Ladies and Gents,
This is my first post here so I'll thread a bit of an introduction into my question, but first, a one-line summary of why I'm here:
The two light switches in our living room don't work as expected, do the regs allow me to resolve this myself or does it have to be done by a qualified/registered electrician?
And here's the whole story.
We're nearing exchange on a cheap 1990s semi we're buying from our landlords after renting for a few years. We want to do some work on it and I'm researching how much electrical work I can do myself etc. I quickly realized troubleshooting can be a lot more complicated than I expected. This in turn made me think about an issue with our lights which I always thought was a mere niggle, but I'd now like to ascertain just how big an issue it is in case it has financial implications.
Switch arrangement
The living room has two switches with no visible branding:
Switch 1 is a dimmer knob which you depress to toggle on/off, and turn to adjust brightness once on.
Switch 2 is a bog standard one gang switch.
AFAIK either switch might even be 1 way (but I don't want to check if I don't have to. I had a look inside switch 1 ages ago for an unrelated reason and the face screws have flimsy sockets and it took an hour to put the plate back on).
Specific issue
There are a few ways to describe the way this currently operates:
1. You can use either switch to turn the light on, but you have to use the same switch to turn off. The other switch then has to be operated an even number of times to switch the light off.
2. If switch 2 is on, pressing switch 1 does nothing. If switch 2 is off, pressing switch 1 will toggle the light on and off. Once the light is turned on at switch 1, switching switch 2 does nothing.
3. If you turn the light on with switch 2, then press switch 1 once, then try to switch the light off at switch 2, the light will stay on until you press switch 1 once.
If the three descriptions above are not enough by themselves, then hopefully they are enough when read together. I've had a decent look online and found threads about all sorts of issues with two-switch setups, but none like what I've got.
Getting to the point: naturally this is something anyone could fix with the right tools and some more research. The question is, can you guys tell if the relevant BS and regs require someone qualified/registered for this, or would I be allowed to resolve this myself?
One final note in case it matters: the dimmer in Switch 1 no longer dims the light, it just stays on full brightness, but I'm pretty sure it's because the cheap ebay bulbs I bought are not dimmable. It used to dim fine with the old bulbs but otherwise the switches behaved as they do now, I just can't remember whether turning on at switch 2 gave the brightness set by the dimmer, or if it produced the full brightness.
Thanks for looking, hope the question makes sense but please let me know if you need any more information.
This is my first post here so I'll thread a bit of an introduction into my question, but first, a one-line summary of why I'm here:
The two light switches in our living room don't work as expected, do the regs allow me to resolve this myself or does it have to be done by a qualified/registered electrician?
And here's the whole story.
We're nearing exchange on a cheap 1990s semi we're buying from our landlords after renting for a few years. We want to do some work on it and I'm researching how much electrical work I can do myself etc. I quickly realized troubleshooting can be a lot more complicated than I expected. This in turn made me think about an issue with our lights which I always thought was a mere niggle, but I'd now like to ascertain just how big an issue it is in case it has financial implications.
Switch arrangement
The living room has two switches with no visible branding:
Switch 1 is a dimmer knob which you depress to toggle on/off, and turn to adjust brightness once on.
Switch 2 is a bog standard one gang switch.
AFAIK either switch might even be 1 way (but I don't want to check if I don't have to. I had a look inside switch 1 ages ago for an unrelated reason and the face screws have flimsy sockets and it took an hour to put the plate back on).
Specific issue
There are a few ways to describe the way this currently operates:
1. You can use either switch to turn the light on, but you have to use the same switch to turn off. The other switch then has to be operated an even number of times to switch the light off.
2. If switch 2 is on, pressing switch 1 does nothing. If switch 2 is off, pressing switch 1 will toggle the light on and off. Once the light is turned on at switch 1, switching switch 2 does nothing.
3. If you turn the light on with switch 2, then press switch 1 once, then try to switch the light off at switch 2, the light will stay on until you press switch 1 once.
If the three descriptions above are not enough by themselves, then hopefully they are enough when read together. I've had a decent look online and found threads about all sorts of issues with two-switch setups, but none like what I've got.
Getting to the point: naturally this is something anyone could fix with the right tools and some more research. The question is, can you guys tell if the relevant BS and regs require someone qualified/registered for this, or would I be allowed to resolve this myself?
One final note in case it matters: the dimmer in Switch 1 no longer dims the light, it just stays on full brightness, but I'm pretty sure it's because the cheap ebay bulbs I bought are not dimmable. It used to dim fine with the old bulbs but otherwise the switches behaved as they do now, I just can't remember whether turning on at switch 2 gave the brightness set by the dimmer, or if it produced the full brightness.
Thanks for looking, hope the question makes sense but please let me know if you need any more information.