help! my light bulb lights up without electricity.

yes, two way switching reffers to two switches controlling one light.

you'll have to forgive the other posters here for having rather british specific knowlage in particular for most normal wiring we tend to use T&E which places the earth between the current carrying conductors providing effectively a shield against this capactive coupling effect so we only tend to see it with two-way switching systems.

but if your wiring is singles in conduit (which i belive is the norm on the continant) or some other cable type that is foreign to us then its quite possible for it to happen without two way switching being involved.

anyway just stick a 100nf mains rated capacitor accross it and it should be fine.

 

i always thought a capacitor was a tiny little thingie used in DC circuit boards for radios, cassette players etc... if i were able to get one of these, how exactly would i meld it into the wiring. across both wires, or along one wire? does it need to have a voltage rating of at least 220v (my house)? looking around on the internet i have found some at 16v, others at 100v and others at 400v. thx.

 

you connect it accross the mains going to the fitting, make sure its inside a suitable enclosure (the fitting itself, the switch box or whatever your system uses as junction boxes)

it needs to be a capacitor explicitly rated for use accross the mains like this, maplin code N69CN would be fine but maplin are probablly a bit inconviniant with you being in spain and i don't know what if anything your local equivilant would be.

 

what about voltage rating?

 

Greater than 400 volts as the peak voltage of 230 volt mains is 313 volts.

The 230 is the average of the alternating voltage.

 

so the 400v one? cool.

 

400 volt AC rated,

 

Shirley not! Isn't 230V is the RMS value?

 

He's right you know Bernard

 

so i bought a 100uf 400v capacitor and placed it across the leads and it still gives the same flicker. did i do wrong?

 

Are you shore the starter is working in the light some times thay become lose you have to turn it slightly or replace it.

 

irishturf12, please look at the date it was posted. it was over a year ago, so i doubt the op will care anymore

 

believe me i still care about this. in the meantime i have changed the bulb to the old one i was using, also a fluorescent, which does not have the same behaviour. i would still like to know why the newer type bulbs produce this effect. if anyone can suggest something, i would very much appreciate it.

 

well if the problem is not resolved why did you not post back?
if you dont post we have to assume you have solved the problem.

 

sorry, i thought this post was the my reply back:


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PostPosted: Tue Mar 06, 2007 9:17 am Post Subject:
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so i bought a 100uf 400v capacitor and placed it across the leads and it still gives the same flicker. did i do wrong?

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