installation is a breeze, no special wiring needed and it works straight out of the box...
 
I have got a Varilight dimmer switch running 400w of lights and it does get pretty hot but not had any issues with it since installed about 4 years ago.
 
My living room light switch is behind the living door (when the door is open) - does the Logitech Harmony need line of sight, or will it work "round corners"?!

Those Varilight ones looks good (caveat being the points mentioned above about power). Wonder why they didn't come up when I searched "dimmer" initially. Oh well!
 
I don't know about the varilight stuff so can't say if the harmony would need line of sight (well actually it'd be the dimmers themselves that would need it depending onthe quality of their receivers....) but the X10 stuff works by sending signals through the electricty supply so doesn't need line of sight etc.
 
I am certain they need line of sight, either direct or bounced off something. Can try later when I am at home to be sure.

My remote works fine from around 4.5M away at a very acute angle of around 15 degress from the wall, if that makes any sense...

One small thing that might be a problem is the dimmer unit itself is slightly deeper than a standard switch, so if you only have a slim housing box in your wall you may have to use a spacer.
 
TONY said:
I have got a Varilight dimmer switch running 400w of lights and it does get pretty hot but not had any issues with it since installed about 4 years ago.
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You probably have the 400w version of the dimmer, it was the 250W dimmer that I had issues with.. No problem with any of the 400W+ varilight dimmers.

The remotes work pretty well, they are "near" line of sight, but will normally "see" IR signals bounced from walls, its just a case of learning where to aim the remote :).
 
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