Good evening, I hope someone may be able to explain the issue with some LED lamps we have. I probably will need to post details of the light fittings and driver? In the meantime what happens is the middle one of the three lights flickers on momentarily for just a split second - when the wall switch is "off". There is a slight "tick" sound from the driver while the switch is off - I think this may correspond to the flashes. Our electrician did the wiring but left me to connect the flex cable from the light fittings to the driver. Driver has three sets of terminals and one light is wired to each of these. Apart from this the lights work well. It's not a big problem - just odd that the light should do this when the switch is off. If you switch the lights on, after you switch them off again the middle one doesn't immediately flash for a while. So it doesn't even happen all the time. Thanks in advance if anyone's able to shed any light
Thanks KIAB - so it's incompatibility between driver and lamps (which are, as you say MR16). Both driver and fittings (which were supposed to be compatible) are aurora.
It will be difficult to take out the fittings as they're IP68 flush?fitting down lights in an en suite and it's unlikely anything else would fit exactly. But I guess I could ask the electrician to come back and fit a different driver? Is it a common issue with MR16 LEDs?
One of resident sparks will be more up todate on fittings,etc,but I gave sparking some years ago & a bit out of touch. Using a Starrett A19 'Oops' Arbor you could easily enlarge the hole for a larger GU10 fitting, but you might find a GU10 fitting which fits exsisting hole.
fit a snuber between switched line and neutral will probably cure the problem...worth a try for around £4 https://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/DNCAPLOAD.html
Thanks Lee - as you say it's worth a try. Still don't understand how the light can come on when it's switched off? i appreciate your help.
A very common problem, often seems to affect more on the cheaper quality LED bulbs, the snubber is a good start to fix the problem, however it is not always the case that the problem lies with the LED bulbs or the drivers. An earth leakage problem can cause the same problem and switches have been known, especially problematic on 2 way switching. I would start with checking the earth connections and ensure that they are tight, fitting the snubber in this case sounds favorite as it is only affecting one bulb out of a bank of three. Although if the bank of 3 are all wired back to the multiple transformer, it could well be that connection to the problem light.
Thanks for comprehensive reply bright spark. Sounds like probably not worth replacing the bulbs first. I think I'll ask him if he can come back and have a look at it based on your advice. Cheers. I appreciate your help.
I had the same problem a couple of weeks ago with an LED in the normal bayonet type light fitting. Been working fine for months, we steamed off some wallpaper and I guess the steam screwed with the circuitry in the bulb causing it to be more sensitive. Fitted new LED bulb fine!
I replaced some G9s in a few fittings at my parents house and in a couple of fittings they glow faintly when switched off. I've been meaning to investigate properly for ages. G9s are 230v so no drivers to worry about, I've got no idea what the issue is, other than a leakage problem and I just can't see how that's possible in this case!
Potentially pick up - or RFI. There will be a lot of RFI about - motors, lights, power supplies (especially SMPS) all radiating noise. In an LED "bulb" there will almost certainly be a coil or small transformer which will act as a receiver for the noise and potentially put a small voltage across the LEDs which may then glow dimly or flicker - it does not take much power to do it and whilst one LED might be fine, another a metre away could be right in the middle of a noisy environment.
Pain in the rear dimmer compatability, the best dimmer for led's is the Varilight. http://www.screwfix.com/p/varilight-trailing-edge-push-dimmer-1g-1-2w-400w-va/94816 https://www.varilight.co.uk/dimmers/dimmers-for-leds.php And read instructions, as they can be set in trailing edge (default) & what is normally used or leading edge mode, plus you can set the dimming level.
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