Low glow from led cans with switch off

[danickstr]

I know there is a closed thread about this with some good ideas, but I wanted to go over the possibilities.
Induced current seems possible in this case since feed comes down wall in same chase but not on other feeds with similar power feed next to them.

There is a lighted fan humidity switch next to it with a neutral required.

Also on a combo gfci afci breaker due to washer laundry room circuit shared with light - seemed like a good idea at the time since only two cans so basically no load.
Led brand is topaz - not the best but not the worst - by 3 bucks. Could be cheap driver. Anyway thoughts welcome and I will have to start digging into it.


And as a side note I didn’t know occupancy sensors don’t work on afci-gfci breaker controlled circuits. I was going to put one in since I had an extra, but it was tripping the breaker when the ground was connected.

 

[LarryFine]

I'd be interested in the effect of temporarily connecting an incandescent bulb in parallel.

 

[romex jockey]

are these 'neutral required' controls actually getting one?

~RJ~

 

[gar]

190719-0912 EDT

danickstr:

I would not blame the LED.

Put a high impedance DVM across a glowing LED, 10 megohms is a typical meter impedance. I would not expect the LED to stop glowing. Read the voltage.

Are the switches pure mechanical switches with no indicator lights or other leakage components associated with them?

My guess is that --- if no leakage devices are across pure mechanical switches, then you have capacitive or leakage resistance between your LED wiring and other wiring.

Unlikely that inductive coupling can produce much voltage.

If the LEDs are glowing with the meter connected, then what is the voltage reading? If there is no voltage to the LEDs, then they can't glow very long. However, there are phosphors that can be excited, and put off low light for hours. Very long persistence. I would not expect long persistence phosphors to be in LEDs.

If capacitive or resistive leakage is present eliminate it, or select an appropriate shunt capacitor to put across the LEDs. An 0.1 mfd 600 V capacitor might be sufficient to reduce capacitive coupling effects.

.

 

[kwired]

If you have an "illuminated switch" (tiny little light inside switch that is parallel to switch contacts so is easier to find in the dark) I could see that letting enough current through to get some illumination from some LED's.

 

[480sparky]

If you have an "illuminated switch" (tiny little light inside switch that is parallel to switch contacts so is easier to find in the dark) I could see that letting enough current through to get some illumination from some LED's.

Or an electronic dimmer that uses current passing through the lamp to function.

 

[danickstr]

Thanks for replies. The switch on the leg is indeed a physical snap switch. The fan humidity/timer switch may be suspect since it has an “off” led.

If a shunt capacitor solves it, I must say I haven’t ever put one in a box so wasn’t sure about the physical packaging to make it code compliant.

 

[kwired]

Thanks for replies. The switch on the leg is indeed a physical snap switch. The fan humidity/timer switch may be suspect since it has an “off” led.

If a shunt capacitor solves it, I must say I haven’t ever put one in a box so wasn’t sure about the physical packaging to make it code compliant.

But that is switching the fan and not your LED light, meaning not directly in series with the LED Lamp(s), correct?

 

[Stebs]

I had a similar issue when I first put led retrofits into some cans in my 2nd floor foyer. Leaving an incandescent in one of the cans didn’t help either. Even more interesting is that if I pulled the trims out of the cans and let them hang by the wires, they would stop glowing. As soon as the trim was grounded, they would glow. I ended up deciding that the circuit was switching the neutral instead of the hot, and the problem went away after I required the circuit.

 

[romex jockey]

As soon as the trim was grounded, they would glow. I ended up deciding that the circuit was switching the neutral instead of the hot, and the problem went away after I required the circuit.

^^^this! ~RJ~