How wire dimmer switch - Leviton Electrical Supplies

Take off one of the dimmer wires and whatever wires or bundle of wires you have goes to one of the terminals of the regular switch. If it is 2 or more wires then marrette them together first with a piece of wire 6 or 8 inches long to wire to the switch terminal. Then remove the second wire from the dimmer and handle it the same way. (if it is a single conductor then just put it on the switch screw by itself)

You cannot wire dimmers in series and expect circuit to operate.
Problem is not 100% clear. Add a comment and include more information.

1) You have 12 dimmers.
Each dimmer has 2 black wires and a green ground wire.
The 2 black wires tell electrician that the dimmer wires are reversible.
One black dimmer wire connects to Hot from breaker, and the other black wire connects to wire going to Load (halogen lights).
If power passes through each dimmer going to next dimmer, the circuit will not work.

2) Unknown what you are replacing. Are you replacing 12 switches with 12 dimmers? Or maybe replacing 1 switch with 12 dimmers.
Number and type of devices being replaced is not known. And wires to each of these dimmers is not known.

3) You have a single 14-2 wire going to all 14 dimmers? Or does each dimmer have a different 14-2 wire?

4) You want to wire dimmers in series? So you want power to flow through one dimmer and control next dimmer?
You cannot wire dimmers in this manner and expect circuit to operate.
You can wire ordinary switches in series, but not dimmers.

5) Typically dimmers and switches are wired in parallel.
The Hot wire connects to one wire on each dimmer.
Since your dimmer has 2 black wires, the hot connects to either black wire on dimmer.
Then a jumper wire is added to connection, and the jumper wire carries power to next dimmer, and so on.
In this manner, each dimmer receives 120V potential. And then wire going to load connects to other black wire on each dimmer.

You mention a dimmer and a 2nd on-off switch.
You purchased a 'double pole' switch which I believe is a 3-way switch.

3-way switch has 3 screws (plus ground screw which will not be mentioned further)
3 screws on 3-way switch = one is dark colored, and 2 are brass colored.

You can guess. There are only 3 wires and you can keep trying different combination until both switches work. Do not change wiring on 2nd switch and sooner or later the right combination will appear.

On the other hand, electricians test wires using ordinary tester, before connecting anything.
If you want to test, it takes 3 ez steps.

Here's what I would do.
1) Look at wiring on 2nd switch.
Notice switch has 1 dark screw and 2 brass screws.
If you can identify the two wires on the brass colored screws, these are the 'travelers' and same two wires connect to brass colored screws on new switch. And then last wire connects to dark colored screw.

2) You have noted the wires carefully on dimmer, so remove dimmer, and separate wires for testing.
2nd switch is moved to down position.
We are NOT going to test wires on 2nd switch.
We are just testing wires at old dimmer.
Turn on power.

Power is on.
2nd switch is in down position.
Test each wire to bare ground wire.
One and only one wire will light up the tester.
Mark this wire.

3) Change 2nd switch, and move 2nd switch to up position.
Test each wire again to bare ground wire.
Again only one wire will light up tester.
Mark this wire.
If same wire lights up tester each time, then this is the Hot wire and it connects to new switch dark screw. And the other two wires go to brass colored screws.
If a different wire lights up each time, then these two wires are 'travellers' and they connect to each brass colored screw. And the last wire connects to dark colored screw.

The important thing to remember is your switch has two wires.
Sometimes the colors vary a bit because of the specific circuit.
The green wire, when present, is a ground wire, and always connects to bare copper wire.

If your dimmer has two black wires, then connect dimmer-wires to either switch-wire
If the dimmer does not work, simply reverse the two wires.

If your dimmer has a red and black wire, then connect dimmer-black to switch-black, and dimmer-red to switch-white.
Again, if dimmer does not work, reverse the two wires.

Answer back if you have trouble, and I will help.

You posted under Pass and Seymour rotary dimmer that has two wires.

If your dimmer is like other rotary dimmers, it has a black and red wire.
Or it has 2 black wires.

If your switch has 3 wires, then the dimmer will not work.
If your switch has 2 wires:
Probably both switch wires are black.
One of these wires goes to Load (lights)
The other wire is Hot from breaker box

If dimmer has 2 black wires, they connect to either wire from switch.

If dimmer has black and red wires,
> dimmer-black connects to Hot from breaker
> dimmer red connects to Load
> green (if available) goes to bare copper wire

Recommendation:
If you do not know which wire is Hot from breaker, simply hook up dimmer and see if it works.
If it doesn't, then reverse the wires.

If this information does not fit your specific dimmer, please answer back with more details and we'll get it working.

As a general rule, grounding will not affect operation of dimmer.
Type of dimmer, type of switch being replaced, type of load, and how you connect wires will affect dimmer.

Here is Lutron dimmer switch page
http://www.lutron.com/Products/StandAloneControls/Dimmers-Switches/Pages/DimmersSwitches.aspx

What is the load? Are you wiring dimmer to a ballast? Or fan? Or incandescent lights? Or florescent lights?
Are you replacing a 2-way or 3-way switch?
What color are your dimmer wires?
How many wires were connected to switch?
Can you re-install the switch, and know where each wire went?
Did you replace a light with a fan, and then want the dimmer to slow the fan? Not every dimmer will work with a fan, or florescent lights.
Dimmers cannot dim LED lights.

If I know what type switch you are replacing, and the type of load you want to control, and the specific dimmer you have, I can answer the question.

The most likely candidate is the white wire. In a standard residential installation, the white wire is often the neutral connection - and wiring the dimmer hot to neutral will cause exactly what you described.

However, often times the white wire is instead a traveller wire being run to the switch from the fixture (which, it sounds like that's what you were assuming) - in which case, the other likely candidate would be having a loose power connection coming in contact with ground. Sometimes this can be a loose screw or, as you describe, a loose wire.

Your best choice would be to install a standard 50-cent light switch first. If you connect it together and it works - then you know a connection came loose and made a bad contact - so then you can try using another dimmer. If you connect it and the breaker trips - then you know you're using the wrong wires/connections.

The white and the black wires are both hot wires, and the green wire is for earth ground only. The green wire does not belong hooked up to the white wire.

The two black field wires should be attached to one side of the dimmer switch (one of the black wires from the dimmer switch)

The white field wire should be attached to the other side of the dimmer switch (the other black wire from the dimmer switch)

The green wire from the dimmer switch should be hooked up to earth ground only (any un-insulated copper wire that is inside the switch/outlet housing) and if you can not find it attach the green wire to the inside of the light switch outlet housing and be sure that it is attached to metal.

The other hall light switch that you are talking about must be connected inline with that light switch you trying to turn into a dimmer, and it should operate again nomally once you have connected that light switch properly, and if not check for any tripped circuit breakers.

Yes, this is a single pole dimmer switch. Connect the green wire to the ground wire in your electrical switch box and connect one black wire to the power (common wire) in the switch box and the other to the wire going to the incandesant light fixture. (Standard dimmers cannot be used with CFL type bulbs).

You should be working fine! Remember to turn off the power to the wiring your connecting this dimmer to to prevent both getting a shock and from damaging the dimmer during installation.

Hope you found this very helpful and best regards!

The answer to your question depends on the manufacturer and type of 3 way dimmer you are using... generally you can use a 3 way switch as a single pole switch, but whether or not this holds true with the dimmer you are using depends. Let me know what you are trying to acomplish and model numbers mfgs of what you have and I'll try and help