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Shifftali · Sep 4, 2016, 08:24 AM

I have a short term and long term electrical problem:

Short term: the lights in my bedroom are flickering constantly. When I turn off the lights they still flicker but a very dim flicker. The light switches are dimmables. In my living room, the lights occasionally flicker as well but when I adjust the dimmable light switches that are there as well, it stops flickering. In my bedroom, they do not stop flickering even when I adjust the dimmable toggle. (the light bulbs I have are mostly LED floods and some CFL floods) (I mention my living room to point out that I do not believe the flickering lights are a result of bad wiring, but rather as a result of bad switches, although I could be wrong). PLEASE HELP!! Everywhere I look I read that flickering lights are a real hazard.

LONG TERM: the switches in my house are pretty old - they are LIGHTOLIER remote dimmable switches ZPR- 3W. I believe the cause of my above problem is that these old dimmables don't work well with the new LED's that I put in, although again, I could be wrong. I tried replacing these dimmables last year, when one stopped working, and I discovered that my entire house is wired differently than conventional 3 way switch lighting. After much research, I found that lightolier remote dimmable ZPR-3W switches work with on a "Master and Slave" system. On one end of a 3-way system, there is the dimmable switch that has either 3 or 4 wires coming out of the switch, and on the other end of the room by the second switch, there is only 2 wires coming out of that switch. (hence I could not just swap this out for a regular on/off switch since every three way needs a load wire (black), neutral (white), and transfer (red) and this one only has two wires. The "master" controls the "slave" switch somehow, with this method. Anyway, to fix the broken switch, I found on eBay, a new switch but of the same brand and model so I just swapped out the old one for the new one, but I am still unhappy with these old switches since I believe they are the source of the flickering, perhaps they are non compatible with new LED's. If anyone knows of a compatible system that I can replace these lights or how to stop the flickering I would extremely happy. Thanks! Ive attached below pictures of both master and slave switches that are part of a 3 way switch.

(the dimmable picture below is the ZP model not the ZPR model which I couldn't find a picture of, but it looks the same as mine. Please see below. Thanks)

InfoJunkie4Life · Sep 4, 2016, 10:00 AM

You could consider a wireless option. Softap has an elegant option. Lutron has tons of options, this has lots of cool features... CFL/Led Compatible... not 3-way, but comes with a remote that can be mounted as an additional switch anywhere. May want to call Lutron for other options, I had a hard time navigating their site for specifics.

It is possible to wire the 2 wires to a regular wall switch, which in turn would not act as a dimmer but, not disable a normal dimmer on the other end. Whatever setting it was left at would remain when the switch was turned on again.

ma0641 · Sep 4, 2016, 10:10 AM

Take the cover off and look at the dimmer. See if there is a small adjustable grey arrow shaped button with a + and -. You can set upper and lower limits with this button. I just put in 2 new dimmers for a customer and set the dimmers so they are full on and can be set as a night light too. Many CFL and Led Lights are finicky on a dimmer.

Shifftali · Sep 4, 2016, 01:54 PM

Originally Posted by InfoJunkie4Life

You could consider a wireless option. Softap has an elegant option. Lutron has tons of options, this has lots of cool features... CFL/Led Compatible... not 3-way, but comes with a remote that can be mounted as an additional switch anywhere. May want to call Lutron for other options, I had a hard time navigating their site for specifics.

It is possible to wire the 2 wires to a regular wall switch, which in turn would not act as a dimmer but, not disable a normal dimmer on the other end. Whatever setting it was left at would remain when the switch was turned on again.

Would I be able to replace it with a regular wall switch that is a three way? Otherwise, if the switch is off I'd have to turn it on from one end of the room in order to activate it from the other side of the room. It would need to be a 3 way.

Originally Posted by ma0641

Take the cover off and look at the dimmer. See if there is a small adjustable grey arrow shaped button with a + and -. You can set upper and lower limits with this button. I just put in 2 new dimmers for a customer and set the dimmers so they are full on and can be set as a night light too. Many CFL and Led Lights are finicky on a dimmer.

OK I can try that but I don't think it would explain the mild flickering when the light is switched off completely.

InfoJunkie4Life · Sep 4, 2016, 03:00 PM

Originally Posted by Shifftali

Would I be able to replace it with a regular wall switch that is a three way? Otherwise, if the switch is off I'd have to turn it on from one end of the room in order to activate it from the other side of the room. It would need to be a 3 way

Correct. However you need three wires for a three way to function. Otherwise it acts like a regular switch. Remote is the easiest way without new wiring, as the dimmer is installed like a regular switch, and the remote is installed in place of the second switch. The one from Lutron can come with a box and plate that screws to the existing box. It runs on a battery, with no additional wiring.

Also Lutron carries hundreds of master slave setups, it may be worth calling them to see if they have one compatible with your existing wiring.

Shifftali · Sep 4, 2016, 06:44 PM

After more research, I can answer my own question. The switches that are in my house are known as "companion" switches where all the switches are wired not to the lights or the power but rather to the master switch (hence only two wires are needed despite being part of a 3 way switch system). The local home depot carries such replacement switches. I will change the old ones with the new ones and see what happens.

InfoJunkie4Life · Sep 4, 2016, 08:55 PM

Originally Posted by Shifftali

After more research, I can answer my own question. The switches that are in my house are known as "companion" switches where all the switches are wired not to the lights or the power but rather to the master switch (hence only two wires are needed despite being part of a 3 way switch system). The local home depot carries such replacement switches. I will change the old ones with the new ones and see what happens.

Great!

Be sure to look for CFL/LED rated dimmers with sufficient wattage for your application. Flickering is associated with using dimmers that are rated for incandescent bulbs.