Darryl Gove's blog
Illuminated light switches and flourescent lights
Just back from the break. Spent some time doing odd jobs around the house. We use the compact fluorescent light bulbs around the house, I'd noticed one of them flickering when it was supposed to be switched off. The reason dawned on me when I was thinking about the illuminated switch that controls that particular light.
I started thinking about where the power to make the switch glow came from, after a moment of reflection it was clear that there had to be a small current flowing in order for the switch to light up. And if there's a small current flowing through the switch, then there has to be one flowing through the fluorescent bulb, presumably just enough to make it flicker.
I found a blog entry which confirmed this, plus showed some nice illustrations.
Unfortunately there are only two solutions. (1) Don't use illuminated switches or (2) Don't use fluorescent lights.
Posted at 10:06PM Jan 08, 2009 by Darryl Gove in Personal |
