Dimmer Dilemma

[miamicanes]

I'm helping a friend to plan his new bathroom lighting controls, and I'm running into a brick wall because the ideal controls don't seem to exist.

Basically, his bathroom is going to have 6 can lights forming 3 zones (walk-in shower, above the sink & toilet, above the open area), as well as a fixture in front of the sink.

Here are the usual anticipated use cases:

Flip a switch (two, max), turn on all the lights at max brightness.

Flip a switch (two, max), turn on all the lights, but dim the can lights to some reduced level.

Turn on only the shower lights at dimmed brightness and leave them on, but easily turn the light in front of the sink on and off with a single switch.

In an ideal world, I'd use the following:

A single-gang Leviton Decora-style double-switch combo unit. Top switch controls light in front of sink, bottom switch globally controls can lights.

A hypothetical single-gang Decora-style dimmer with three independent levers/dials/whatever, one per can-light zone, chained through the previous switch.

The problem: if single-gang controls with 3 independent dimmers exist, I haven't found them yet. Does anybody know of any?

I'd prefer to avoid anything involving a remote control. He'll lose it, and go for the next 30 years with dysfunctional lights.

He absolutely won't tolerate 3 full-sized dimmer switches. He doesn't want to end up with a 6-gang array of Decora switches by the door that's going to leave his mom & other visitors peeing in the dark because they're afraid to touch them (we laugh, but it happens). :-D

 

[kurtmccaslin]

I did something similar in my house. Here is how it works:

Put the shower and toilet switches near their respective areas (I dont know the code for distance to a shower or sink, but I am sure there is one for this)

Put a third switch near the door.

Put UPB dimmers into all three junction boxes. These are the standard paddle type switches.

Set up a link so that the switch by the door controls all 3 switches. They go on and off together and they dim together.

You could set up so that the switch by the door so that it turns on the shower can at low level with a double tap.

The shower and the toilet/sink lights have their individual controls if you want to turn them on separately.

This setup is bulletproof and easy to use. The switches look very normal and it turning the lights on is a simple tap of the switch by the door. No peeing in the dark!

 

[wuench]

And you're not going to find it because 3 dimmers in a single gang unit would generate too much heat and also violate the max number of electrical wires allowed in an electrical box per the NEC. You're best recourse is take the rockinarmadillo's advice and use inline modules for UPB, Insteon, ZWave, or Zigbee and then programmable switches or keypads to control them....

 

[tmbrown97]

I don't see a good way to accomplish what you're after with traditional switches. I think you'd need to use a remotely located load control center to house the larger dimmers elsewhere and just run a remote switch there - something like Lutron's single-room solutions.

I've done some trick things with UPB too... in my guest bathroom, what the switches control and what they're wired to are totally different (plus a motion sensor so no guests need to pee in the dark for fear of my switches);

In my kitchen, I have 4 regular cans on one circuit, two CFL can's on another, and an over-sink can on yet another - plus an appliance module for my under-cabinet LED's - and they all are controlled by a single dimmer paddle. Depending on which way I dimmed last (up or down) and if I started from on or off, I can get all different configurations of lighting from a single switch... but if you just hit it on or off, you get the basics - everything on at a preset standard level; double-tap and everything is full bright... it's extremely flexible. Or of course I could just hit a button on the scene controller next to it.