How to Install a Dimmer Switch

Featured Pro: Eric Stromer
Category: Home Improvement
Time: 1:52


ERIC STROMER: Hey, I’m Eric Stromer. Here’s your GMC Trade Secret.

Now, lighting is a key ingredient to the mood of any room. And there’s nothing better for lighting than a dimmer switch.

The first step: Make sure your power is off; you’ve switched it off at your circuit breaker on your panel outside of your house.

You just go ahead and take these screws off first. Okay, and here we go. Take these screws. Put them in the little tray right there. Put them down so you don’t lose them – right there. Go ahead and unscrew this switch inside the wall on these little rabbit ears. Okay, go ahead and take that second wire off; rotate, rotate, pull the wire out.

Just grab some of these wire nuts that come with all the switches that you buy. And then you can straighten out this wire with your wire cutter. Take that wire nut. Go ahead and put it on the end. Just twist it, okay. Then take that other wire, same thing. Now all you have to do is tuck these wires right back into the wall. Make sure that the switch is upright again. That toggling switch is on the bottom. The dimmer’s right here. We put it back into place just like that.

We put our screws that came with the switch right into the existing box in the wall; not too tight. Don’t overtighten them. And then you can make sure that switch is plumb in the wall. That’s why you have these horizontal slots in here to make sure that it lines up and it looks straight on the wall.

So there’s this plate that goes over it right like that. And then you go ahead and screw that right into the little tiny screw holes. Then this plate goes over and covers all the workings and mechanisms of that screw plate onto the box. It just snaps into place, just like that. Boom. Done.

Guess what, baby. We got a dimmer. Wait till you see this. You turn the switch on. Whoa. And then you bring it back down for some romance. Whoa, there it is. Dimmer switch, baby.

I’m Eric Stromer. That’s my GMC Trade Secret.