Lighting fault!

[SSE]

One of the boys I go to college with has a strange lighting fault. I've copied & pasted the e-mail he sent below to see what you guys think. I'm pretty puzzled tbh.

Right basically I've wired 4 spotlights with LED lamps. The wiring goes like so; feed & neutral to first switch with switch & neutral out to first light on to 2nd & so on. Neutrals connected at back of switch in connectors. When I turn the lights on everything turns on fine, when I turn them off it's as if they're turning off but not completely. The lamps are ever so slightly lit. When I turned them on I tested between L&E, L&N & N&E & everything was as it should be. When I turned it off however, I was getting 80v between Neutral & earth. Can't for the life of me understand what's wrong?! I disconnected the 3-core & earth so that it was just switching from the first switch & it was switching on & off properly?? Any ideas?

Any ideas chaps?

 

[shocking_eg]

induced voltage.

common with LED's

edit...

is your friend saying there turning off okay once the strapper is disconnected >?

 

[ARK]

had this a few times, it will be cheap led lamps, if there is no load on the circuit they can start lighting up on there own, just tell him to buy a decent lamp not a chineese cheep one,

but i wouldnt expect voltage like that on n-e unless there is a broken neutral, is it on a clipsall or lutron? or just a conventional lighting system?

 

[Sintra]

Induced voltage as above. Fit a snubber across the load and that will cure it.

 

[shocking_eg]

is it on a clipsall or lutron? or just a conventional lighting system?

by the OP's description its a standard switch with 2 way control

 

[R G]

Take out all the other lamps on the same circuit ,ie the other rooms and see what happens , you could also feed the live and neutral at the swich on a temporary feed & see what happens , you could have a broken neutral somewhere on the lighting circuit .......

 

[SSE]

induced voltage.

common with LED's

edit...

is your friend saying there turning off okay once the strapper is disconnected >?

Thanks. Once he totally disconnects the 3-core from both ends & just connects the feed into comm & switch into L1 everything seems to be fine?

had this a few times, it will be cheap led lamps, if there is no load on the circuit they can start lighting up on there own, just tell him to buy a decent lamp not a chineese cheep one,

but i wouldnt expect voltage like that on n-e unless there is a broken neutral, is it on a clipsall or lutron? or just a conventional lighting system?

I'll find out which kind of lamps he used.

Induced voltage as above. Fit a snubber across the load and that will cure it.

Snubber?

by the OP's description its a standard switch with 2 way control

Sure is.

See the thing is when I e-mailed him back he mentioned that he had done his dining room with the same lights albeit a lot more of them a couple of months ago & there was no problem with that lights, they were turning on & off as they should. You'd think they would be doing the same as the new ones he has installed?

 

[Allbrite]

What are his connections at the switch?

 

[SSE]

I'll just text him to see give me 2 mins.

 

[ARK]

there must be other fittings on the circuit of the dining room disapaiting the load

 

[keniff]

What are these snubbers, and where exactly do they go on the circuit?

 

[Allbrite]

The way i would do it is at the first switch connect neutrals, then live to L1 with the brown strapper, live to the lights with grey strapper in L2 and black as the common.

 

[SSE]

He's got them connected in L1- feed & black (from 3-core) L2-switch wire to light & grey (from 3-core) & brown from 3-core in common.

 

[keniff]

What he means is connect it so the two cores that are together in the 3 core are switched and the single core is common to try and avoid induced voltage. That's what it seems to me

 

[SSE]

The way i would do it is at the first switch connect neutrals, then live to L1 with the brown strapper, live to the lights with grey strapper in L2 and black as the common.

Do you think this would get rid of the problem? Second switch to be connected as normal or same as this? I'm confused! lol.