Electrical Wiring & Gas Fire question

Sully

Hey,

I have two questions and im hoping someone can help..

1) Our gas fire has two knobs:- one to activate the flame and turn up its strength and another to turn up the gas. My dad for some strange reason keeps leaving the gas ON and just turns out the flame. Is this danagerous to leave the gas on all day - without the fire lighting? We wouldnt do it on a Gas Cooker, so why a Gas fire? He says there isnt any danger, but I somehow doubt it - so have to keep checking its off

2) When it comes to wiring switches - can 2 dimmer switches control the one light? Basicaly, we wired up a dimmer switch downstairs and one upstairs to control the landing light. However, if you have one on downstairs and someone turns it on upstairs - the fuse board flips the switch down so there is no power going to the switches anymore! Is this bad wiring, or something that cant be done?

(If these are asked in the wrong forum, I do apolgise. Please move if appropriate).

Mr Magnolia

Sully04 wrote:

1) Our gas fire has two knobs:- one to activate the flame and turn up its strength and another to turn up the gas. My dad for some strange reason keeps leaving the gas ON and just turns out the flame. Is this danagerous to leave the gas on all day - without the fire lighting? We wouldnt do it on a Gas Cooker, so why a Gas fire? He says there isnt any danger, but I somehow doubt it - so have to keep checking its off

At a risk of sounding crass, I'd say if the gas was running after he extinguished the flame there would have been a big bang by now. You can't be careful enough where gas is concerned, but there's obviously a saftey valve in there somewhere. At the very least he should be turning the flame and the gas off at the fire.

Sully04 wrote:

2) When it comes to wiring switches - can 2 dimmer switches control the one light? Basicaly, we wired up a dimmer switch downstairs and one upstairs to control the landing light. However, if you have one on downstairs and someone turns it on upstairs - the fuse board flips the switch down so there is no power going to the switches anymore! Is this bad wiring, or something that cant be done?

You can't have 2 dimmers 2-waying 1 light. You can leave one dimmer there and get a standard 2-way switch for the other. This is to do with the principle operation of a dimmer switch. Make sure it's replaced by a qualified electrician, it's a 5 minute job so you shouldn't be charged more than €30-€50, depending on where you are

paul666

yeah best get a sparks in

wyndham

paul666 wrote:

yeah best get a sparks in

Or won't be long before CSI come round to investigate the cause of the blast/fire. Multiple light fittings can be fixed to a single dimmer switch and this is done all the time but it sounds like the dimmer may be wired incorrectly or not designed to handle to load. If it's shorting, it's not good.

Mr Magnolia

wyndham wrote:

Multiple light fittings can be fixed to a single dimmer switch and this is done all the time but it sounds like the dimmer may be wired incorrectly or not designed to handle to load. If it's shorting, it's not good.

It's not the wiring that's to fault, you can't have 2 dimmers on 1 light

multiple light fittings on 1 dimmer switch ----> yes
multiple dimmers on 1 light fitting ----> no

Sully

We replaced the dimmer with a switch, and had to replace the other dimmer with a new one as it seems to have been damaged and wouldnt work anymore.

Thanks for the heads up lads. Appreciated.