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Issue with a lighting circuit

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  • 09-03-2024 5:25pm
    #1
    witnessmenow
    Registered Users Posts: 7,121 ✭✭✭


    I'm having a issue with one of the lighting circuits in the house where the LED bulbs that are on the circuit can flicker at times (fairly reproducible at this stage)

    The kids play room, a study, the living room and some unused outside lights are on this circuit afaik. As far as I can tell single live wires are used from switch to switch to connect lives. (Each light switch has at least 3 live wires, a live in, a live out and the switched live)

    The kids play room as a light fitting with 4 LED spots, but also has a Sonoff RF module installed in it. This was installed by me last year and hasn't really given us much issue. This is the first light on the circuit (of at least the inside rooms). The light switch is still in place but is usually left constantly on (it's on the wrong side of the room). The neutrals that were in this light are connected through a wago (so the sonoff terminals aren't connecting neutral down the line)

    The study currently has a single switch and a old light fixture with 4 LED bulbs and one old style light bulb. (there is a complicated reason why the old bulb is there that involves a currently uninstalled no neutral wifi switch, but I removed the switch as part of the troubleshooting process). The old style bulb will come into play later...

    The living room has a double switch, one switch controls the main fixture which has 6 LED bulbs. There was a dimmer for the switch which has worked ok since installed that was removed as part of the troubleshooting process. The other switch is for a unused wall light and I assume lamp sockets that are also not in use.

    There is another light switch in the living room for the outside lights, but we don't use them.

    I'm not sure what else is on the circuit if there is anything.

    ------

    I have tried some trouble shooting:

    When the lights are in their flickering state, I am only measuring 110 - 150V between live and earth (I don't have neutral in the light switches). When the lights are not flickering I measure regular 220V

    If I turn on the living room lights and they don't properly turn on, sometimes they flicker, sometimes they are on but incredibly dim.

    If we are in this state and I turn on the study lights AND they have the the old style bulb in them, after a second both the living room and study lights turn on properly. At this point I can turn off the study lights and the living room will work as expected from here on in (can turn them on and off no problem)

    If we are in any state and I turn on the study lights WITHOUT the old style bulb, they will flicker and the same will happen in the living room.

    If I activate the kids playroom lights at any stage (more than just run power to sonoff module, actually engage the relay) the living room lights will enter the flicker state, and will continue to be in that state even if I de-activate the play room lights, even if I flick the switch on the wall that would cut live to the sonoff module at all.

    ---------------------

    I then disconnected the live in at the playroom switch from the live out, measured 220V at the live in, and tried to activate the sonoff, and the play room lights flickered.

    The sonoff module was looking pretty guilty at this point, so I disconnected the live in and out from the switch and just joined them with Wagos. Maybe some improvement in the amount of flicker on the living room lights, but basically observed the same as above. So seems the sonoff is not the guilty party.

    -------

    So when I was in a flicker state and measuring 150V at the switch, I decided to measure the voltage at the consumer unit.

    Between the input to the MCB (B10 MV110 Hager, looks fairly old, house was built in 97, probably from then) and ground I got 230V or a normal looking voltage at least. But witnessed the same 150v on the output of the MCB and ground.

    As far as I can tell there are two wires coming out of the MCB, One of these must go to the playroom switch (there is only one live at the playroom light), not sure what the other one is or where it goes.

    ---------

    Any suggestions for what could be up? I'm thinking the next steps is probably to get a sparx in but want to just make sure I didn't miss something!



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