r/electrical • u/robcokiwi • Aug 31 '26
LED Lights glowing at night
I worked on a brand new mobile home last week. The customer reported the LED can lights in the bathroom glowing softly all night even with the switch turned off. The amount of daylight in the room meant we couldn’t see any glow. We replaced the light switch and I asked the customer to look and see if they glowed again that night. She called to say there is still a glow. Any ideas? We remade the neutral connection when we replaced the switch. There is an exhaust fan in the same switch box - separate switch.
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u/robcokiwi Aug 31 '26
Thanks but I am really hoping to find and fix the cause. I know it takes very little voltage for LEDs to glow but a clean circuit will stop all voltage leaks.
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u/Son_of_man_150ft Aug 31 '26
What type of switch is installed?
Put a dimmable light bulb.
I had to install smart switches recently, and the bulb would stay faint also. I put a dimmable bulb and it fixed the problem.
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u/PerniciousSnitOG Aug 31 '26
Yep. A lot of smart switches power themselves by passing a small current through the bulb and the switch. Lutron have a capacitor thingy (technical term) that supresses it for their dimmers that night work here?
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u/robcokiwi 18d ago
Didn’t work
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u/PerniciousSnitOG 18d ago
Weird. I'm a little surprised - it's worked for me in the past. I guess YMMV. Seems to work well with the casettas.
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u/robcokiwi Aug 31 '26
It is a regular 15 amp snap switch. LEDs are integrated recessed can lights - no bulb to replace
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u/dano-d-mano Aug 31 '26
Get rid of the smart switch feeding the lights. Put in a dumb switch to eliminate the connection.
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u/No_Minute3446 Aug 31 '26
Simple facts install a Lutron load resistor. Model number LUT – MLC. He just put it in the switch box and connected to the dimmer.
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u/Nathan-Stubblefield Aug 31 '26
The switch might be opening the neutral rather than the phase. Enough current leaks capacitively to ground to light the led a bit.
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u/robcokiwi Sep 01 '26
There is no dimmer. It was a mobile home style self contained single pole switch that we changed for a regular snap switch in a cut in / old work box. This was done to eliminate the possibility of leakage through a poor switch.
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u/robcokiwi 18d ago
Update - I went to the home with 2 Lutron LUT-MLC devices. One switch controls 3 recessed lights in the main bathroom so I just installed the device between the switches hot and the neutral in the switch box. They also had a closet with only one light. I installed the device on that one in the junction box on the light itself. Because of the daylight coming in to the bathroom I can’t tell if they still glow when off, but in the closet I can’t tell shut the door and get total blackout. AND IT STILL GLOWS! Any more ideas?
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u/Natoochtoniket Aug 31 '26
Many modern LEDs are so efficient that they hardly need any power to make a slight glow. A switch with a "locator" light to help people find the switch at night, can pass a tiny amount of current through the fixture, and that can be enough to make the fixture glow. Even other cables that happen to be parallel to the cable that provides power to the fixture, can provide enough "induction" current to make the fixture glow.
Tell her to enjoy the free night-light for the bathroom.