"John Rumm" wrote in message
...

wrote:

I take it this voltage presence is wrong? Anyone any pointer as to
what could be causing this?


SNIP

The flashing you can see with the CFL bulb is quite common, and seems to
be an extension of the same problem. The small leakage current due to
the capacitive coupling is also enough to charge capacitors in the input
circuitry of the lamp. Once these has accumulated a sufficient level of
charge, it is enough to momentarily "fire" the lamp. This discharges the
circuit, the lamp goes out and the process starts over.

--

I thought I had one of these yesterday but it turned out to be a duff
nearly-new lamp :-(

This may have been the cause of temporary massive interference I had on my
AM radio ....

Maybe I will surgically remove the lamp part and keep it until I have a
blown lamp/good ballast available ...

(This was a B&Q 18 watt "eco-light" - in future I may try to keep the
receipts ...)