I recently replaced my ceiling and all the wiring has already been pulled through. I purchased a dimmer that works with a remote control and as i opened the dimmer switch to connect my wires, i noticed that it requires a ‘LIVE IN’, ‘NEUTRAL IN’ , ‘LIVE OUT’, and ‘NEUTRAL OUT’. My first problem is that there is no way of pulling in any new wires. My second problem is that there is only one neutral coming for the DB to the switch. I bridged all the ‘neutral wires’ of all the lights to that same same neutral wire from the DB.
My question is, if i connect the neutral from the DB to ‘NEUTRAL IN’ and take the ‘NEUTRAL OUT’ to the first light in the bedroom which is connected in parallel to all the other lights.
Will the dimmer dim the other lights which are on separate ‘LIVE’ cables and if i switch the dimmer off, will the other lights switch off? The bathroom light neutral bridges from the bedroom light neutrals.
Can you provide an accurate wiring diagram of your existing lighting?
With no clear understanding of what you have, I can tell you that in most cases of modern wiring, in the U.S., bridging neutrals is not a problem and is in fact typical. However, older switch loop wiring can have the neutral switched and this would not be compatible.
and attached is a rough drawing of my wiring layout.
A colleague of mine said if i loop the neutral in and neutral out then it should not dim the bathroom. He says that it is just there for more options but I am not so sure.
I can not test the lights yet because they are still busy scheming the ceiling.
I am not at all familiar with the specific switch that you mentioned. I can only guess that it operates as other switches do on the market.
Having said that, your bathroom light is a separate circuit that (oddly) seems to share a neutral. The bedroom switch, of any kind, should have no effect on the bathroom lights.
Ok, so i got to test all the lights with the dimmer.
Unfortunately, the dimmer has to work with the neutral. It was not able to function with live only. When i connected the live and neutral, the bedroom lights did dim but when switched off, the bathroom light also switched off. I was unable to switch the bathroom light on without switching on the bedroom lights.
I was able to find a alternative. I connected the bedroom lights to a switch and then to the dimmer and the bathroom lights on a separate switch.
I was now able to switch on my bedroom lights and dim them. I was able switch my bathroom light on without having to switch on my bedroom lights but the dimmer must be turned on and i could switch the bedroom lights off with the normal switch.
The only strange thing is when i turn the dimmer on full when only the bathroom light is on, all the bedroom lights start going on and off continuously until i switch it off and on again. It is not a big problem because the bathroom light is not a dimmable light so i can just turn the dimmer on a little and it will shine brightly.
But for anyone who wants to install a dimmer, i would recommend the lights not sharing the neutral with any other lights.
Frankly, there are lots of strange things in your case.
two circuits sharing a neutral, as diagrammed.
A dimmer that has a Neutral out. Neutral in is expected, out is very unusual.
The flickering behavior that you describe.
My recommendations are two fold.
a. If possible ave the circuits rewired so that each is a dedicated circuit, without shared neutral.
b. Regardless of whether the circuit is rewired, replace the dimmer with one that does not utilize a neutral out. (Most dimmers dim the Load wire and ones that use Z-Wave or remote controls need a neutral in to run the switch.)
Hi I know its been a while but just wanted to inform you that i managed to get it to work.
I just swapped the neutral and live around on the dimmer and this made them work separately.
I take it the dimmer was working on the neutral and by swapping them around, it worked on the live wires.
I just want to thank you for your service
Kind regards
Morne
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