Weird glowing lights in workshop! Electrical guru's needed...

[dobbslc]

I've just been to the workshop to have a tidy up and before I switch the lights on I noticed they were glowing!
I've got some old fluorescent tubes and a couple of led floods on the outside all are glowing when the lights are off!
It's an old installation that will be ripped out when the garage is hopefully rebuild next year, I'm on a TT overhead supply and the lighting has no earthing due to its age.
I'm a sparks and haven't come across this one before, any suggestions?

 

[Seadog]

A friend replaced the incandescent bulbe in his house with LEDs and had a similar pronlem. This is a 10 year old house. I can only put it down to capacitance in the cables leaking enough current to maintain a glow.

 

[awemawson]

Leakage presumably somewhere?

I have an LED light on our stairs that stays very dimly 'on' when off and has since it was fitted. I assume it's capacitive coupling in the wiring allowing a very small current to flow

It's actually quite handy as it acts as a night light when grand children come to stay

 

[wookie]

You're not underneath a pylon or it's cables are you ?

 

[dannyp]

led lights do some funny things, also when it's dark a very dim light appears a lot more noticable

 

[armalites]

I have a couple of LED PIR floodlights, every now and again they will just stay on during the day then they'll be fine again for weeks

 

[Robotstar5]

I've seen it on old fluorescent fittings if they've been connected backwards (neutral wire to live terminal etc.)

 

[J.F]

Hi Dobbslc, you say its a workshop? do the light switches have any red/ orange neon lights on the the switches, (to help you see the switch in the dark). sometimes if the neon fails you can end up with voltage leaking across the neon in the region of 50 ish volts hence the light fitting will glow.

 

[WorkshopChris]

Induced voltage in the cables somewhere from a running appliance.(the lighting supply cable running next to a power cable)

The early led gu10 would pulse at night if you looked carefully as the capacitors charged up from induced voltage.

 

[dobbslc]

You're not underneath a pylon or it's cables are you ?

Nope.

Hi Dobbslc, you say its a workshop? do the light switches have any red/ orange neon lights on the the switches, (to help you see the switch in the dark). sometimes if the neon fails you can end up with voltage leaking across the neon in the region of 50 ish volts hence the light fitting will glow.

Yes I do have two neon light switches I might swap them out for normal ones.

It's not just the led's though but the fluroecents too.

 

[Olderisbetter]

We have a mix of old fluorescent lights and LED around the place here and get all sorts of things going on, We always put it down to capacitors, The normal one is the over bed reading ligts are LED and the bathroom has a flrorescent, When someone turns of the bathroom light while the bedroom walls lights are off the suddenly flash, If we have people stay over i tell them the house is haunted rather than say we have crappy wiring.

 

[voipio]

Powerline ethernet adapters send quite a bit of broadband RF crap up the mains wiring, which may be enough to energise some of the LED kit out there, and possibly even the fluorescents. Try putting a longwave radio close to the mains. There'll be all sorts of interference in the average house from all the boiler thermostats, multimedia kit, and switched mode power supplies, especially the CE (China Export) variety.

 

[wookie]

I've seen boats with LED lights in their cabins that flicker like a haunted house when you hit transmit on the VHF radio, one of the best was everytime one guy transmitted with his SSB his bowthruster operated.

 

[normspanners]

I had a 3 phase contactor 230v coil that would not shut off from time to time and couldnt understand why untill I removed both ends of the cable and still had 50v induced in it from somewhere ??

 

[dobbslc]

Well I've just disconnect the neon lights inside switches and nothing changed!
They were wired across the live and switch line, no neutral......

 

[brightspark]

I've just posted on voltimum asking the question about flickering led lights and should get a reply from an expert .ive trawled a few electrical forums and got no definitive answers of any posts. will be interesting if I get a result

 

[truckdoctor]

We had GU10 downlighter led's fitted to our new wiring, and they glowed at night. The builder changed only the led's for a more expensive make and , problem solved

 

[dobbslc]

It's the glowing fluorescent lights that I don't like! It must take a fair bit of current to male them glow like that.
I might just rewire the garage lights at the weekend and put some earth into the system....

 

[brightspark]

It's the glowing fluorescent lights that I don't like! It must take a fair bit of current to male them glow like that.
I might just rewire the garage lights at the weekend and put some earth into the system....

are they not earthed . if they are it hasn't snapped has it or neutral wired through the switch instead of the live . a few things that make it happen

 

[normspanners]

I've just posted on voltimum asking the question about flickering led lights and should get a reply from an expert .ive trawled a few electrical forums and got no definitive answers of any posts. will be interesting if I get a result

I have a couple of LED PIR floodlights, every now and again they will just stay on during the day then they'll be fine again for weeks

some models of pir switches have capacitors in them, that charge then discharge through the leds causing them to flicker for a split second.