Ok Guys, I'm stumped with this one. Me and the girlfriend moved into this apartment a month or so ago. The master bedroom has the strangest light switch I have ever seen, I have tried to label the picture as best I can. There is a slider on the bottom that turns on the light, moves right to turn on. There is a small button on the right hand side, that when pushed, causes the green light on the left to start climbing up. When the light reaches the 4th notch the light will start flashing wildly. Usually the light is fine if the button on the right side is not pushed. Lately, the light has began flashing on its own. It's driving me nuts! I'm not sure if simply putting a new switch in would solve the problem, or if it's something more serious? Any ideas? Thanks guys
I'm not sure I can explain the uncontrollable blinking. I have something similar in my home. The right side buttons should control the brightness/dimness of the lights. The green lights on the left indicate which brightness setting you have reached. Does the middle part of the switch do anything? Have you turned on the lights and then pushed the buttons on the right side? Did the light get brighter or dimmer? Does this feed a ceiling fan? If you're concerned, the switch could easily be replaced with a conventional switch.
Yeah, that looks like the dimmer switch controls that came out in the 90s. They would act strange if you have regular bulbs in the fixtures. The side button (usually) was meant as a quick on/off switch, with the large paddle button used to control dimming. Swapping to dimmable bulbs should fix your problems, however as stated you can just replace the switch. There will be an extra wire that you'll need to cap though.
Yup, definitley a dimmer typoe of switch...I had one of those in my house when I bought it, switched it to a conventional dial type of dimmer.........course then I am not an electrician.......but I did stay in a Holiday Inn once !!!
