How to Change a Normal Light Switch to a Dimmer Switch

hello again it's Martin here from our two electrical in this video we're going to be showing you how to change a normal on/off switch to a dimmer so here we have a mock up of pretty much what's in most households where you have a on/off switch turn the light on and off and this is what we're aiming for a demo let you push to turn on the turn the knob up increase your brightness and they'll don't know and push it again to turn it off now it's really important you don't electrocute yourself so you've got to make sure that you isolate the supply so when you take the old switch off that it's not actually live so the first thing we need to do is to go to the consumer unit or the fuse box and turn off the circuit that we're actually going to be working on the first thing we need to do is to locate the consumer unit or fuse boxes often called many of them like this one has a pulldown flap at the front and reveals inside through various circuit breakers if we take a closer look here the one that's highlighted has got the label lights which gives us a good indication will actually lighting circuit and also if you look it has b6 which is the rating of the circuit breaker which is 6 amps which is normally associated with lighting circuits so now we can turn off the circuit breaker like so and there's an electrician we want to make sure that no one else turns it back on by mistake so we put on this locking tool with the label on it make sure nobody else can turn it back on and electrocute me now we're ready to go back and take the screws off I'll speed up a little bit here because it's a bit boring to see someone unscrewing screws there we go and the other one and take it off gently making sure you don't touch any of the screws behind and we're ready to check to make sure is it in fact isolated to do that we use an approved voltage indicator first of all we test make sure it's working okay which it is we then measure between the earth and the incoming logs make sure that is dead which it is and then against the other l1 terminal which it is and then we test again between the two terminals all checks out okay and then we test the Machine again make sure it's still working which it is that means it's safely isolated and ready for the next step so before we move on we can have a look at the two switches the older on/off switch on the left and the dimmer switch on the right by turn them over and look and what we can see it's a little bit difficult on the left to see how it's marked but they are top left l1 and top right is l2 and one down middle is actually labeled ell sometimes it can be labeled common or with a little icon which I'll show you in a minute so here on the right we've got the dimmer switch which is labeled as l2 as you can see on the left l1 so bottom right and then the middle it's got a little squiggle icon which also represents live so if we go back to the switch which is taken off when notice that the solid Brown upper wire there feeds into the live of the switch and the blue wire which is what the brown sleeping on goes into the l1 now thus leaving is to say that this is a switched live connection not a neutral blue connection so now we know everything is isolated and what is what we can just take a screwdriver and unscrew the terminals to remove in this case the switched live and then the incoming live like so there we have it so we're ready to put the dimmer switch on now so we take the dimmer and put the live into incoming live connection the dimmer switch making sure it's nice and tight and we're not having any copper wires showing do the same with the switch live into l1 tighten it up give it a little tug to make sure it's secure and we're ready to put the front back on good to bend the wires just a little bit so lace or folding stem cells pop it on like so and we're ready to put the screws in so take the screws and pop them back in using a screwdriver and then we're ready to go back to the consume unit to turn everything back on again so first thing to remove the safety isolation device like so they won't turn the circuit breaker back on and it's closed the front and we should be done as they consume unit so back to our test which now you can push it turn the LED bulb on up and down control the brightness and push it again turn off the job done so before I finished just a few helpful notes number one of course make sure it's safe to work on the switch always isolate and always check to make sure the circuit has been isolated number two make sure that the dimmers are suitable for the type of lighting you've got for example make sure that the power rating of the dimmer is appropriate for the type of lights that you're using make sure if using LED lights that the dimmers are suitable for LEDs and thirdly make sure that they physically fit into the box because dimmer switches are often quite deep deeper than the traditional switches that you may have taken off so totally take note of the old connections on the switch the way of doing that is simply to take a photo with your smartphone this make sure that when you're putting the cables back in they go into the right place number four don't be too worried about dual or triple switches replacing those with dual or triple dimmers it's exactly the same essentially treat each single one as an individual switch remember working with electricity is extremely dangerous so if you're in any doubt whatsoever what you're doing do consult an electrician thanks for watching I hope you enjoyed the video

Channel: Artoo Electrical

Views: 493,916

Keywords: wire up a dimmer switch, change to a dimmer switch

Id: Fo3hQFAFVuo

Length: 6min 25sec (385 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 02 2017