Guy

[GuyGilliland]

My house was built 5 yrs ago; My kitchen has 12 LED can lights (3W each) + two LED can lights (8W each) + two chandeliers of 6 lights each (25W incandescent)

This is all on a single circuit and inaccessible.  Evidently, the total load is too much for the C4 dimmable switch; the two 8W LED lights go out due to this

I'm going to replace all incandescents with 3W LED; Is there a way to connect this to C4 dimmable switch without rewiring all of the lights?

eg split the load at the current switch? or is there a C4 switch that will handle a bigger load? I've been told my switch can handle only 120W - i clearly have more than that

Thx

Guy

[OceanDad]

Depends how things are currently wired, but you may very well be able to take the two chandelier loads onto a separate adjacent switch with a minimum of rewiring involved.  Your plan to swap out to 3W LED's should take care of the overload in any event.

Normal warnings apply - if mains electrical is not your skill set, please consult a licensed electrician first.

You might want to retitle your post to something like 'Light switch rewiring' for more responses.

[Brownbatsbreath]

Wait wait wait. So all the lights you listed are Controlled by one dimmer and only the two 8 watt lights go out and the others stay on?

If I’m understanding you correctly and that’s the case, then the  8 watt lights going out are not because of the control 4 dimmer. The dimmer can’t magically turn some lights off while leaving others on. If anything those 2 lights are either non dimmable, or reacting to being dimmer with different load types. 

All loads on the same dimmer should be the same type. 

[EverAction]

What kind of dimmer are you using? Adaptive phase or Forward phase?

Forward phase dimmer supports up to 1000w (with no tabs broken) compared to the Adaptive phase dimmer that supports up to 650w (with no tabs broken). And you can typically get away with forward phase dimming of LEDs with no noticeable difference compared to the preferred reverse phase. From my experience, a forward phase was typically only ran to a chandelier due to the typical high wattage requirements that come along with them -- that they would typically exceed the wattage of an APD even if it was the only load wired to it.

[Brownbatsbreath]

ADP is rated at 120w when the load is LEDs. 

Forward phase dimmer is rated at 200w with LEDs. 

[Cyknight]

3 hours ago, GuyGilliland said:

My kitchen has 12 LED can lights (3W each) + two LED can lights (8W each) + two chandeliers of 6 lights each (25W incandescent)

This is all on a single circuit and inaccessible.

 

2 hours ago, Brownbatsbreath said:

All loads on the same dimmer should be the same type. 

And preferably wattage though that isn't a must. You shouldn't even be combining different styles of lights (ie chandelier and potlights) on a single dimmer.

It's fine if it's a switch, but on a dimmer, the different ratings can cause issues

 

Start by replacing those incandescent.

3 hours ago, OceanDad said:

Depends how things are currently wire

Indeed - it seems insane that any electrician would have wired what you describe in the first place - sounds like a case of designer pushing to reduce wall clutter forcing lights to be combined - you may be lucky and the wires are all separated already - then get those three banks on different dimmers.

[ILoveC4]

Yeah, that’s a crazy lighting circuit - way too much on one switch.