Energy Saving Bulbs Flashing When Off

Hi all

I know this topic has kinda been covered here

formatting link
that topic did do a good job of explaining why my bulbs have little flashes when off, but not how i can go about fixing the problem.

I do not really want to get an electician in as the costs would negate the savings i intend to make by using this kind of bulb, so if there is a cheap or easy fix i would be thrilled to here about it.

Regards Dave

Reply to
boatmandave
Loading thread data ...

|Hi all | |I know this topic has kinda been covered here |

formatting link
||And that topic did do a good job of explaining why my bulbs have little |flashes when off, but not how i can go about fixing the problem. | |I do not really want to get an electician in as the costs would negate |the savings i intend to make by using this kind of bulb, so if there is |a cheap or easy fix i would be thrilled to here about it.

Get a new energy saving bulb and replace the faulty one. They do fail on occasion.

Reply to
Dave Fawthrop

Thanks for the prompt reply,

Are other brands of energy saving bulb not affected by this problem? i currently have phillips bulbs.

This problem only occurs in 2 rooms in my house, and if i swap bulbs around with other rooms that do not flash it is still the same rooms that flash, which is why i thought it was not a bulb problem :(

Reply to
boatmandave

It looks like the circuit is switched in the neutral instead of the live.

If the bulb flashes it's getting energy from somewhere. If it's continuously getting a live feed then there can be enough capacitance to earth in the neutral wiring for it to flash occasionally.

DG

Reply to
Derek ^

Thats what i thought, I figured it was "leaking" accross the switch at first, so i removed the switch yet the flashing contined.

A current must be being induced somewhere in the wireing as alot of the wires run close to eachother behind the plaster, which is sadly not a place i can get to in an effort to move them apart.

I think the posts in the link had the right idea about inducing a "bleed" resistor into the circuit to disipate the charge before it becomes enough to flash the bulb, but i dont fancy doing this myself. And as i said earlier paying someone would negate the savings im gonna make with the new bulbs .

Reply to
boatmandave

| |Dave Fawthrop wrote: |> On 4 Nov 2006 08:52:42 -0800, snipped-for-privacy@googlemail.com wrote: |>

|> |Hi all |> | |> |I know this topic has kinda been covered here |> |

formatting link
|> | |> |And that topic did do a good job of explaining why my bulbs have little |> |flashes when off, but not how i can go about fixing the problem. |> | |> |I do not really want to get an electician in as the costs would negate |> |the savings i intend to make by using this kind of bulb, so if there is |> |a cheap or easy fix i would be thrilled to here about it. |>

|> Get a new energy saving bulb and replace the faulty one. |> They do fail on occasion.

|Thanks for the prompt reply, | |Are other brands of energy saving bulb not affected by this problem? i |currently have phillips bulbs.

I have a rule, change the cheapest thing first, Long life bulbs are now cheap as chips.

Reply to
Dave Fawthrop

You're talking crap and showing a lack of knowledge! Read other replies and you might learn something. Don't just guess and post.

Reply to
Norm

Really,

WTF are you?

I have a degree in electronics since 1969 (before they gave degrees away like bus tickets BTW) and 47 years experience. Currently earning my living with developing super high intensity tube/ballast systems for viewing dense X-ray films.

How do you fare in the qualifications and experience league ? Do enlighten us.

There was only Dave Fawthrop's first one when I posted mine. The OP had already said he'd swapped out the tubes so Dave's reply wouldn't help. Dave has since come back and explained swapping cheap (plug in) componnents is his first recourse when fault finding. That's a valid methodolgy.

Indeed on my newsspool there exists only the OP's Dave's, my own and yours.

Yours was the only contribution that was unhelpful.

Indeed I might. I notice you made no clarification of why you think I am wrong, so unlikely from a tosser like you.

Go away and procreate (terminally).

On your way bub. Absence makes the Norm grow fonder.

DG

Reply to
Derek ^

Its some kind of leakage into the wiring..may be nothing more than capacitative pickup..like the hum you get when you touch an amplifier input. If the voltage is high enough it will in time - possibly a very long time - charge up the input part of the bulb enough to start the circuitry going. One short flash and its down again.

The solution is a VERY large resistor across the bulb live and neutral..I suspect some bulbs have this anyway - as you probably don't pick up more than an effective microamp or two.

And you don't want to waste power when it's on. For example on 250v a

250K resistors represents 1/4W. So something around 1-10megohms, 1/4watt should do the trick. If there is no room at the bulb holder, wire it between switched live and neutral on the switch.

I have most certainly seen up to 150v developed on a piece of wire on the bench near mains wire connected to nothing more than a 10 Mohm scope probe..

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

If you can take the switch out, sticking a resistor in is a snap. Get a couple from Maplin or RS or wherever, and simply sleeve them and connect between switched live and neutral, on offending switches.

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

So have I and I entirely agree with you.

Norm: Fuck off.

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

Not as cheap as a 1/4W 1 Mohm resistor mate. About 1.5p in quantity

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

It's 37. Seems like 47.

8-(

DG

Reply to
Derek ^

Talking about Norm, is he still on TV?

Dave

Reply to
Dave

I am struggling to keep up here. Is that 1 Mho, or 1 Ohm ?

Dave, seriously.

Nice to see my speel chucker didn't question the above :-)

Reply to
Dave

M = Mega = SI prefix for million.

Reply to
Ian Stirling

Dunno.

My boss in the US is called Norm, he has two Medical Degrees and still works as a Surgeon one day per week free of charge at the local Charity Hospital. Don't let anybody tell you that the poor in the US don't get treated.

Odd, though it may seem to us it's just that the US citizens regard it a personal obligation on all able bodied Americans to provide for their own healthcare, (In the long run if you are waged who else will pay for it for you over here anyway ?) and would sooner smear Anchovy Paste over their eyeballs and go along Coney Island Promenade imitating Seagull mating calls than go to a "Charity Hospital".

I Digress.

I don't think this Norm is related.

Oh, and as regards the norm on TV, I've been & had a drink) in the bar Norm used to frequent in Boston.

He wasn't there. The program had moved somewhere else, but I guess by now both Norn and the program are no longer there either. :-((

Cue the bit from the Monty Python Parrot sketch "No longer with us" (Dead, Deceased, Ceased to Be, etc) ...

DG

Reply to
Derek ^

I don't know if you saw the Morgan Spurlock TV program where he lived on minimum wage for 30 days. He had to get medical attention for something (an arm problem if I recall correctly) so went to a local medial centre. Luckily the first 20 patients got treated for free - but there were far more than that there and he wasn't in the lucky group . I believe the treatment cost him around $350 - 70 hours work at his level of wages.

I've no doubt that in US there is a far more active 'giving' culture - but the needs of the poor far outstrip the resources that the charities have available.

Reply to
OG

The only trouble is there's no strictly Kosher place to install it.

Connecting wires to scope inputs would indeed provoke the question as to *how* ECG's and EEG's work at all without skilled attendance, I've tried it a few times and it's never worked for me with my own 'scopes.

A dental nurse once set one up on me on a dentists couch, and it worked "out the box" ?-[) .

But, anyway, work they do.

DG

Reply to
Derek ^

How many switches have the neutral available? Now up in the ceiling rose...

A couple of CFLs flash here and that is definately down to switched neutrals. One day I'll sort it out but this half of the building could do with a rewire... Real fuse wire CU with 1 ring, 1 lighting, 1 immersion/garage socket, 1 CH/garage light and 1 cooker circuits. RCD wazzat?

Reply to
Dave Liquorice

HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.