If youre in a room where light is a little harsh relieve your eyes and save energy with a remote dimmer switch or a 3 way dimmer switch. This lets you dim from one location and turn the lights on and off from another.
Wiring Light Switch Or Dimmer
Light dimmer switch diagram. If you want to control the amount of time a light stays on equip your lights with a light switch timer. Like a transistor a triac is made up of different layers of semiconductor material. A triac is a small semiconductor device similar to a diode or transistor. But you wont be able to dim the lights from every switch location unless you buy a set of special dimmers with advanced electronics and install one at each switch location. In the last section we saw that a dimmer switch rapidly turns a light circuit on and off to reduce the energy flowing to a light switch. If the light can be switched on and off from two or more switches buy a three way dimmer switch.
If only one switch controls the light purchase a single pole dimmer. With a three way dimmer you can control a light with two switches. If you need light only when youre nearby install a motion sensor light switch. Care should be taken in selecting your dimmer switch. With a standard single pole dimmer a single switch controls the light. In the diagram below a 2 wire nm cable supplies power from the panel to the dimmer boxthe black line wire connects to the common terminal of the 3 way dimmera 3 wire nm connects the travelers of the dimmer to the travelers of the 3 way switchtraveler wires are interchangeable on each switch.
The central element in this switching circuit is a triode alternating current switch or triac. You will need a three way dimmer and a three way switch. Most dimmers are rated for 600 watts of power consumption so if you have several light fixtures which will be controlled by the 3 way dimmer switch you will need to count the number of fixtures the number of lamps per fixture and the watts per lamp.
Gallery of Light Dimmer Switch Diagram
