DIYbanter - View Single Post - Lights on Dimmer switch flicker from 2/3 to full

wrote:
Hi,

I am wondering if anybody could shed some light on this...

I have two 40W bulbs in my lounge on a double switch. I replaced the
switch for a double dimmer.

All was ok for a while until one of them started to flicker rapidly as
I turned the dial up from about 2/3 to full, the flickering got faster
as the dial was rotated closer to full, but below the 2/3 mark, the
bulb appeared steady.

The other light was fine until the dimmer stopped working completely
one night and I could only get full on/off, with no flickering.

I took the dimmer back to Homebase and swapped it. Wired it in last
night and now both bulbs flicker rapidly when turned up from about 2/3
to full. Again, below about 2/3 the bulbs appear to be steady.

The lounge bulbs are on a seperate fuse from everything else.

Is this my wiring? Or have I managed to buy two dud dimmer switches?

It's starting to confuse me as up to now, I have never had a problem
with wiring.

Thank you for your time.

/Heds

A big thank you for all your replies.

I changed the 40W bulbs over for 60W and they have stopped flickering.
After reading your posts, I noticed on the back of the dimmer that it
had a minimum load of 60W. Should have looked at that in the first
instance, but I only knew about max loads. So that's something new
learnt today.

So, I'm really happy!

Thank you.

/Heds