Electrical/Lighting Help, please!

Lips

Hi folks,

I'm wondering if anyone can shed any light on my problem (no pun intended...:rolleyes:)

I slept in the spare bedroom last night for the first time and, whilst lying on my back waiting to get off to sleep, I noticed that the pendant light on the ceiling was 'glowing' intermittently - after it was switched off. Basically, every 3 or 4 seconds the bulb pulses on for a moment; it doesn't glow as brightly as it does when it is properly on, but enough to be clearly visible in a dark room.

I watched this for about 20 minutes (it was freaking me out!) before I eventually fell asleep. When I woke up in the middle of the night, I looked and it seemed to have stopped.

Does anyone have any ideas about how my bulb can glow after it has been switched off? Is it a sign of bad wiring, and, most importantly, is it a fire hazard? Incidentally, the bulb I'm using is a low energy (compact fluoro) bulb.

Cheers,
Lips

baldelectrician

It must be an energy saving lamp

The capacitors in some of them charge up and flash every few seocnds or so. The cables have been run beside others and they are picking up inducted current.

Try a different brand of lamp, or put in a standard filament GLS lamp.

Lips

Thanks for the explanation. Am I right in thinking that this isn't a hazard, then?

Cheers,
Lips

PS my friend is convinced that it's a haunting related occurrence - she'll be gutted to hear that there's a non-spiritual explanation!

andrew-b

I don't think it's a hazard. We noticed a similar thing recently in our energy saving low voltage fittings in the lounge during a lightning storm (i did post on here about it so i'm sure if you search you'll find other comments on this)- only noticed it because i turned out the lights to watch the lighting!

Andy

p.s. We also have claims for this in our house of being haunting related!!

Lips

Ghosties galore!

We've put a standard lightbulb in and we're going to check it tonight, once it gets dark. I was worried that it was a manifestation of some kind of 'surge' which might escalate to spontaneous combustion - not that I'm a panicker, you understand :rolleyes:

If it's not a risk then I'll probably just put the low energy bulb back in and live with it - after all, that room is only slept in a few times a year when we have guests staying.

Thanks again for the advice...

Lips

DVardysShadow

baldelectrician wrote: »

It must be an energy saving lamp

The capacitors in some of them charge up and flash every few seocnds or so. The cables have been run beside others and they are picking up inducted current.

Fair explanation. Even so, I would be suspicious of the wiring - switch in the neutral or floating earth conductor, that sort of thing.

baldelectrician

It tends to happen on 2 way lighting circuits where the pass wires are running beside other circuits (say through a hole in a joist or inside a trunking). They pick up stray volts via inductance.

Is the light in question 2 wayed (switched from more that 1 position)?

It happened on a (full) rewire I did earlier this year. Changed lamp, all OK