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485

I live in an older mobile home. In the back bedroom, the light fixture over the bed runs off an extension cord that runs from a wall outlet. The wall outlet works off the light switch. Dont know why the overhead light runs off a drop cord. Been that way for 8 yrs. For 8 yrs, there have been no problems. I put an LED bulb in about 18 months ago. Flip the switch, light comes on. Flip it back, light goes off. No breakers trippin, no sparks, no smell, no noise. For about 2 months now, I wake up and the light is glowing. Not lighting the room up but pretty bright. I check with a meter, no current. No voltage. Power on, I get 85 volts. WTF? I get 120 everywhere else. Power off, I get nothing. Got nothing and put the bulb in, within 10 seconds, it glows. Turn it on, it lights up. Turn it off, it goes off. 10 seconds later it starts glowing. Is it some sort of induction? LED glowing from some environmental bullshit im not aware of. Why only 85 volts? Somebody on Poal knows more about this shit than I do. I work with chainsaws, not electricity. Im going to bed now. I really hope to wake up to a logical explaination. Thanks in advance, and fuk all yall mutherfukerz!

I live in an older mobile home. In the back bedroom, the light fixture over the bed runs off an extension cord that runs from a wall outlet. The wall outlet works off the light switch. Dont know why the overhead light runs off a drop cord. Been that way for 8 yrs. For 8 yrs, there have been no problems. I put an LED bulb in about 18 months ago. Flip the switch, light comes on. Flip it back, light goes off. No breakers trippin, no sparks, no smell, no noise. For about 2 months now, I wake up and the light is glowing. Not lighting the room up but pretty bright. I check with a meter, no current. No voltage. Power on, I get 85 volts. WTF? I get 120 everywhere else. Power off, I get nothing. Got nothing and put the bulb in, within 10 seconds, it glows. Turn it on, it lights up. Turn it off, it goes off. 10 seconds later it starts glowing. Is it some sort of induction? LED glowing from some environmental bullshit im not aware of. Why only 85 volts? Somebody on Poal knows more about this shit than I do. I work with chainsaws, not electricity. Im going to bed now. I really hope to wake up to a logical explaination. Thanks in advance, and fuk all yall mutherfukerz!

(post is archived)

[–] • 7 pts

Very likely the simplest answer is: you have a broken switch. Maybe a critter crawled into the switch and created a resistive short across the open circuit of the switch. Maybe the switch just decided to give up it's ghost. These things happen. It might have smelled funny briefly but you didn't notice it.

Odds are with a 'real' (incandescent) bulb or some other load,the switch would burn up completely, but with a ultra low wattage LED, the resistive short isn't burning up. (Also with LED, likely the current draw is lower than the accuracy of your meter. Especially given that some cheaper / older meters struggle with the 'power factor' of some cheap LED/CFL bulbs.)

Go to your favorite local hardware store and buy a new switch. Cost you ~$3 and look up youtube videos on how to change out a switch. It's easy and safe if you cut the power first. Nice little skill to have. Good luck.

[–] • 3 pts (edited )

Also maybe the switch has a dimmer which never fully removes current, but assumes that for an incandescent a few mA won't light it up, whereas LED bulbs can generate light from this tiny bit.

Also in case OP doesn't watch a video, turn the breaker off and verify that the switch isn't hot (and verify that your tester really does identify something hot, like a plug outlet).

[–] [deleted] • 0 pt

Fuck yeah, I remember reading a cockroach shell will conduct electricity and they short out computers sometimes. If roaches or one roach dead on the contacts that would give a low current.

[–] • 6 pts

Here's a couple of videos that explain what is happening here. Cheap LED bulbs are more likely to have this problem than better designed and made ones.

Steve Mould - The cheap Chinese bulb that won't turn off https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uEmX5XClPY

ElectroBOOM - Why Cheap LED Lights Keep Glowing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bgUy6zA0ts

[–] • 1 pt

So, the takeaway seems to be that it's because the bulb is a really cheap LED, and it's glowing off of the small amount of current leaking through to the ground wiring, even when off. Correct?

[–] • 0 pt

Yeah that's pretty much it. The circuit does not have enough resistive load to draw real power (Watts) and it capacitively couples to ground or the return path through some sort of phantom capacitor and only draws reactive power (Vars, volt-amps reactive). That phantom capacitor is likely the length of wire between the lamp and the switch which is disconnected/off. The very low leakage current is apparently enough to light the bulb in this manner. Pretty crazy, huh?

[–] • 1 pt

I need to look into this. I just had two fluorescent tubes (in the same room) doing this; they were flickering lightly like they were about to light up every two/three seconds. They were also wired to ground and they stopped flickering (when off) when I removed the ground. Most other lights don't have ground so I don't know if it is safe or not.

[–] • 0 pt

Fluorescent lights affect the brain negatively.

[–] • 0 pt

LED light over my stove does this....

[–] [deleted] • 1 pt

Unscrew the fucking bulb a turn or so till the center contact in the light socket doesn't touch, aka the bulb is not part of the circuit anymore at all, turn it tighter for light then unscrew again when you leave room.

[–] [deleted] • 1 pt

Maybe someone's radiating your home with microwaves. Get whatever meter would read that radar radiation and check. Then call the police that is assault with a deadly weapon I believe.

[–] • 1 pt (edited )

This is a common problem but with a few reasons, LEDs don't need a lot of current, you can power one with just the RF from a mobile phone

it may be capacitively picking up voltage from another cable (especially in a 2 way switch arrangement), and that voltage is enough to run the LED

You might have a poor earth or the neutral isn't bonded to earth, so it floats at a higher voltage than it should

buy a better LED bulb and the problem should go away, Philips make nice ones

[–] • 0 pt

I had the same thought. Just been so long since ive dealt with wiring, I over think then doubt. The bulbs been there for a year. The glow started within the last few weeks or so. Nothings changed load wise. Makes me think something degraded like a switch. There have been contractors around installing fiber. So they say. Could be 5g transmitters or such. Timings right.

[–] • 1 pt

Sorry I didn't mean to imply that, it's really nothing external like 5G, I just meant that they can be driven by very low currents and that simple capacitive coupling from other wires is a possibly.

I'd change the bulb first before fiddling with switches

[–] • 1 pt

Lol. I changed it. Problem solved. The "why did it glow" will stay with me for awhile though.

[–] [deleted] • 1 pt (edited )

There are LED bulbs with small batteries that can last a few hours if there is loss of power:

https://www.amazon.com/Rechargeable-light-Battery-backup-Emergency/dp/B07ZQM5BKY

When you turn off the light switch, the circuit is disconnected, and the light bulb turns off. But if the switch is on and there is no power, the circuit is complete, and the bulb lights up.

One review says the bulbs don't work well on a fixture with multiple bulbs and won't turn off. How do you have yours set up?

There is a cap with a hook that you can screw on to the bulb that allows you to carry it around while it's lit. Do you see it hanging nearby on the light fixture or perhaps in a drawer somewhere?

[–] • 1 pt

Do you have large equipment on the same circuit? It sounds like something is drawing and powering your neutral and your switch is wired wrong.

Replace the lightswitch. Replace the power receptacle. They are both cheap. See if the circuit has something like a hot water heater or ac unit on it

[–] • 0 pt

Thanks for the responses. Im gonna change the switch and outlet. Prob the switch.