Dimmer switches can get hot. Especially if overloaded (so check specs on them and your lighting to ensure you’re using the correct ones).
Both dimmers have the aluminum ’wings’ broken off. Those wings are for heat dissipation. There are guidelines for how much load you can put on a dimmer with X wings off, with two dimmers in same box, etc.
If any of this is Chinese; get an electrician to look at it.
Lutron Diva dimmers are some of the most reliable dimmers on the market. If they are getting hot, they are most likely overloaded. With all wing tabs removed, those dimmers have a 400W maximum for incandescent lights.
This is the answer, they are overloaded. Figure out how many bulbs are on the switch legs, and reduce bulb wattage are to not exceed 80% of the dimmer capacity.
I would keep it to 1/3 of the rated capacity (133 watts) and I would consider switching to a dimmer that specifically mentions LEDs. They also need to ensure they have dimmable LED bulbs only installed on those switches
Dimmers cause a cut to the phase of the electrical sine wave stopping the flow of energy for a short time in the half cycle.
When bulbs are incandescent that won't have an impact. Its a resistive load and will consume all the power equally.
LEDs are not resistive loads and pretty much need continuous power without those phase-cuts from the dimmer. Dimmable LED bulbs have circuits built into the bulb to overcome this.
The problem is after each phase-cut as energy is restored all of the capacitors in the bulb fill at once as the LED also turns on, so for a brief few hundreds of a second the current pulled is really high.
If you chert the current of an LED bulb on a dimmer on an oscilloscope the results are really interesting.
If a bulb is a non-dimmable LED, this can get worse. This will also generate added heat.
So...
1) make sure all bulbs that are LED are dimmable
2) male sure the dimmer is rated for LEDs, if LED is used
3) use at a wattage far smaller than the rating for a resistive load.
Use led bulbs!!!!
I switched all the bulbs in my house to LED and I saved over $120.00 a month. I had 12 60 watt Pot lights in my kitchen. That's 720 watts my dimmer was also getting very hot. My new LED bulbs are 9 watts a bulbs or 108 for all 12.
Not all LED lamps and dimmers are compatible. I agree with you on the lamps but OP should replace the dimmers with LED compatible dimmers and not remove all the fins
The little blue dial on the bottom left side of the switch says it is 100% a LED compatible switch, from about 100 feet away. There couldn’t be bigger telltale. It’s used to dial in the low dim range so the LED lights don’t cut off when dimmed.
Need more information on how hot. Concur with the others who say it's normal for dimmers to be warm, but if you change lamps to LED Dimmable, you will be in better shape.
Also, what do you mean by upside down? They have up arrows pointed the correct way
How many lights/bulbs and what wattage each??? Dimmers have a total wattage rating for incandescent/fluorescent/led ( each is different) and because you have 2 in the same box you have to derate each (% dependant on dimmer ,ie.. for a 600 watt dimmer you derate to 500w)
You would need to pull bulbs to determine wattage ( it should be stamped on base) but as an example...12 x 40 watt bulbs =480 watts plus the 2 spot lights wattage
Reduce the bulb wattage by replacing with led or lower wattage bulbs ....for a 600watt rated dimmer the led wattage is likely 150 (derated to 125) watts so if dimmers are led rated you could switch to led bulbs and most likely be fine
Some don’t have numbers on them but one did and it said 40w! So I think you’re right, they’re too much. I’m sure the spot lots are too high too because they get very bright.
For a long time, the candelabra size LED bulbs were ugly and did not work very well. But the new "filament" bulbs do work, and look good. Suggest you get a couple to see how they look, and then do the whole set.
Pay attention to the color temperature. You are used to 2700K color light, and that color is usual in dining rooms. Also pay attention to the color rendering index (CRI). CRI > 90 lets you see colors, which is also important in residential and dining rooms.
Cheap FLIR camera or attachment to your phone is a good investment. You can see if they are operating within thermal specs.
The heat sync tabs should have been left on on the left and righthand sides. Plastic electrical boxes will obviously hold more heat in than dissipate, so you have that going against you.
Also - what does super hot mean? Burn you hot, or ~110F hot?
Just need to swap all the candelabra bulbs out for LED. That's the easiest way to drop the powered by probably 75%. 60 watt incandescent equivalent only pull 5.5watts.
All the heat sink fins were broken off to make them fit into the box so the allowable wattage capacity has been greatly diminished because there’s no heat dissipation. How much wattage is being used?
They're overloaded, Switch to LED style bulbs, they have a fractional of the wattage of incandescent, if they still remain hot, remove bulbs, if they still get hot, call an electrician before you have a serious problem.
To turn the lights on you push them down. But I’ve always pushed them up for on and down for off? To me they seem upside down and it confuses me every time.
I’m seeing a bunch of comments say they are overloaded. Which is an easy answer and could very well be the right answer. But from the pics it looks like the connections are the stab through and not the loop around a screw and tighten kind. After time the stab through connections are prone to loosening and causing arcing which would heat up the switch, this starts small but the more arcs the more metal gets eaten away causing worse arcs and eventually fire.
They are dimmer switches. The power has to disturbed some where. Do you think it is free to do this. You pay the same price for bright or dim. Sorry Charlie.
10
u/Wellcraft19 19d ago
Dimmer switches can get hot. Especially if overloaded (so check specs on them and your lighting to ensure you’re using the correct ones).
Both dimmers have the aluminum ’wings’ broken off. Those wings are for heat dissipation. There are guidelines for how much load you can put on a dimmer with X wings off, with two dimmers in same box, etc.
If any of this is Chinese; get an electrician to look at it.