I just replaced the switches in our bathroom that have standard flood light type of lights in them. They are on the same circuit as the rest of our bedroom. After replacing, i thought the lights looked a bit brighter.
Previous to replacing the switches, we never blew a fuse. After replacing the fuse, if my wife uses her hair dryer, she has been able to trip the circuit. We have a lot of other stuff that is on, but it is all stuff that has normally been on previous to replacing the switches. She is starting to get a little annoyed and I am trying to figure out how to fix this… :
Has anyone else experienced this?
While I do not know the specific draw of the the switch itself(you don;t mention which switches you used), I cannot imagine that it would exceed 3 watts to run the Z-Wave radio, chip and LED. I suspect that it is even less than that.
The lights should not have gotten brighter with a new switch, unless the old switch was introducing resistance to the circuit, such as heavily carboned contacts due to arcing/age.
You refer to blowing breakers. My first two thoughts are miswired or faulty switch. You mention switches. Is this a 3-way switch configuration? If so, my miswired theory becomes my number one suspect.
To be sure, you should be able to add up the loads on the circuit and determine if the total is close to the breaking point of the fuse.
Volts * Amps = Watts
If you have a 120 volt circuit with a 15 amp fuse, you could not run more than 1800 watts before the fuse blows. If you are in the UK and have 240 volt circuit with a 10 amp fuse, your maximum total load would be 2400 watts, then pop!
If your total load, including hair dryer, doesn’t meet or exceed the circuit capacity, then blown fuses indicate a serious problem. To have a bedroom and bathroom all on one fuse sounds like very old wiring, and a bit risky.