Re: CFL flickers - when switch is off. . .
- From: Jeff Wisnia <jwisnia@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 20 Mar 2007 12:22:16 -0500
mm wrote:
On Mon, 19 Mar 2007 22:28:01 -0700, "Roger" <sherryroger@xxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
I have a 14w Nvision brand compact fluorescent bulb on a three-way switch circuit in my stairway that pulses very weak light, from near the base of the discharge tube, about every second, when the switch is in the "off" position. Looks like a weak strobe light.
Maybe you can have a weak party.
I checked the "off" voltage across the empty socket - it was about 5v. One
Because of the lighted toggle below, maybe you can skip the step below
or save it for later.
Hmmm. You should measure with a meter with a needle. Everyone here
says that digital meters give false readings because of induced
voltages.
Or with enough connecting things, I think you can put an incandescent
light in series with the socket and an ammeter. 110 watt lightbulb
would be about an amp at 110 volts, so at 5 volts, it will be 1/20th
(50 milliamps) or 1/22nd of an amp, if there is really 5 volts. You
can calculate the actual voltage from that.
of the three way switches has a lighted toggle, for what it is worth. The
I think could well be significant.
We just had a thread about 3-way toggle with pilot ligths. But yours
just has a lighted handle, right. With a regular bulb, the light is
on when the switch is off, right, and vice versa?
And that probably uses a very small neon bulb. If it were an
incandescnent bulb that was in the circuit, then measureing the
voltage across the empty socket would give the full 110 volts. I have
to think about this. How can it show only 5, just because it is neon.
Go do that step I said you could skip. :) So we know what the voltage
really is. Or do the step below and don't worry about why, just how
to fix it.
lamp fixture is a can light, new, and seemingly properly wired but cannot tell if the body of the unit is grounded, as only the hot and neutral feed wires are visible on my side of the metal fixture reflector.
All I can figure is the low voltage is charging a capacitor in the bulb base, and the capacitor periodically discharges its stored energy into the bulb.
How can I trouble shoot (if this is necessary for safety) the source of the low voltage in the lamp socket?
Well, you could pull the 3-way out and replace it with a two way, or
a 3-way with no light, or most simply, you could disconnect one of the
two wires out of three that are connected when the switch is in the
off position. Turn the fuse or breaker off and when the wires are
separated, turn the fuse back on again.
And is this in any way a fire danger?
I don't think so, but it may wear out your bulb more quickly. I guess
it doesn't take any more electricity than the lighted swtich did in
the first place. If that is the reason.
I have a CFL on a 3-way, but it's not a lighted switch.
I'm sure this will come up a lot as time goes on.
Thanks,
Roger
I'm beginning to think the Luddites* may have known what they were about. Stuff like what's being discussed on this thread says to me things are getting too damn complicated.... <G>
I get shivers when I think about all the electrons doing their things to keep my car engine running nowadays. When I first became a gearhead, all you had to know was that if you had "gas and fahr", the engine would probably run, and you could tell if those were there with just the senses the Good Lord gave you.
Last month I had to shell out a bundle for a valve job on daughter's V6 Olds. It felt like it was running fine, but it wouldn't pass inspection because the diagnostics said one cylinder was running "weak". A compression check showed it was off, but I was flabbergasted to dig in and learn that the computer could tell that because the weak cylinder caused the crankshaft's rotation to slow down a tiny bit during that cylinder's power stroke, 'cause it continuously monitored crankshaft angle throughout each revolution. Then I remembered the reason why they've had harmonic balancers on the ends of car engine crankshafts for years.
The exhaust valve in the affected cylinder, and it's seat also, had a single "ding" on their mating surfaces. The likely cause was a "plug and wire change" last year which was shortly followed by the engine running very rough rough because the stationary electrode fell right off the plug in that same cylinder. A new plug "fixed" the problem, but I'm feeling that little steel electrode bounced into the precicely wrong place and F'd up the valve and its seat.....Remaining unoticed until state inspection time rolled around almost a year later, when it was far too late to try and raise a stink over that defective spark plug.
The word "luck" in our family is too often spelled with just three letters, B-A-D. <G>
Jeff
* http://carbon.cudenver.edu/~mryder/itc_data/luddite.html
--
Jeffry Wisnia
(W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)
The speed of light is 1.8*10^12 furlongs per fortnight.
.
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