Is There an Electrician in The House?

[Hickory]

Friday I turned the light on in the bedroom it came on, dimmed and fayed to a very dim glow. I spent most of Friday and part of yesterday trying to figure this out. Not having a schematic on what breaker or other outlets connected to the bedroom light I pulled every breaker, outlet & light switch in the house and checked the screws to make sure they were tight.
This morning I went in the attic and under the house to check junction boxes for loose wires, all is good.
I just got out of the shower and am perplexed.

Anyone have an idea or suggestions?

[dangitgriff]

Could have been an alien abduction. You lose any time you can’t account for? You might not get through airport security screening if you’ve been chipped and probed. Or am I thinking that’s the TSA’s job?

•••

Just kidding. You need to get an electrician over to your place and see if he can figure it out before your house burns down. See if he knows how a Megger works and tell him to check that wire run with it. Sounds like either a short in the neutral line or the power company fiddling around with their switching gear.

[PbHurler]

"Shrugging"

Maybe the internals of that particular switch have given up the ghost....

I'd swap out the switch with a new one (or one that is working correctly) Just a thought to test that theory....

[Hickory]

"Shrugging"

Maybe the internals of that particular switch have given up the ghost....

I'd swap out the switch with a new one (or one that is working correctly) Just a thought to test that theory....

I changed all switches and outlets in the affected area.

[Hickory]

New thought.
Could the breaker be bad?

[retread]

Got any rodents? Rats love to chew on wires.

[Hickory]

No mice, rats or squirrels have breached the fortifications of my home in years.

[Scrounge]

Friday I turned the light on in the bedroom it came on, dimmed and fayed to a very dim glow. I spent most of Friday and part of yesterday trying to figure this out. Not having a schematic on what breaker or other outlets connected to the bedroom light I pulled every breaker, outlet & light switch in the house and checked the screws to make sure they were tight.
This morning I went in the attic and under the house to check junction boxes for loose wires, all is good.
I just got out of the shower and am perplexed.

Anyone have an idea or suggestions?

Do you have a multimeter, DVM, or any other sort of tool for measuring voltage? Or a spare light bulb? Meter should show about 110-120VAC, and a filament lamp will light up appropriate to the voltage you have at the socket. LED bulbs use diodes to rectify the AC current to DC current. If the some but not all of the diodes in the lamp go out, you get less brightness because not all of the voltage going in the lamp makes it to the LED. A filament lamp gets hot and glows a white bright light at full voltage. They're dimmer and redder the less power they get. If you've got wire nuts connecting the lamp base to your wiring, you may want to take them off, and check the wiring in the wire nuts. Make sure the power's off to the whole house before you do that! You can scrape off any corrosion, which will likely be black. Though you may want to cut off an inch or so of the wiring and strip it back to reconnect, instead. If you still have the problem, you might want to swap a circuit breaker from another location in the panel to where your bedroom light is connected. Could be the breaker is burning up or corroded. That is more likely if your house is old.

Not actually an electrician, but I've been doing auto, aircraft, home, satellite communications, and industrial maintenance for much of the past 50 years.

[Elroy]

If it hasn't done it since then it may just be a coincidence that you had what we call a power surge about the time you turned on your lights. Every light in the house may have dimmed..Then new style light bulbs can act weird as well. I have had some ones in ceiling fan light were all were burning fine,but one is dim,and when I go to change them they often get bright as soon as I touch them,but are usually completely burnt out the next day.

[Hickory]

Everything else in the house is working fine.
The light bulb in question (and is still working elseware) is a LED type bulb. After several times of turning the switch on & off it quite working altogether.

[bangerjim]

That is the problem with CFL's and LED's the die in weird ways. I had several CFL's in the past that flickered and when I came back in the room, it was dark, except for a faint glimmer from the lamp. like a candle flame. The electronics had failed and caught the plastic housing on fire! And it was just sitting there quietly burning.

Now that I have switched most bulbs to LED's I have found they DO not last nearly as long as touted on the packages!!!!! 2y ears max is what I have seen for even high-end brand LED's. And they fail just like you described above.

Now that Trump is probably gonna bring back good old incandescent bulbs, mabe our eyesight will not get any worse.

Sounds like you solved the problem without paying an arm & leg for an electrician and his helper. Just have a bunch of spare bulbs around like I do. When one acts up, I just replace it and move on.

banger

[Idz]

If a normal old lamp doesn't work you probably have a loose connection somewhere. The loose connection arcs and burns and makes a high resistance. Your voltmeter will likely show 120 VAC because the meter draws almost no current. If you add a load to the circuit the meter voltage will drop. I repaired exactly this problem at the kids house where an electrician didn't tighten the screw on an outlet which fed another bedroom. If you do have a bad connection find it and fix it before it starts a fire!

[Hossfly]

A bad ground will drive you nuts.

[Rattlesnake Charlie]

Does the light work properly with a standard bulb?
If not, it might be the lamp socket itself.

[MaryB]

LEDS draw less current, a bad light fixture can have enough resistance to dim an LED but not an incandescent that draws 10 times the current...

[Hickory]

Does the light work properly with a standard bulb?
If not, it might be the lamp socket itself.

The 4 outlets in the south and west wall are dead. The only ones in the house that are down.

[Hickory]

Does the light work properly with a standard bulb?
If not, it might be the lamp socket itself.

My multimeter says no electricity in these outlets.
Bulb is good.

[Hickory]

LEDS draw less current, a bad light fixture can have enough resistance to dim an LED but not an incandescent that draws 10 times the current...

The lamps are situated on either side of the bed plugged into an outlet that is turned on by a light switch at the door.

[Scrounge]

My multimeter says no electricity in these outlets.
Bulb is good.

Have you physically checked the wiring to the switch, and coming out of the switch? If not, kill the power to the house. It could be the switch is bad, or one or more connections between them. Breaker is likely IF there are other outlets not on that switch that are also out.

Switch the wiring between the one for that circuit, and another like it (same rating, probably 15 or 20 amps), and see if the problem moves. If so, replace the breaker. If not, go back and look at your wiring foot by foot.

[Reverend Al]