Light Flickers for a Second Then Goes Out

[Greg H]

Went to a house the other day to give a customer and estimate for several things. One of them was a ceiling fan in their bedroom that is not working. The fan light is supposed to be controlled by a switch, the homeowner showed me that when they hit the switch the light bulbs in the fixture come on for about half a second and then go dark, flipping the switch back off doesn't seem to do much, and hitting the switch back to on just repeats above. The fan looks like it still works though. Customer says that they changed the bulbs (looked like incandescents) and this didn't do anything either.

I was just there to give them an estimate, so, I didn't actually open anything up or do any diagnostics, but I am going to be going back to that customers house on Saturday to do some other work. After finishing that my plan was start investigating what might be going on with the fan light. My best guess right now is that maybe the switch has failed in some way that when flipped into the on position, it makes contact for a second before breaking contact, thought that is not really consistent with the fan working unless the wiring for the fan bypasses that switch somehow. Anyway, I guess I'll see what I find; will post back here with updates . For now, I was just wondering if any body here had encounteed anything like this before and what it ended being? Thanks

 

[mtnelect]

A wireless remote.

 

[LarryFine]

My gut says that the light is on the fan wiring and it blinks as a speed-controlling capacitor charges.

Have you played with the pull-chains between switch tries?

 

[Little Bill]

Might be the watt limiter that "Big Brother" made mfg put in. That's if the fan works but the light doesn't. I've bypassed several of these before.