Aeotec ByPass for Nano Dimmer

The Aeotec Bypass Nano Dimmer is a small accessory that fixes one specific and very common problem: LED lamps that flicker, glow faintly when switched off, or refuse to start on a dimmer module wired without a neutral.

• When you need an Aeotec Bypass Nano Dimmer
• It goes at the light fitting, not the switch box
• What it will not do
• Order it with the dimmer
• What to tell us

Here is why that happens. A two wire dimmer has no neutral to power itself from, so it draws a trickle through the lamp instead. An old filament bulb swallowed that without noticing. An LED lamp draws so little that the trickle is a meaningful part of its load, and you see it: a shimmer, a glow, a lamp that will not come on at the bottom of the range.

The bypass gives that current somewhere else to go, and the flicker stops.

It is built for the Aeotec Nano Dimmer, whose published minimum is 20 W of load on a two wire installation.

Your electrician fits it while the light fitting is open.

When you need an Aeotec Bypass Nano Dimmer

Three symptoms point at it, and all three appear on a dimmer wired without a neutral. The lamps shimmer or flicker instead of holding steady. The lamps glow faintly with the switch off, which is the one people notice at night. Or the lamps refuse to light at the bottom of the dial and only jump in halfway up. If a circuit is doing any of those on a two wire dimmer with LED lamps, this is the part.

It goes at the light fitting, not the switch box

That surprises people who expect an accessory for a dimmer to sit next to the dimmer. It does not. It wires in across the lamp at the fitting, which is where the stray current has to be given somewhere else to go. Practically that means the electrician needs the ceiling rose or the downlight open, which is worth knowing before he arrives with a ladder and no plan to open it.

What it will not do

It will not make a non dimmable lamp dimmable. If the box does not say dimmable, the buzz and the stepping are the lamp and no accessory reaches them. It is not a smart device either: nothing to pair, nothing to configure, no radio in it and no entry in the app. It is a passive part that solves one electrical problem.

Order it with the dimmer

Aeotec put the minimum load for a two wire fit at 20 W, and two LED lamps do not come close to that. So on an LED lighting circuit the bypass is not a spare part you might need later, it is part of the job. Buying both together saves a second visit, a second ladder and a second invoice.

What to tell us

How many lamps are on the circuit and what each one draws. Under 20 W in total on a two wire dimmer and you need this; comfortably over it and you may not. If you are unsure, send the wattage printed on the lamp and we will do the arithmetic with you.

It pairs with the Aeotec Nano Dimmer, which is the module it is built for. For a circuit that only needs switching there is the Aeotec Nano Switch and no bypass question at all. Aeotec list the part at aeotec.com.