I want to set up two household light (AC) both of which are to be controlled from one switch with a dimmer. can I connect the lights in in series or do I have to connect them in parallel with two separate switches?

If you are speaking of a light switch or an outlet it is white or chrome and the hot is brass in color

Dimmer should be warm... but never HOT
7 x 65 = 455 watt
Dimmers are rated 600 watt to 1500 watt

Sounds like you have bad dimmer.
http://waterheatertimer.org/Troubleshoot-household-electricity.html#heat

Gene

If you need further help, I’m available over the phone at https://www.6ya.com/expert/gene_9f0ef4df2f9897e7

yes, take the white wires off the switches and splice them all together with a wire nut. Run a hot wire to each of the switches and then run the switch leg (black) from each of the fixtures to be controlled to each of the dimmers.

You cannot wire dimmers in series and expect circuit to operate.
Problem is not 100% clear. Add a comment and include more information.

1) You have 12 dimmers.
Each dimmer has 2 black wires and a green ground wire.
The 2 black wires tell electrician that the dimmer wires are reversible.
One black dimmer wire connects to Hot from breaker, and the other black wire connects to wire going to Load (halogen lights).
If power passes through each dimmer going to next dimmer, the circuit will not work.

2) Unknown what you are replacing. Are you replacing 12 switches with 12 dimmers? Or maybe replacing 1 switch with 12 dimmers.
Number and type of devices being replaced is not known. And wires to each of these dimmers is not known.

3) You have a single 14-2 wire going to all 14 dimmers? Or does each dimmer have a different 14-2 wire?

4) You want to wire dimmers in series? So you want power to flow through one dimmer and control next dimmer?
You cannot wire dimmers in this manner and expect circuit to operate.
You can wire ordinary switches in series, but not dimmers.

5) Typically dimmers and switches are wired in parallel.
The Hot wire connects to one wire on each dimmer.
Since your dimmer has 2 black wires, the hot connects to either black wire on dimmer.
Then a jumper wire is added to connection, and the jumper wire carries power to next dimmer, and so on.
In this manner, each dimmer receives 120V potential. And then wire going to load connects to other black wire on each dimmer.

Typically this can be caused by a bad fuse,bad dimmer switch or a poor connection to the dimmer switch due to wires fraying or terminals at the dimmer switch melting.

As a general rule for timers and dimmers:

The Black dimmer wire connects to black hot wire coming from breaker (122V line)
The red dimmer wire connects to Load (wire going to chandelier)

The wall red wire that is capped could be a couple different things. a) It could go to a second switch that was used to control the chandelier. b) it could be another wire that goes to same ceiling box as chandelier to be used to control a fan, except you don't have a fan. In the second case, if you install a fan with a light, you could control fan and light separately.

The green is a ground wire that connects to bare copper wire in box. The bare copper connect back to main breaker box on the Neutral busbar.
White wires that are twisted together inside your light switch box also connect back to to main breaker box on the Neutral busbar.
The ground wire and neutral are a redundant safety system to protect you from electrical devices and appliances that have 'shorted'
The black hot wire connects back to the circuit breaker.

For example, each circuit breaker controls one area of household lighting. The black white and copper wires leave breaker box in a single romex cable. The romex travels to a junction box in the area where the lights are located. The junction box is usually a switch box or a ceiling box. From the junction box, the romex travels to each other switch, light and receptacle box in the area. So each box has 1 hot and 1 neutral and 1 ground that is connected in a line that leads back to breaker box.

Here's a couple pages that make home wiring easier to understand:
http://waterheatertimer.org/See-inside-main-breaker-box.html
http://waterheatertimer.org/240-v-water-heater-circuit.html
http://waterheatertimer.org/Install-owb.html

This is a 3-way switch, made to control a light fixture that is also controlled by another switch in a different location. A typical example is a ceiling light fixture installed in an upstairs hallway, which could be controlled by switches at both top and bottom of the staircase.

The green wire in your switch is the ground connection, and joins to the green insulated or bare copper ground wire in the switch box. The red wire is the common connection. It connects either to the incoming AC hot wire from the electric panel, or to the hot terminal of the light fixture, depending on the switch location. The two black wires are traveller connections. They connect to the traveller terminals of the other 3-way switch.

If you purchased this switch as a replacement for a regular single-pole toggle switch or dimmer switch - one that controls a light from a single location only - then this isn't what you need and you can't use it. You'll know if you have a single-pole switch because it will have only three wires or screw connections. Return it and get a single-pole.

To install this as a replacement for a 3-way toggle switch or dimmer, connect the red wire to the wire going to the common terminal of the original switch. This will be a black- or brass-colored screw on a toggle switch, or the different-colored (not green, that's ground) wire on a dimmer. The black wires connect to the wires that go to the traveller screws (copper-colored) on a toggle switch, or the same-colored wires on a dimmer. It doesn't matter which traveller wire connects to which.

Note that if you're using a 3-way dimmer, only one of the switches can be a dimmer. The other switch has to be a plain old 3-way toggle.

Black wires are the hot side the power line, white is the neutral, and green is ground. On your dimmer, the black wire is for the AC input and the red wire is the output to the lamp you want to control.

If you are replacing an old switch with the dimmer, the two black wires will be connected to the screw terminals on the switch. One of those black wires is the AC feed to the switch, the other black is the one that goes to the light fixture. You'll need to determine which is which so you can hook the dimmer up correctly.

For a few dollars you can pick up a tester that lights and chirps when it's near a hot wire. Turn off power to the light circuit at your circuit breaker or fuse panel. Remove the old switch and disconnect the wires. Make sure the bare ends are not touching anything and turn the power back on. Hold the tester near each of the black wires. One of them will cause the tester to light up and the other one will not. The unpowered wire is the one going to the light fixture. This one connects to the red wire on the new dimmer. The hot wire is the feed that connects to the dimmer black wire. The green wire on the dimmer connects to the other green wires already in the box. Turn the power off again and make your connections using UL approved twist-on connectors (wire nuts), which probably came with the dimmer. Fit the wires and dimmer back into the switch box, secure it with the mounting screws, replace the cover plate and turn the power back on.

Voila! You'll have a working dimmer. A Google search for "installing dimmers" will turn up several links to sites with good pictures.

most common fanlight control is 2 dimmer switches in parallel to control fan spped and light, direction is still usually controlled on the fan body
requires 3 wire in the light box, and a compund dimmer, this one has left and right and fits a single switch box

where a fanlight is used to replace a regular household fitting there is often only 2 wire in the switch box, either a sparky can fishtape an extra cable along the lamp cable, or replace the wire,
the 3 wires from the fanlight are light fan and neutral

some new retrofit fanlights have remote controls to negate rewiring