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SSE

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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?
 
Bit more info for you guys, ha. He says that these 4 new lights are on their own new circuit as there was no room on the other circuit. Does this change anything?! See if he was to swap the LED's for normal GU10's would this clear the problem seen as it could be the LED's that are causing it?
 
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maybe the other circuit is not 2 way switching. tell him to temporarily replace 1 of the LEDs with a halogen GU10. if that cures the problem, then a snubber is the answer.
 
This gets stranger by the minute! I had the chance to have a look at it myself with him today. Problem was still present, checked connections etc, they were all fine. Changed the switches, still same problem. Disconnected the 3-core & earth at both ends & just as a small test took a small new cutting & went from spare switch to another spare switch & the problem disappeared. So this tells us the problem is the wiring you would think? Tested old wiring again & everything is fine with it!! He's going to just rewire it again, as judging by this the problem should be no more with new wiring. Very strange.
 
This gets stranger by the minute! I had the chance to have a look at it myself with him today. Problem was still present, checked connections etc, they were all fine. Changed the switches, still same problem. Disconnected the 3-core & earth at both ends & just as a small test took a small new cutting & went from spare switch to another spare switch & the problem disappeared. So this tells us the problem is the wiring you would think? Tested old wiring again & everything is fine with it!! He's going to just rewire it again, as judging by this the problem should be no more with new wiring. Very strange.

the strappers are introducing the voltage into the switchline maybe... ? ;)
 
Sorry I completely forgot to give an update on this. After talking it over with a fellow sparkie he agreed & said a "snubber" would cure the problem. He gave my mate two resistors twisted together as shown in picture below, said to put one end in with live & one with neutral as suggested here & the other ends into a connector. Anyway this cured the problem! I'm not clued up on resistors etc but are the ones he gave adequate? They ok to be used? There's been no problems so far... [ElectriciansForums.net] Lighting fault!
 
They look like 2 * 140ohm 1/4W resistors in series, quite surprised they have not burnt out as you would take about 180W through them. Do they get hot? How did you insulate the leads as they will be at 230V?
Look like 1 Meg resistors to me. Good to see two in series - good safety measure in case one fails. Daz
 
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