Cooker switch neon indicator

Sounds like the input and output from the switch are reversed. Not a safety issue, but annoying.

If they are there to 'see' the switch in the dark, it's normal to have them on with the light off, and off with it on. If it's a normal lighting circuit, it sounds like he might have wired one side to earth, given that there's not normally a neutral at a switch.

On 18/02/2004 John K opined:-

No, it is wrong. The indicators are to indicate that the switches are turned on.

The terminals should be marked something similar to 'in' and 'out', one for each L and N. Your 'electrician' has got the 'in' mixed up with the 'out'.

Sorry, that was meant to apply to the cooker type switches.

With incandescents, there's no need to wire the cold end of the neon to earth: the neon goes across the switch contacts, and the cold resistance of the blub forms an effective path to neutral (being massively lower than the 'internal resistance' of a neon indicator). With the switch on, there's no potential across the neon, so it goes out. A downside of this Ingeneous scheme is that if the bulb blows, the indicator no longer lights; and it's shot to pot if you use compact-flourescent or similar.

As for the cooker switch, it sounds as you say very much as if the wiring to the 'Feed' and 'Load' sides of the switch have been swapped round.

Cheers, Stefek

Funnily enough, we have one circuit with two compact fluorescents on it (nearly the same, apart from the white powder! :-)). It has one of these neon visibility things on the switch and it still seems to work OK (there are no incandescents in the circuit).

Don't know WHY, mind....!

A large R across the fluorexcrescent?

That would be enough to light the neon.

I have a neon visibility thing on a circuit connected to a HF ballasted fitting with emergency maintained capability. Must be an R there as well

.andy

To email, substitute .nospam with .gl

Any electronic HF ballast device is likely to have an X capacitor (i.e., live to neutral) at the input for EMC filtering. That will give enough current flow to light a neon up-stream.

Err, that's what I said. If it stays on all the time as the OP says, one side is either wired to earth or neutral.

More than likely the neon is connected across L & E. ..

SJW A.C.S. Ltd.

Not in my case, it isn't. I wired it...

In article , Andy Hall writes

Lovely. :)