ICOT, On your advice, I bought a bunch of switches at KMart to replace the sliding dimmers so I can use them with compact flourescent bulbs and save money. I have wired outlets and swithces before quite a few times. You mentioned that the dimmer is wired exactly like a switch, and should be easy to replace.
However, I found that the dimmer has its own leads which are hardwired into the unit, and the unit cannot be opened. These leads (black) which incidentally are quite a bit thinner than standard wiring were spaghetti wired via splices into who knows where. There are two dimmers and one switch side by side in one box covered by one plate. I could not trace where all these twist splices were going to. I also seemed to see one group of multiple white wires all twisted together with some copper wire wrapped around all of them seemingly to hold them together.
The whole thing got me very nervous and I decided not to do it myself, and to find somebody to do it. Why would dimmers have special leads (both on the bottom of the sealed unit, not on the side, like the screws on switches).
Also, when there are multiple switches for one room (many lights) in one box, is there always a bunch of spaghetti connecting them together, rather than one cable per switch?
I have an electronics background, and we always solder (to a citcuit board or terminal), rather than wrapping wires and putting caps on them, but do not have much experience with home wiring, which is why I wanted some advice before going in there. How are multiple lights in a room normally handled? I assume they are on one circuit, but I turned off the entire mains before beginning work. I understand they are probably in parallel, but my question is in practice, do you always see these kinds of splices in a box, or are there dedicated wires for each area of the ceiling connected to dedicated switches in the box? Thanks.