I am way out of my depth here. I just moved into a new townhouse and set up my home office in the guest bedroom. When I first tried to turn on my desktop (850w power supply) the computer would initially turn on and then loose power, I also noticed the lone ceiling light (a 3 bulb light fixture on a dimmer) would also turn on. I went and tried my computer elsewhere in the house where it works flawlessly. All plugs in this bedroom produce the same result. I now notice that the same ceiling light glows, as if on the lowest dimmer setting, when I have my power strip plugged into the bed room wall (2 monitors a usb hub and a desk lamp) and the monitors are on. In addition when I am drawing power form the wall with the monitors on and I then go to turn on the ceiling light the whole thing browns out until I turn the light down low or off.
Any idea what I'm dealing with here? I know I need to contact my landlord but I don't even know what to tell him.
Electrical – Ceiling light turns on when outlet draws power, followed by power loss
electricalwiring
Related Solutions
From what you've described, this is what I think you're wiring should look like. Keep in mind, this is just a guess. I can't see what's going on, and I'm an internet away, so I can't touch/measure/test anything.
The wiring diagram for the switch, can be found in the installation instructions.
If you provide images, and/or a better description of what wires and cables are in each box. I'll be able to provide a better guess, as to how this should be wired.
NOTE:
The diagram is based on your description, and is my best guess as to what your wiring looks like. If you're not sure what to do, or feel like this project is over your head. Do not hesitate to contact a local licensed Electrician.
You would appear to have the lights connected to BOTH the dimmer and the fan switch. Presumably this means that things are not really wired the way they were before. You'll need to figure out where this happened and correct it; it's difficult to speculate from afar, but when you get beyond what you can sort out yourself, call in a pro.
Best Answer
It is possible that the outlets in that room are all wired into the dimmer switch such that simple lamps plugged into the outlets can be dimmed. If this is the case computers and monitors will not function properly when plugged into a dimmer circuit.
The simple test you can try is to get a simple incandescent light (lamp, trouble light or night stand lamp) and plug it into each outlet in that room and see if it responds to the dimmer switch in a normal manner. If you get other results than dimmer behavior then that is a trigger event to get the landlord or apartment manager involved.