Dimmer Malfunction?!

Question

I am trying to replace my current single light switch with a normal dimmer, but every time I install it, the ring is blown. What I have in current socket is a red(old ones I know) one and a black one sheated in red and of course a green one. The dimmer supports up to 20 watts annd my light is a normal 60w...I tried to switch the L1 and L2 (tried the normal red one in both L1 and L2 slots) but oth cases gave the ring a blow...so should I check the dimmer for fault or am I totally wrong!thanks in advance m8s!

Answer 1

Sorry, wrong side of the pond to know your wire color codes,

but if that's a solid state dimmer, and you 'blew the ring' with

it, it's probably fried.

20W. ? - Just doesn't sound right. Do you mean 20A.? 200W.?

Answer 2

Sorry i cant shed any light on this. get a sparky in.  

Answer 3

You are using too small of dimmer.  It supports up to 20 W.  You are pushing 60W. through it.  this is three times more power than its supposed to have.  Get a higher rated dimmer, you can cause a fire if you jury rig this one.

Answer 4

red will go on L1 and the black on L2 and green is ground  

Answer 5

What the h**l is a ring? The dimmer supports 20 watts or 20 amps? It shouldn't matter which wire you hook to L1 or L2(talking about the hot wires not the ground). But something doesn't sound right.

Answer 6

If you have one red and one black/sleeved red core, then these are a feed and a switch wire. Put the red To C, and the red sleeved to either L1 OR L2, and it should work. if it blows again there must be another fault in the circuit. Replace the old switch as it was and try that.