One thing to remember--dimmers use a solid state device called a triac to
control the power. Triacs have a voltage drop of about 1 volt when
conducting. Thus for your situation where you are drawing 6 amps at full
current the triac will be producing about 6 watts of heat plus a small
amount of heat from the other components, so it is not surprising that the
switch should feel warm. Changing to a higher power rated dimmer will not
change this amount of heat. If you can find lower wattage bulbs that look
ok would help. I would ignore it and if the dimmer dies buy higher power
rated one.

"Albert" wrote in message
oups.com...
Have a dimmer light switch that controls 12, 60watt light bulbs in our
kitchen ceiling. The switch gets very warm to the touch. I assume
this is not good, what are my alternatives? Are there different levels
of dimmer controls that can handle higher wattage? If I put in
different types of bulbs lower wattage, or fluorescent, would that be
a good quick fix? Thanks.