Peter P.
Member
- Location
- Meriden, CT
I'm trying to solve a problem a friend is having with a compact florescent bulb.
He's using a compact florescent bulb in an exterior side porch light fixture. The light flickers. We changed the bulb with no change in flickering. Doesn't matter what the outside temp is.
I've already read a little bit about this problem.
The associated switch for the fixture is not illuminated. The bulb is a one-way CF, and the switch is not a dimmer switch, just ON/OFF.
My friend is using a CF bulb on his front porch operated by a single gang switch with no problems.
The switch is located in a 4 gang box. One of the other 3 switches IS a sliding dimmer but I don't know whether it controls a ceiling fan or light fixture.
I'm wondering whether the flickering is caused by the nearby dimmer switch as I'm assuming all the switches in the box have the same input power. I can't say whether the flickering occurs dependent on the position of the dimmer for the other fixture.
I'm also wondering whether the dimmer is generating RF which is being fed to the CF bulb through the AC input/output, assuming all the switches in the box are daisy chained.
Is a possible solution to physically separate the dimmer switch and the CF switch at opposite ends of the 4 gang box assuming stray RF is the problem? Is the solution to install a dimmable CF bulb even though it will operate with an ON/OFF switch? Remember, the dimmer in the 4 gang box is not for this bulb; it's for something else. Assuming the existing dimmer for the other circuit is NOT florescent compatible, would switching it to a florescent dimmer still operate a conventional device AND pass CF compatible AC to the CF circuit switch?
Seems like the only, and easy solution is to use an incandescent bulb instead of a CF bulb and I'm thinking too hard.
Thanks for any help you can provide.
He's using a compact florescent bulb in an exterior side porch light fixture. The light flickers. We changed the bulb with no change in flickering. Doesn't matter what the outside temp is.
I've already read a little bit about this problem.
The associated switch for the fixture is not illuminated. The bulb is a one-way CF, and the switch is not a dimmer switch, just ON/OFF.
My friend is using a CF bulb on his front porch operated by a single gang switch with no problems.
The switch is located in a 4 gang box. One of the other 3 switches IS a sliding dimmer but I don't know whether it controls a ceiling fan or light fixture.
I'm wondering whether the flickering is caused by the nearby dimmer switch as I'm assuming all the switches in the box have the same input power. I can't say whether the flickering occurs dependent on the position of the dimmer for the other fixture.
I'm also wondering whether the dimmer is generating RF which is being fed to the CF bulb through the AC input/output, assuming all the switches in the box are daisy chained.
Is a possible solution to physically separate the dimmer switch and the CF switch at opposite ends of the 4 gang box assuming stray RF is the problem? Is the solution to install a dimmable CF bulb even though it will operate with an ON/OFF switch? Remember, the dimmer in the 4 gang box is not for this bulb; it's for something else. Assuming the existing dimmer for the other circuit is NOT florescent compatible, would switching it to a florescent dimmer still operate a conventional device AND pass CF compatible AC to the CF circuit switch?
Seems like the only, and easy solution is to use an incandescent bulb instead of a CF bulb and I'm thinking too hard.
Thanks for any help you can provide.
