Lightbulb flashes though power should be off

Try Harder · 07-03-2020 06:28PM #1

I have a lightbulb in the landing of my house, connected to a standard
fitting. If you turn on the light, the bulb radiates light as it should.
If you turn off the light, the bulb seems to go dark; but if you stay and
watch it, you see that it gives a faint, brief flash at regular intervals of
about 5.7 seconds.

The flash is not throughout the entire bulb, only in the upper part.

The bulb is a CFL bulb. The following is written on it:

PHILIPS
TORNADO ESaver
20W WW 827

Why is this flashing happening, and is it cause for concern?

Michelinextra. · 07-03-2020 08:11PM

It might have to do with the 2-way switching.

The strappers and capacitance, I forget the exact details

This is it · 07-03-2020 08:43PM

Issue with the neutral?

Bruthal · 07-03-2020 09:12PM

It is likely the capacitance effect of the 2 way strappers as said. Try a different cfl or led bulb in it.

Try Harder · 07-03-2020 09:38PM

I tried a different CFL bulb. It doesn't flash. Does that mean that the only problem was that the first bulb was bad?

Bruthal · 07-03-2020 09:45PM

Try Harder wrote: »

I tried a different CFL bulb. It doesn't flash. Does that mean that the only problem was that the first bulb was bad?

It was probably just more sensitive to 2 way switching capacitance effect.

Assuming it was on a 2 way switching setup, try it somewhere that only has 1 switch. It might be fine there.

Delta Lima · 15-03-2020 01:46PM

⁸I had a similar problem to this with a landing light. The LED bulb
would glow quite noticeably, when it should have been off.

My solution was to wire in the coil of a little contactor in the attic,
in parallel with the bulb. ( The contactor didn't have to switch anything)

That did the trick.

Lightbulb flashes though power should be off

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