I'm missing an explanation

So I tried fixing some lights on a friend's house. It basically consists of a dimmer that controls two bipin light fixtures and a normal lightbulb. It was faulty for a while now and the dimmer was disconnected, so I thought I could give him a hand. I saw that one of the light fixtures was missing a light so I asked if they had any extra replacement, which they did. I connected the light, the dimmer and turned it on and it worked OK. I turned it off because we still had daylight. After a couple hours I went to turn them on but as soon as I touched the dimmer, sparks came out of it and the breaker tripped. I disconnected everything to avoid further issues but then I realize that the lights were 12V but they were connected directly to the dimmer wich is connected to 220V. Now here's my issue. I don't understand how on earth did the lights work the first time instead of burning completely the moment I turned them on. After some inspection, I saw that the sparks were because the two cables entering the dimmer arched but am still intrigued as by how the light bulbs didn't burn. submitted by /u/juli337 [link] [comments]

May 5, 2025 - 00:20

So I tried fixing some lights on a friend's house. It basically consists of a dimmer that controls two bipin light fixtures and a normal lightbulb. It was faulty for a while now and the dimmer was disconnected, so I thought I could give him a hand. I saw that one of the light fixtures was missing a light so I asked if they had any extra replacement, which they did. I connected the light, the dimmer and turned it on and it worked OK. I turned it off because we still had daylight. After a couple hours I went to turn them on but as soon as I touched the dimmer, sparks came out of it and the breaker tripped. I disconnected everything to avoid further issues but then I realize that the lights were 12V but they were connected directly to the dimmer wich is connected to 220V. Now here's my issue. I don't understand how on earth did the lights work the first time instead of burning completely the moment I turned them on. After some inspection, I saw that the sparks were because the two cables entering the dimmer arched but am still intrigued as by how the light bulbs didn't burn.

submitted by /u/juli337
[link] [comments]