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Bulb Flashes When Off Mystery
A rather weird problem occured a couple of night ago. I replaced the screw-in fluorescent bulb in a fixture, and, when shut off, if flashed approximately every 5 seconds.
The only other item on this circut is the wall switch, which is of the type that contains a neon bulb inside the switch which lights when the main circut is open.
Replacing the 24 watt flourescent (which was still hot at the time) with a 13 watt (cool), and the flashing stopped. Stayed that way even when the 13-watter was allowed to run until it, too, was hot.
My theory:
A slight power leakage across the switch (via the neon bulb) charges up the starter-capacitor in the 'new' bulb, which flashes, but since the power is actually off, the startup-flash simply goes out.
My Question:
Is the switch actually defective - or is it the bulb? Since two of the three bulbs used did not flash, perhaps the flashing bulb has an unusually low breakdown threshhold. If the switch is defective, I'll replace it, but it would be a shame to buy another neon-lit switch and find out it causes the same behaviour. Could any other circut elements cause this behaviour? For that matter, has anyone else ever seen such behavior?
Thanks,
Balboos
The only other item on this circut is the wall switch, which is of the type that contains a neon bulb inside the switch which lights when the main circut is open.
Replacing the 24 watt flourescent (which was still hot at the time) with a 13 watt (cool), and the flashing stopped. Stayed that way even when the 13-watter was allowed to run until it, too, was hot.
My theory:
A slight power leakage across the switch (via the neon bulb) charges up the starter-capacitor in the 'new' bulb, which flashes, but since the power is actually off, the startup-flash simply goes out.
My Question:
Is the switch actually defective - or is it the bulb? Since two of the three bulbs used did not flash, perhaps the flashing bulb has an unusually low breakdown threshhold. If the switch is defective, I'll replace it, but it would be a shame to buy another neon-lit switch and find out it causes the same behaviour. Could any other circut elements cause this behaviour? For that matter, has anyone else ever seen such behavior?
Thanks,
Balboos