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fred
 
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Default Fitting a dimmer switch to a floor lamp - No Earth

In article .com
, writes
Hi,

we have a floor lamp that makes the room far too bright when on, and
leaves the room too dark when off. So, we asked our unreliable
handyman to fit a dimmer switch, which he did, a normal click on/off
dimmer in a plastic housing, by cutting the main cord, and putting it
inbetween the plug and lamp.

He left the job muttering something about "it buzzes because there is
no earth". The thing did buzz, and the lamp flickered as well, and
eventually after a week or so, there was a reasonbly loud bang, and the
lamp stopped working.

The buzzing has nothing to do with the earth, it's a symptom of a ****
dimmer with a loosely wound inductive filter. As to the failure, is the floor
lamp a halogen uplighter perhaps? If so, your dimmer may require to be
derated quite a bit for the linear halogen bulb, perhaps a 400W dimmer for
a 250W bulb.
--
fred
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