Voltage when switch is off. Cable A brings power into the box.
Voltage when switch is off This is more of an electrical question rather than electronics, but I'm sure someone would know. As far as I'm concerned, any electrical problem is dangerous. Cable B goes back to the switch. How much time does it take for a switch to go from on to off? 3. When I got the ceiling fan down, I checked the conductors and I'm getting 62 volts between the hot and the neutral with the switch off. Go to the light fixture, remove it from the wall and disconnect the black wire from the house attached to the fixture. The question is what happens when the switch is open and suggest a useful practical modification to the primary circuit. It's also recommended that you charge with out the battery connected to the controller. 3-way circuits wired as in the photo at the end of a wire run. Additionally, we’ll address related questions, such as whether a When the switch is off, one of those two wires should be connected to nothing at all. I would think it will read 0 volts. I’ve double checked wiring for reversed neutral/hot (powering neutral leg). First I opened the box and tested the The other terminal correctly shows no voltage when switched off. Upon fixing the neutral I was checking voltage and read 50-75 volts on the switched outlet with the switch in the off position with the switch on I read 120 volts. SW Fig. Cable A brings power into the box. Refer to Lenz's Law for the Induced voltage value, the faster the current turn Off the higher the voltage. So, I measured the voltage between L and N on the light pole when the switch is off and it showed 60V AC. 1. LED’s) ON or OFF by using a transistor in its saturated or cut-off state When used as an AC signal amplifier, the transistors Base biasing voltage is applied in such a The light bulb is in a 2 switch circuit and I took my multimeter to figure out if it was really off (and it was not. I’ve checked for bad/leaky switch. I was there just to put up some wall lights to finish off. You need to pick a N-MOSFET that can switch completely when V gs is equal to your power supply voltage. I was still measuring 15v ! What the hell ? I did the same with an electrical outlet that is controlled by a switch in the living room only to measure 20 volts when off. 5K views 9 replies 5 participants last post by Jim Port Dec 23, 2014 Before installing the new fixture, I turned off all of the switches in the room and used a live circuit tester to make sure the wires weren’t hot. If your - Voltage with switch off when only hot connected - Voltage with switch on when only hot connected. During switching there is more arcing at higher voltage than at lower voltage. In the dining room it is the same with two 3-way switches. 87 volts. This seems odd to me. Everything was fine except the only 3 way switch for two hallway lights. Lighting circuit on switch to light fitting off voltage between switch return and neutral or earth at fitting approx 90v. has anyone out there got a clue what could A circuit breaker is an electrical switch that protects electrical circuits and outlets from damage and overload. I just replaced a 3-way switch, and when I was testing, I noticed that there was 30 volts (Radio Shack analog meter) at the light socket when the switches were off. It trips off whenever there is any load. I tested another caseta dimmer I have in another room and same behaviour. You should not be able to get voltage here. When both switches are off, I pick up ~2-4V AC between hots and common (typical for my house where there's no ground). What you are seeing is called phantom voltage. truckster-May 12, 2012 #10 Sounds like induced voltage as said. Proof the breaker worked all the lights went out. It’s crucial to understand the causes behind this phenomenon and, more importantly, how to address it effectively. They may flicker or glow dim, because its enough volts to try start em up, but not enought to kick em over. Switching off inductive loads results in excess EMF that has to be dissipated; if it's not dissipated into a strategically placed snubber circuit, it will dissipate into an arc. With lights off I'm getting varying voltages of 34 to 60 volts. Umkeeping in mind I’m going to call an electrician about it, is there a common problem that would cause about 1/3 voltage to appear at a wall outlet? (FTR it’s a 2-prong ungrounded outlet) What’s the voltage of a 120 volt wall switch? Wall switch on- all normal at 120 volts. 2. But it could be a three wire circuit and bad wiring picking up voltage from other wire. The wall switch used to control an outlet, there were no built-in lights in the room When lights are switched OFF, the positive line shows a consistent, but different voltage for each room - from 6 volts on spots in the living room (and 27 on the main light), to 45 volts in the kitchen. About 20 seconds later you would hear a click and the light would go off. Goendo. Measure with megger mft 1720. 47 volts between the ground and accesory power line. in another, but the result matches the voltage across the switch. still ~119v) so I turned it off. Most modern multimeters have a very high impedance input (they place almost no load on the circuit being tested) and they will read this capacitive coupled voltage without bleeding it off. A switch is in an improper position when the switch pole screw lies against the switch box and the runner is shorted, which causes the fuse to blow when you turn the lights off. After pulling the switch out, it would appear there is a hot (black) and a neutral (white) attached to this switch. When the switch is off it’s reading 40 volts and when it on it’s showing 124 like it’s supposed to (reading from the light gang boxes where the lights will be installed). This will cause a small voltage to be present at the receptacle. If I short the wires, the ampmeter shows a current measurement of 0. Reply. What actually happens is that the serial connection of the LED lamp clamps the circuit even after you turn the switch off. It's possible the switch is defective, and it allows a high-resistance connection even when "off". I have tested using a multimeter & there seems to be about 20v reaching the lamps, suggesting some form of "leakage" Just to recap, a “phantom voltage” is where a wire from a switch to a light or outlet runs next to a permanently live wire, when the switch is off, the AC voltage in the other wire can induce a voltage in the switched-off wire. . In some cases, a low voltage level remains in the circuit, keeping the LED slightly illuminated. As expected, the voltage measured 120 V at one, and 0 Vat the other. 5 V batteries. Even odder, is that the spotlights in one room (where the main light has 21 volts when OFF), are the only ones in the house with ZERO volts Depends on the route the voltage takes through you! Make contact with one finger between L and N you’ll get a spark and a sore finger. I’ve checked for scuffed scratched wires or potential shorts. Check each ground wire separately against your extension cord and against each other. Fig. 5V on the inactive terminal -- checked out just fine. The lady said that her hall light ( low energy lamp on pendant ) had flickered on for a few secs then went off even though the switch was off ! it did this for a few mins so she changed the lamp for a standard one this did not light. When the switch is "off" (open, like displayed in the schematic), the voltage source provides current to the led I guess more generally I'm confused as to why things with zero current going through them have a voltage drop at all as V=IR. I’m at a loss. Is it safe to switch off the main switch? Turn the main switch off first! Even in homes with newer wiring we still half voltage when switch is off Jump to Latest 1. Ohm's law is not a universal law. Electrician: AssuredElectrical. Just plugging in a light on the switched outlet is enough to bring the induced voltage down to 0v and for the outlet tester to read "Correct" when the switch is both on and off. What am I missing here. Anyway, what's your idea ? You are most likely reading a capacitive coupled voltage with the switch off. With the switch ON, the measurement from A hallway light has stopped turning on with the switch. Cable C takes power downstream to the next bedroom. My :) should have clued you in. Flip the other switch and it is getting 2 neutrals and I used my multimeter expecting to find a low voltage when the dimmer was off but was surprised to see 117 volts. resistor across the input on the meter, To kill stray readings, then measure the voltage. Which supplies a low voltage drop to appear across the LED driver, and causes the LED bulb to glow dimly. When the wall switch is on, the CFL bulb gets full line voltage. A lighted switch has the light across the contacts. In your case, it would be from the switched wire running next to the hot wire. As for stray pickup, the run from the switch is only 3 feet, but it is on a 3 way switch which goes to a switch across the garage, so maybe enough to generate 37 v with enough current to give the smallish spark. Right now the switch should not be connected with any wires except for the ground wire. Turn on switch on black wire: black measures 122V, but red measures ~50-60V even though its switch is off. I then hooked up a multimeter to measure voltage. A lighted switch has an internal circuit to power the light in the switch. Unexpected voltage with switch turned off. Click to expand In your description you say you have 60 V in the ceiling box with the switch off and 120 V with it on. With the switches off, it Re: switch is off, but the switched receptacle still has voltage. If you lead the switch off for more than 6 seconds it should default to Cool Daylight next time you turn it on I then turned on the power and checked the voltage at each of the switch output terminals. Then there is a single wire going from each switch box to the light, connected to the "common" screw. If you turn the light switch off on then the globe will change colour. Now, you might have noticed that even when I removed the wires from the switches, except I kept the line attached to the first switch and tested the switched terminals vs. What is the voltage when switch is on? I'm stuck at this problem! Regards, physics; Share. It is only activated when the switch is off. It is wired as a switch leg and there is only 1 cable entering the fan box. With the circuit breaker off, it goes (not surprisingly) to zero voltage. Upvote 0 Downvote. I though maybe there was a neutral crossed in a another circuit. 2 illustrates the same circuit when switching element Q 1 is in an OFF state. ground. I got 123V on the active terminal and <. Ohm's law applies to ohmic devices; if the voltage across a device is proportional to the current through, the device is ohmic otherwise it isn't. 1: Basic Buck Converter Circuit Fig. Have you got a low impedance (Loz) voltage meter, that should tell you. It is usually around 15 to 20 volts. I just switched the wiring of a single-pole light switch from back wiring to side wiring and noticed that my voltage tester (non-contact pen-style one, Klein Tools NCVT-3) detects voltage in both the other black wire going into light fixsture So when ESC switches motor off the magnetic field collapses which generates a temporary voltage across the inductive load which basically acts as a series connected battery. and . There are also wattage limits sometimes, and the rated limits may be different for different loads, depending on if they are resistive, inductive or capacitive. Light is on when it is getting a hot and a neutral. Finding the voltage across a inductor in a charged RLC-circuit. Since fitting them, we have discovered a slight glow when the lights are switched off in two of the rooms. Make contact with your left hand closed around L and right hand closed around N or E and you’ll get 240V @ 50Hz across your heart and hands clenched so tight you cant let go - not so good especially if for some reason your circuit protection isn’t The wall switches from what I can tell are wired correctly. And when the switch is ON, there is no power, but there is light. If you see a white wire going to either the brass screws on the receptacle, or any screws on the switch, that's your problem, unless you have a switch loop; in that case, look for a black-flagged wire (or a black wire) wire-nutted to a white wire. With the led panel connected to the light pole, I hooked up a voltmeter to the capacitor after the bridge rectifier on the PCB of the led panel power supply. I'm assuming that means that I have current coming from Switching Off the current flowing in the Inductor causes the magnetic field to collapse, which creates a high voltage across the Inductor. But you must have the switch 'ON' to charge! Other wise my 3 amp mini Luna charger will switch on and off about once a second. It's like a tiny switch inside the main switch. Because the lamps have an electronic power supply built in, they rectify and smooth the incoming supply. I get 120v when switch is on. These issues are a normal part of their design. When the switch is off, the switched hot side is not a true neutral, it has a load, as described in Harper's schematic between the switch terminal and the neutral. Hot going to one terminal of one switch with a jumper to the adjacent switch for power. Transistor switches can be used to switch a low voltage DC device (e. but allow the voltage when the switch is off. With the switch in the Off position, the light turns off and my no contact voltage meter reads both the group of 3 Any resistance will bleed the potential voltage off, as in connecting the controller, or a power drain of some sort. and the voltage from ground to the load line is 1. g. After you close the circuit box, the wires should not be tangled. Not enough to activate the load, just enough for the light in the switch to work. I think I'd replace the switch -- it's a cheap The switch drop has one core PL and one core SL with mains across, and will pass a tiny current into the lamp(s) with the switch off. A small amount of voltage from the lighted switch can be read at the light. When the wall switch is off, the CFL bulb is the neutral for the light of the wall switch, causing a tiny current to flow through the CFL bulb. Follow edited Mar 1, 2018 at 19:03. By using a voltage regulator, you can From my POV, the circuit is wired in series, and a switch in the OFF position will be open, meaning that there is no closed loop for electrons to flow, and thus no voltage. I swapped out the switch and kept it. 36 volts when switch is off. We get this with long 2 ways. Flip one switch, and it is getting 2 hots and is off. Problem was even with the ring main socket switched off 50 volts ac was showing on the line conductor I broke down the ring disconnecting sockets 1 at a time, tested between ring main cabling and proved ok insulation resitance fine , reconnected sockets, fault back again 50 volts on line conductor ac. In the question 4 answers, they state that when the switch is turned off, the voltage drop across the switch will be the full battery voltage. If both Before the drywall goes up I went and tested everything with the meter. If measuring across the switch (which should be open), then you'd measure 120V or 230V or whatever your supply