[Dottore]

We recently had a new light fixture installed in the ceiling and placed on a dimmer switch. It's a feature light with various tiny bulbs—which is quite bright—though I'm not sure what the combined wattage of the thing is.

With the dimmer on high, the dimmer switch gets extremely hot in 6 or 7 minutes. So hot you can barely touch it. Clearly something wrong there. Contractors response is "don't turn it on high" and "you chose the lamp".

Now electrical matters are one of my great failings in life. Are there heavy duty dimmer switches out there that might avoid this problem? Is the lamp drawing too much power? Is this a potential fire hazard?

My apologies in advance for what must be a stupid question.