DIYbanter - View Single Post - Question about wiring 2 light circuits with dimmers in small space

Joseph Meehan

wrote:
Hello, thanks for any help you can provide. Here is the situation.

I bought a house with two circuits of canned ceiling lighting in the
kitchen - one set of four incandescent lights over the sink and one
set of four over the island. The set over the sink had a dimmer, the
other one did not. Both switches are in a hole cut in the granite next
to the sink. The hold is three inches wide and standard switch height.
Recently the dimmer switch blew. I took off the face plate and they
had two small crappy switches in there. I want to replace them both
with new 600w dimmer switches. But all I have is 3 inches wide to deal
with in the granite, about an inch less than what is needed for two
dimmer switches.
What are my options here? Is it possible to wire all 8 lights on one
dimmer? But then I have extra space. Please give me your thoughts, I
can provide more details if you need them.

Thanks!

Brian

If you are running close to the maximum capacity of the dimmers, putting
two of them in the same box is likely to result in an overheating situation.
As someone suggested, unless you need the lights at full brightness, it may
be a good idea to use less wattage in the lamps.

--
Joseph Meehan

Dia 's Muire duit