another cf question

[JHZR2]

Hi,

I posted a while back regardng CF bulbs (globe/director style) that have slow startup characteristics. These are N:vision bulbs, new from HD.

Ive noticed another thing that is odd. When the whole unit is off, one or two of the bulbs will continually flash a very dim pulse, its really strange.

What Ive seen is that it will do this for a while, but I never knew how long, becaue we'd need to use the lights daily. Well, after being away for 9 days over the holidays, I stopped in at home, and saw the bulbs STILL FLASHING!

What could this be due to? If there is a capacitor in there, Id think that it would have bled down by then. THe units are off, completely, and I doubt that there is a voltage leak through, though I suppose I ought to check - incandescent lights never did such a thing...

is this flashing normal, or the sign of a bum bulb that will need replacement soon? Any ideas how to prevent/fix it?

Thanks,

JMH

 

[Papa Bear]

You MUST have a defecive switch. Noone would design a bulb that "flashes" for 9 stinkin' days after it's been shut off !!....But then again, I have been horrobly wrong on some things in the past.

 

[Shannow]

Sounds like a dodgy switch to me also.

Not sure on this, but at work, they replaced all of the office incandescents with flourescent during an early 90's refit.

A few years ago, and switches started going up in smoke. Apparently they should have replaced the old switches with new "flourescent rated" switches (something to do with breaking the current or something).

Never heard of that for cfs, 'though.

 

[Gary Allan]

Do you still have some knob and tube wiring in your house? In that case, with a common ground, both wires can be hot (although on has much less potential).

I'll venture to say that if you pull the bulb out of the socket that it will not do the "flash dance".

 

[oilyriser]

CF's have a capacitor on the input circuit, so there's a large inrush current.

Yes, if the bulbs still flash after you take them out of the socket, run as far away as you can.

 

[JHZR2]

yep, a little knob and tube still exists - in places like ceiling lighting fixtures and other hard to get to stuff...

There is a dimmer on the wall and a dimmer on the remote control for the fan/lighting fixture, and Ive been thinking of taking one of them out... Ill turn down the power on the wall dimmer (switch), and see if that changes it.

The strange thing is that only 2 of the 4 do this!

Thanks!

JMH

 

[Papa Bear]

Leakage threshold ??

 

[JHZR2]

yep, its a leak... bummer...

My house is kind of screwey, there are switches for the kitchen on the upstairs end f the stairway, and the entry to the kitchen from the dining room. However, the house's back door is in the kitchen as well - and there is no switch.

Thus, we used a remote control to run the fan lights from both entries, and leave the hard-wired switches on.

When I turned off one of the hard wired switches, the flashing stopped. When I turned it on, the lights ALL flashed on brightly (!) immediately (these lights usually take over a minute to warm up to full brightness).

So obviously there is a leak in the remote-control switch in the fan.

I guess I never noticed it when we had incandescents in there because they ust made a tiny amont of heat and zero light. Now I notice it because the inpt slowly charges the capacitor, and when it gets full enough, it pulses power out... maybe???

I just hope its not too great a parasitic load. I wonder how much power Im wasting each month due to this.

Thanks for the help!

JMH