Bathroom light wired to a motion sensor and normal switch

[SonicHedgeHog]

As per my other thread, I'm looking to illuminate a nice glass feature wall in the bathroom. I'd like it to be wired to a switch so it can be turned on and dimmed when someone is in the bath. What I would also like is for it to be on a timed motion sensor so that when someone needs the loo in the night they can just walk into the bathroom and the light comes on. Would this be wired in the same way as a normal two way switch or is there more to it than that?

[Cerbhd]

You can't wire it a if it is a 2 way switch, you simply need to wire the switch/dimmer and sensor together in parallel

[hairyben]

You can have both in parallel, but the PIR would defeat the dimmer. You could connect the light to the common terminal of a 2 way dimmer, thus the dimmer will "select" the output of the PIR or a permanent live so will override it. You'd need a dimmer with a physical indication of whether its on PIR or bypass, so maybe a 2 way rocker switch and separate dimmer. Whats the usage though - sometimes these things just confuse guests etc and you spend your life explaining/turning the light off.

[Cerbhd]

If you connect the light to L1 on the dimmer and the feed to the sensor on L2 of the dimmer you could use the dimmer as normal but when you turn the dimmer off it would feed the sensor (you would need to make sure the dimmer is on full when turned off)
Could get a bit confusing though.

[hairyben]

Cerbhd said:

If you connect the light to L1 on the dimmer and the feed to the sensor on L2 of the dimmer you could use the dimmer as normal but when you turn the dimmer off it would feed the sensor (you would need to make sure the dimmer is on full when turned off)
Could get a bit confusing though.

You'd do it the other way round - perm live and PIR output to L1 & L2 and common feeding the light, feeding the PIR through the dimmer wouldn't be a good idea. Identifying which "mode" a push dimmer is in when both produce light is the only snag, which is why a 2 way rocker switch plus a dimmer might work better.

[SonicHedgeHog]

I thought this might get all you sparkies going. Thanks for the replies. As has been mentioned I'm probably making this more complicated than it needs to be. Two switches is probably the easiest and least problematic solution.