Hey all,

I want to replace a light switch dimmer in my house (the dimmer is physically busted) and after taking it off the wall and getting ready to drop in a new one, all the instructions that came with the new one refer to more wires (of differing colours!) than I have coming out of the wall.

I've got two coloured wires coming out -- a red and a black, with a green wire folded backward and disappearing off somewhere.  In the old dimmer, the black went into 'loop' (along with one of the wires (yellow) from the dimmer component), red went into '2', and the other dimmer wire (white) went into 'C'.

For the new dimmer, it seems to expect FOUR inbound wires -- two referred to as 'power' (black and red) and two referred to as 'lamp' (again, black and red).

The black from power and lamp go into loop, the red from power goes into 2, the red from lamp (and one of the dimmer cables, also red) goes into 1, and the remaining dimmer cable goes into C.

So, in short, wtf?!?  If I have two inbound cables only (black and red) and two dimmer cables (both red), where should they go?

My guess is: inbound black to loop, inbound red to 1, one dimmer to loop and one dimmer to C.  This is based on the other dimmer configuration.

If it's any help the old dimmer is a PDL and the new one is an Arlec.

I'd be very grateful for pointers that might stop me wiring up a deathtrap :-)

Cheers!