LED bulbs glow when off

[Gritineye]

Any sparkies in today?

We have a couple of LED bulbs like these: https://www.tala.co.uk/product/gaia-6-watt/

Wondering what would make them glow very dimly when off, so dim it can only just be noticed at night, un plugging them stops it.

Is it a house wiring fault?

 

[pondy]

All mine are the same

 

[Wozzaaah]

I’ve got one that does it, all the others are fine.

 

[dannyp]

Leakage . They need very very very little power to dimly glow

 

[daleyd]

As dannyp says above, it’s usually some small leakage current or (induced current from the wires next to them) through existing wiring - normal bulbs don’t do this because they require so much current to make them work, led ones need very little so it’s more noticeable.

 

[Stingray]

I replaced all my lights in the house with LED’s and had no problems, I then replaced switches in two rooms to touch switches and the same happened as you, I phoned the company that supplied the switches and they sent me two little resistor type things to put inline on the live side of the light fitting.

 

[Luke]

What kind of switches do you have?

 

[WorkshopChris]

As daleyd correctly identified this is a result of induced current on the wire, picked up from running parallel to other wires and almost acting as winding's in a transformer.

I phoned the company that supplied the switches and they sent me two little resistor type things to put inline on the live side of the light fitting.

This is something i have heard of but never seen in the flesh would be interested to see what they specified.

 

[Seadog]

They're probably small chokes if they're in series.

 

[Stingray]

Luckily they sent me four instead of two, this is what they’re like, the only thing written on them is what you see...

As daleyd correctly identified this is a result of induced current on the wire, picked up from running parallel to other wires and almost acting as winding's in a transformer.

This is something i have heard of but never seen in the flesh would be interested to see what they specified.

 

[Stingray]

https://hartingtonheath.com/product-category/light-switches/led-adaptor/

 

[dobbslc]

That happens if you switch the neutral as well, not that I've done that by refeeding my entire garage reverse polarity........

 

[brightspark]

That happens if you switch the neutral as well, not that I've done that by refeeding my entire garage reverse polarity........

can happen to anyone that's why you test the wiring when completed you wont be the 1st and wont be the last

 

[WorkshopChris]

https://hartingtonheath.com/product-category/light-switches/led-adaptor/

Interesting i am tempted to get a couple just to test, it mentions they can get hot and you can use as many as it takes to cure the problem.

 

[jsf55]

One of my old energy savers used to do that, made for a cheap night light for the kids on the landing

 

[Gritineye]

Thanks for all your useful input chaps, what occurs to me is that the slight glow when switched off must be using some juice, as would putting a resistor in the circuit.

Now I know what's causing it the glow doesn't bother me, unless using this tiny amount of electricity 24/7/365 would add up to affect these bulbs energy saving claims or life span.

Any thoughts?

 

[rtbcomp]

It's probably milliwatts. Lets assume 0.1 watt 24/7/365 = 6.132 KW-Hrs, at 25p/KW-Hr that's £1.533 pa.

If it's due to leakages across switches/cables &c you're probably losing that amount of electricity in other places anyway, you just don't notice it.

 

[Gritineye]

Reckon I can live with that, thanks.

 

[daleyd]

Yeah, like @rtbcomp says above, fitting the led hasn’t caused the problem, just made it noticeable - with incandescent bulbs the minuscule amount of current just isn’t enough to make them glow.