No power needed??

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jerjwillelec

jerjwillelec

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Location
Nevada, IA
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Master Electrician
So I’ve not run across this yet. Friend says these lamps have a soft glow when (standard toggle) switch is turned off...can only see at night. Original 1970’s wiring. Any thoughts?

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Make sure it isn't a "lighted switch", one that places a small lamp in series with the load when switch is open to illuminate the switch so it can be found easier in the dark.

Does it always have that soft glow when switch is off or only after it had been recently operating? Might be some phosphors that are still glowing even after power is removed but will eventually stop glowing or reduce to a level that can't be easily seen anyway.
 
I’ll ask about the “lighted switch”. It’s doing the same in three bedrooms but not two hallways. Since it’s the same in three bedrooms, I’m thinking it’s regardless whether it’s been on for a while or not but I’ll ask that as well.


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kwired said:
Does it always have that soft glow when switch is off or only after it had been recently operating? Might be some phosphors that are still glowing even after power is removed but will eventually stop glowing or reduce to a level that can't be easily seen anyway.
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Do LEDs have phosphors? I have seen this effect with CFLs, which do have phosphors.
 
180218-1542 EST

LED assemblies, meaning even a single visible white light led, consists of an actual UV LED, the real basic emitter, exciting a combination of phosphors to produce an output that looks fairly close to white light to the human eye.

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I have seen the same thing OP was describing happen with compact fluorescent lamps, but only happened for a while after the lamp had been illuminated - assumed phosphors in the lamp were still emitting visible light.
 
Another possibility is that the "standard toggle switches" are not, they are toggle style dimmers, and maybe the guy doesn't know that. I've seen it where people don't even know they have toggle dimmers because they just assume they are switches and move them all the way up or down. I have some and the leakage through the triacs (I assume) is enough to make LED lamps glow very very faintly. Some of those have a full off position where you can feel a detent at the very end of travel but if they don't realize those are dimmers, they may not be pushing it down all the way. That might explain why they don't have the issue in the hallways, no dimmers there, but dimmers in the bedrooms is a distinct possibility.
 
Somewhat off topic, but that's the only LED replacement that I have seen that's "approved for use in totally enclosed fixtures". I've never paid attention to that on the theory that incandescent lamps generate so much heat and the heat from LED replacements is barely perceptible. So a fixture designed for incandescent certainly should pose no problem for an LED replacement.

Is there more to this than what I'm thinking?

-Hal
 
hbiss said:
Somewhat off topic, but that's the only LED replacement that I have seen that's "approved for use in totally enclosed fixtures". I've never paid attention to that on the theory that incandescent lamps generate so much heat and the heat from LED replacements is barely perceptible. So a fixture designed for incandescent certainly should pose no problem for an LED replacement.

Is there more to this than what I'm thinking?

-Hal
Click to expand...

It's not the fixture that needs to be suitable for the bulb, it's the other way around.

LED's generate heat, and if left unvented, can heat up the electronics in the 'bulb', causing pre-mature failure.
 
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