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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!

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[–] • 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?