I installed an electrical timer for my front porch light last week. It indicated it would work with incandescent lights, but the packaging didn't mention if it would work with LED's or not. I figured it's not a dimmer, just a timer, and the LED's were supposed to be able to work with a dimmer so I gave it a shot...
The timer worked fine with the small incandescent lights that were in the fixture, but when I switched them out for the LED units, they stay very dimly lit even when the timer is off. When turned on manually or by the timer, they get nice and bright, probably 7-10 times the brightness of when they are off/dim.
I'm kind of wondering what's going on. It advertises no neutral wire connection needed. The timer uses only three lines, green for ground, black for the incoming voltage, and blue for the "load" which goes to the light fixture.
After disconnecting the original toggle switch, I tested the wire running to the "Load", (the light) by placing one tester lead on that line and the other on the ground and there was no voltage. I then put one lead on the hot line coming in and the other lead on the ground line and it showed 120V so I thought I was good with which was which. Did I screw this up?
The light is so dim when off that I don't mind it being this way as long as it's not hurting anything or dangerous. I expect the LED's will have a shorter life because of this. They were $10/ea by the way, the Candelabra type, and there are three of them in this fixture. they use 5 watts and put out around 40 watts worth of light.
This is the timer: http://www.homedepot.com/p/Defiant-5...-203678181-_-N
These are the bulbs: http://www.homedepot.com/p/TCP-40W-E...-204499399-_-N
Any ideas? Am I okay to leave it as is?
Thanks,
TomZ
The timer worked fine with the small incandescent lights that were in the fixture, but when I switched them out for the LED units, they stay very dimly lit even when the timer is off. When turned on manually or by the timer, they get nice and bright, probably 7-10 times the brightness of when they are off/dim.
I'm kind of wondering what's going on. It advertises no neutral wire connection needed. The timer uses only three lines, green for ground, black for the incoming voltage, and blue for the "load" which goes to the light fixture.
After disconnecting the original toggle switch, I tested the wire running to the "Load", (the light) by placing one tester lead on that line and the other on the ground and there was no voltage. I then put one lead on the hot line coming in and the other lead on the ground line and it showed 120V so I thought I was good with which was which. Did I screw this up?
The light is so dim when off that I don't mind it being this way as long as it's not hurting anything or dangerous. I expect the LED's will have a shorter life because of this. They were $10/ea by the way, the Candelabra type, and there are three of them in this fixture. they use 5 watts and put out around 40 watts worth of light.
This is the timer: http://www.homedepot.com/p/Defiant-5...-203678181-_-N
These are the bulbs: http://www.homedepot.com/p/TCP-40W-E...-204499399-_-N
Any ideas? Am I okay to leave it as is?
Thanks,
TomZ
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