On Wed, 25 Jul 2007 12:23:07 -0500, bud--
wrote:

Jeff Wisnia wrote:
Chris Lewis wrote:
According to Jeff Wisnia :


When you are replacing the dimmer, go to Rat Shack and pick yourself
up an inline 3AG fuse holder and a few 2 amp 3AG fuses. Wire the
fuseholder in series with the hot feed to the dimmer (it should fit
inside the dimmer box) and you'll be pretty well be protected against
a future burnout. You may have to replace a burned out fuse, but the
dimmer should be OK.



That's just what I did with the four table lamps in our home which
are fitted with "touch dimmers". After the second dimmer blew I added
2 amp fuses to all of them. I've probably replaced six fuses in the
last five years, but all the dimmers are still alive and well.


I find it hard to imagine that a fuse would blow fast enough to
protect a triac. But, if it works...

Make sure you get fast-blo.

Thanks, I realized too late that I forgot to mention that.

Not to be pedagogical, but I sized the fuses for my lamps by looking up
the specs of the triacs in my lamps' touch dimmers, the ones which were
punching through, and found on their maximum I^2*t rating. (eye squared
times tea)

Then I looked on Buss' website and found that the blowing energy (also
expressed as I^2*t) of their 3AG 2A fast blow fuses was somewhat less
than that of the triac, so I figured it should work.


I am sincerely genuinely impressed. The application is specific to the
triac and type of Buss fuse used, but has a good chance of working in
general.

Nitpicking - also check the fuse voltage ratings, and fuseholder ratings.

There may be more room to install a fuse at the light fixture.

Right, but in the dimmer, there might be room for a glass fuse without
a fuseholder. Either one with pigtails (wires soldered to the ends)
or small endcaps that are barely bigger than the metal ends of the
glass fuses. I don't know what Jeff actually used.