"James Egan" wrote in message
news
In my sun room I have 4 recessed lights with 75 or 100 watt bulbs. These
are connected to a dimmer. In the winter months, I have a cigar out
there, and have a 1500 watt quartz heater in front of me, a box fan in the
window, and a small fan blowing the smoke towards the box fan. Last week
when I turned off the heater, the lights brightened as they normally do,
but all 4 lights began flashing like a strobe light. Now the problem is
intermittent. The other night the lights would flash, then stop when I
turned on the heater. I believe I need to replace the dimmer with a
higher
wattage type. I've read that 600 watts is standard. Do you think that
will stop the lights from flashing?



Replacing the dimmer is the easiest fix, but a higher wattage rating is not
needed in this case. The fact that the heater and the lights are on the
same circuit and causing voltage drop may have had a long term detrimental
effect on the existing dimmer. Instead of wasting another dimmer, install a
regular wall switch for the time being to see if the flashing problem goes
away. Would it be easy to separate the outlets from the lighting so that
you have two different circuits as I think that would be the best way to go?