I was replacing some acoustic tiles in my basement, (couple have hi-hats in them). One hi-hat had been damaged the day before. I turned off breaker, disconnected the hi-hat and replaced tiles. I obviously messed up in that when I turned the breaker back on the as yet un-repaired hi-hat wires touched one another. This caused the inevitable short. The breaker did not trip, and other than the 6 bulbs on this circuit, all other juice covered by this breaker is still flowing. These lights are controlled by a dimmer switch, that continues to show an 'active' red light.....but no lights turn on.
I tried replacing the now unresponsive bulbs with fresh ones....no luck.
Thanks so much in advance for any and all help.
Larry

 

Either the dimmer is damaged/burned out or a wire has burned off somewhere between the last working junction box and the first non-working box. If it's a burned wire it usually will have occurred at a push-in connector or wirenut, but it's probably the dimmer. A short usually kills them. Replace it with a standard light switch to verify everything else works, then replace the dimmer.

 

Thanks so much for your comment. I will try this. One question: if the dimmer switch is the problem, would the always-on red light on the switch still be on?

 

Not sure what the red light on the dimmer is indicating... maybe A/C power present... but if you short the output wires from a dimmer.... it will be blasted.