Disco Fever Light switches with lights & my florescent bulbs flashing

SDF123

New member
May 19, 2008
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Ok...so about 9 months ago we rewired our house and with that, put in all new switches with the red lights in them so you can see at night when the are turned off. So now I have 12 light bulbs that flash like you are at a disco. Every 3 seconds for about 1/2 a second. I did not have these in my old house, and there where no florescent bulbs in this house before we moved in so I don't know if it is the switches or the electrical system in the house. We do have an inverter/surge protector on all these lights. It does not happen all the time. I asked the electrician and he said it is the switches (he is the one that told me/made me buy these switches).

Has anyone else had this problem? Could this cause my electric bill to jump 50%? Thank you for your help in advance! Have a great week!

Steven
 

donP

Newbie
Dec 14, 2008
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Problem Loads

If your inverter has a search mode control knob turn that all the way down (= disable the search function).
If that does not help use normal bulbs.

donP
 

zoomzx11

Gold
Jan 21, 2006
8,367
842
113
had the same problem and it turned out that current was leaking to the swithes when they were turned off. Solution was to just pull the switched and wire them tighter to the connecting screws. They are not using anything much in the way of electricity. Hope this helps.
 

Olly

Bronze
Mar 12, 2007
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Zoomzx11 is right but the description of the problem is a little off. The red lights in the switches are small neons which pass a small current to glow red. That is why you bought them so you can see the switches in the dark!! They are connected across the switch so send a small current to the light at the end of the circuit. If it is a CFL - compact fluoresent = low energy bulb - it will slowly charge the capacitors in the bulb untill there is sufficient for the electronics to fire the bulb -hence the flash. Interesting interaction of older and newer technologies.
The solution is to disconnect the fine wires in the switch that go to the neons - leave the ones on the live side - and connect them to neutral or just to the metal casing that houses the switch, they will stay on all the time but still show you where the switch is. In this configuration they will not go off when the light is switched to the on position - which is what they do now!

I had this in a place that was rewired - took a while to work it out!!

Hope that helps

Olly
 
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SDF123

New member
May 19, 2008
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You guys are great

Thank you for everyone's help! You guys are great! Everyone have a great week!! Short week!!

Steven
 

Olly

Bronze
Mar 12, 2007
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104
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SDF123 - PS make sure you switch the breakers off - before fiddling!!! Otherwise you wont need the red lights to see the switches - it will be you making the fluoresent glow???

LOL
Olly