Last night Vince was reading about the fan lights blinking when the switch is off and having to pull the chain to completely turn the lights. In the old fan, the lights didn’t point down but the globe was one big round amber colored glass globe (which further reduced the amount of light) and the light bulbs, which were more like candelabra bulbs, were horizontal. If I turned the light switch off at the wall, you didn’t notice the blinking til it was completely dark in the room so when we turned the lamps off and got in bed, I’d see them blinking. Because the lights were in a circle, it reminded me of puppies chasing each other and I would be trying to go to sleep but yet watching those lights. I’d say “Vince . . would you get up and pull the chain?” and he’d say “Go to sleep!” How could I go to sleep with puppies playing chase right above me? I couldn’t reach the chain without standing up in the bed and stepping over him .. he could reach it from standing on the floor though . . so I’d be watching puppies while he was sleeping and it never bothered him.
With the new lights, they’re typical light bulbs pointing down with lightly frosted globes. We used LED lights and they’re nice and bright. I’m so happy with the light in there but . . if you turn them off at the switch without pulling the chain to turn them off, they just get about halfway dim – they’re still brighter than the lighting we had in there even when it was on 100% so at least we weren’t going to bed, realizing there were puppies playing on the ceiling! 🙂
Now, here’s where my comprehension of what Vince told me gets very sketchy but I hope you get what I’m saying:
He read last night that with the remotes that weren’t meant for LED bulbs, which is what we have, even when you turn them off at the wall/remote switch, there’s just a trickle of power still running through it and that’s enough to light those bulbs and that’s what was happening. Vince said the remote “leaks” power. With the older incandescent type bulbs, it wasn’t enough power to actually light the bulbs. With the energy efficient LED bulbs, the small amount of power will light the bulbs to some degree.
The fix, that he read, was to place one incandescent bulb in (leaving two LED bulbs) and the incandescent bulb kinda absorbs the extra power but it isn’t enough to light that bulb and it hogs all the power so the LED bulbs are not blinking. We tried it and it worked! That’s an amazing fix! But, it’s still using power, which makes no sense to me so Vince put the LED bulb back in, added a longer chain that I can reach from the floor and I’ll just use the chain to turn the light on and off.
Having the Google Home Mini in the bedroom, we can turn the bedside lamps on and off by saying “Hey Google . . ” and that makes it all so much easier. In the future, when I get a house with a switch that controls both the fan and the light, or if Vince ever switches out the remote to one made for LED lights, I think I’ll still keep the Google device. It’s so easy to turn the light on by speaking than reaching for the switch.
All this and I think about my grandparents in the days before they even had electricity and I’m trying to figure out how to turn off a light without having to pull a chain! 🙂
RUTH CHOW says
That must be why the lights in my closet glow at night after we put in LED bulbs! Thanks to you and Vince for the explanation.
vivoaks says
I put an LED bulb in my Featherweight and didn’t realize it would stay on, even with the switch off, until I got up one morning before it was light out and walked into the living room and saw the light glowing! I couldn’t figure out what was going on or why it was doing it until I talked with the lady in our guild who sells and fixes Featherweights. She told me I should always unplug it when I’m done. Sometimes I still forget….
Susan Nixon says
That’s very interesting. I don’t have any such lights. I have a couple of OTT lights, but they aren’t on chains or timers or remotes. So apparently Walter Mitty and James Thurber’s grandmother were not crazy, after all! Ta-pocketa-pocketa-pocketa!
Nelle Coursey says
Glad you got it fixed!
Karen says
I bought a LED for the light over our stove (we have a microwave over the stove). It is a bulb designed for use in this situation but we still have the light on with the power off situation. I would prefer to be able to turn it off but it is a nice nightlight in the kitchen.