Load Balancing across Relays & Dimmers

Hi all, I have a question as to whether it makes sense to go to the trouble of complicating an install by load balancing heat loads across multiple relays or dimmers.

For example, presuming you assume that lights in certain sections of a house are on at the same time - say living room, with downlight loops requiring dimming, and bedroom/ensuite with 4 downlight loops - configure as follows:

Dimmer 1: 4 loops from living room, 2 loops from bedroom, other loops from elsewhere in the house.
Dimmer 2: 4 loops from living room, 2 loops from bedroom, other loops from elsewhere.

The idea is that when the living room is occupied, you are less likely to be in the bedroom at the same time, hence only half of the dimmer unit is managing a load at any particular time "on the balance of a normal day". Or you could load balance across rarely used rooms or lighting circuits etc. Thus keeping the thermal buildup on each dimmer or relay unit to a minimum.

It would mean you would need to keep good notes of dimmer connections etc, however would it make sense to go to this trouble so as to minimise the heat buildup at each dimmer unit? Of course logic dictates that the total thermal loss would be the same, it would just mean a greater probability that individual heat sinks would be used more optimally.

Many thanks in advance, hope to contribute at some stage soon.

 

Guff,

I do the same thing... It also covers you if a particular module has issues.

Cheers

Grant