This morning I noticed that the recessed lights in our room were dim. To
my surprise, the Aube *electronic in-wall timer* switch (T1032-3W) was
in the off position. Turning it to on brought the lights on full.

I did the following troubleshooting:

1. Outlet tester tested OK (note I used an outlet tester with a light
bulb socket adapter and ran a separate wire to the ground pin of an
outlet on the same circuit). In particular, the tester did't show bad
neutral.

2. Other lights on same circuit behave normally

3. Outlets on same circuit test normally with outlet tester (including a
GFI outlet on the circuit)


4. If I slide the manual off switch on the timer, the effect goes
away. (Note the manual switch is in addition to the push-on-push-off
style switch that is normally used to override the timer action. This
manual switch shuts off power to the timer display too and is
presumably in series with the timer and the push-on-push-off switch).

5. Switch box was rewired and timer added about 3 months ago. But no
problems until now.

Note the timer connects only to the load and to line (it actually has 3
wires but in 2-way mode two of them are connected together) -- so it
itself does not have a neutral.

Based on 1-5 of the above, I'm thinking it is a bad timer rather than
bad neutral. Presumably since the timer switch is electronic and not
mechanical, it could leak current even in the timer "off" mode resulting
in a partially lit circuit. Actually, some current is required to always
flow in the circuit to power the timer since the neutral is not
connected to the timer -- in fact, I believe that is why it needs to
have at least a 40W load to ensure that the resistance of the circuit is
not too high o provide the necessary leakage current in normal off mode
to operate the electronics. In particular, the fact that the effect goes
away when the built-in mechanical switch is off, suggest to me that it
is a timer issue.

But since I know "bad neutrals" are scarey business, I wanted to ask
here for other inputs. In particular, if it's just a faulty timer, I
don't have to rush to fix it...

Thanks