Seán O'Leathlóbhair wrote:
I am not sure if this is an appropriate group for this question. If
not, please suggest a better one.

I have a light in the house which I have wanted to switch to a low
energy bulb for a long time. The hold up was that I needed a very
small bulb. At last, I have found a small enough bulb but something
odd occurred as soon as I put it in.

When it is switched on, it works as expected.


I have a few questions:

What is going on? Is a tiny current leaking, building up a charge in
a capacitor somewhere until a sufficient voltage builds up to spark in
the bulb and discharge the capacitor, and then the cycle repeats.

Is it safe?

Will it wear out the bulb very fast?

Is it likely to be enough to replace the switch? (Actually three
switches can turn this bulb on and off).

Might I have to replace the wiring? (Much harder than just replacing
the switches)

--
Seán Ó Leathlóbhair


On a cold wet miserable winter day in the early 70's. I was
troubleshooting a newish car, that wouldn't start, that had just been
serviced by a car dealership. a few days before. To cut a long story
short, they lubricated the Point Breaker mechanism with a clear Grease
that they probably used for years with no problems ! With 2 to 6 Amps
flowing, the contact mechanism probably cooked off any wet or
conductive grease. With the newer Hybrid Transistor switched points the
DAMP grease appeared as a Dead Short to the few milliamps required to
actuate the Transistor.

I would suspect the switches (All three) are lubricated with a grease
that is conductive enough read (dirty enough)to cause the problems
indicated !

The quick and dirty, to clear the excess grease is to replace the lamp
in question with a 60 - 100 watt bulb and switch On and Off a few
times. in the Off position any conductive grease will be burned away.

Any fire Hazard, Not likely, after all these switches were manufactured
and sold for years lubricated just like this, besides we are talking
about a drop or two grease total ! If you are worried, replace the
switches.

If this doesn't clear the problem than you may have exessive
capacitative coupling between the various conductors due to the
three-way switching, under a very light load !

Yukio YANO