I helped a buddy hook up a ceiling fan/light recently. It was one that had a remote control to turn on the fan and light. The problem is that the light comes on at strange times of the night all by itself. 2 am or whenever he’s asleep.
We’ve traced out the circuit using a frequency detector and find it is only being fed by one circuit. (hey it is an old house you have to check). Each connection is solid all the way back to the load center, both the line and the common.
My question is what could it be? I’ve been thru it more times than I can remember and I’m clueless. Anyone have this phenomonon?
Jack of all trades and master of none – you got a problem with that?
Replies
Could it be some other remote control on the same channel?
In an old house you might check the "neutral" to be sure it's at ground potential, more or less. Often hot and neutral get swapped, and electronics like that are generally designed to assume the neutral's effectively ground.
Also, you may need to ground the shell of the fan somehow, if there's not a good ground wire coming in.
Your approach on searching for and finding out the swapped hot & ground is probably the best one. I checked all of the connections in the bedroom but the hunt is on in the rest of the house now.
The next poster is on the mark as well. For some reason when the breaker is switched off then back on the fixture light comes on. That had me searching for a loose wirenut in the local boxes.
As a final note the ground is intact. That is one of the better features of BX. I can make certain the fixture box is grounded.
Still it is an ugly design issue. Who would ever design a circuit to go live from a power off position. It defy's logic.Jack of all trades and master of none - you got a problem with that?
Some of those remotes have a function that kicks them on after they lose power on the circuit. I had one like that in a baby's room, and if the house lost power at night even briefly, the light would go on when power was restored. You could try tripping the breaker to see if it's that kind of remote, if so, you'd have one clue where the problem might be.
As I said to the first poster, your diagnosis on the light on after power reset is correct. I was mystified. With the number of industrial control circuits I've seen this defies safety logic. However the clocks never reset yet the light comes on. One would figure if it was a power interruption issue that those other indicators are at fault.
Per recomendation I'll change the code in the device to make certain the local barfly isn't turning it on with his garage door opener.Jack of all trades and master of none - you got a problem with that?
put the remote some place where the cat can't step on it..
Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming
WOW!!! What a Ride!
Forget the primal scream, just ROAR!!!
You may not be far from the truth. He has 2 springer spaniels that he has to kick off of the bed every night. Grace in the house is not one of their features. Maybe it is a slobber induced switching.Jack of all trades and master of none - you got a problem with that?
or it's a voltage fluctuation..
Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming<!----><!----><!---->
WOW!!! What a Ride!<!----><!---->
Forget the primal scream, just ROAR!!!
Eh?
How would the voltage fluctuate? We're in a residential suburb. It is 2 AM. No real industry nearby spooling up 200 hp motors dipping the voltage.
I did suspect a substation automatically switching taps late in the night but that seems so remote. Yet possible.
Any other ideas?Jack of all trades and master of none - you got a problem with that?
got meter with data record function? put it on the line and let it operayer or a day or two...
just few volts of up and down rapid change can do it..
RF interference from an appliance, vehicle's ignition, ballasted light or neighbor's cell phone..
defective unit...
Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming<!----><!----><!---->
WOW!!! What a Ride!<!----><!---->
Forget the primal scream, just ROAR!!!
this thread brought to mind this thread from a year or two ago.
Marine Engineerfair winds and following seas
yup...
good memory...
Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming<!----><!----><!---->
WOW!!! What a Ride!<!----><!---->
Forget the primal scream, just ROAR!!!
Awesome read! Likely issue with the cell phone signal.
He's a blackberry addict. With a soon to be ex that is a pretty merciless doctor in residence. It is likely the 'dying flower' conversations she keeps sending him throughout the day and night could be generating the signal in his cell phone that turns on the light. He's certainly recieving notice of text messages late into the night.
I'll have him leave it downstairs. see if that helps. The next step would be to rip out the remote unit and let it run only with pull chains.
Thanks for finding the link.Jack of all trades and master of none - you got a problem with that?
AHA, THAT thread.Maybe we can get Leisle, aka EL, aka MistressEL back to explain how to use electrical tape on the unit to shield it from RFI.
FWIW, I have a fan/light combo with a wall-mount control that sends its signal via the switch leg, and it has a mind of it's own....works somedays, then quits...usually while in the mode you don't want.....Thank God the on/off slider works, or I'd be screaming
Busway signaling is great in a car or possibly a new house but in old work it stinks. I don't know why, bad connections, devices, ... ?Your fan sounds like it has some issues with electrical noise. How does it work when you plug in the hair dryer or electric razor?
One thing is for certain. ELECTRICAL controls aren't affected by voltage spikes (ie lightening way down the line) the way ELECTRONIC controls are. Electronic have a 5000v tolerance on commonly. It doesn't take amperage, just volts to toast an IC. It would be worthwhile to throw in a surge arrestor in the load center if there are many other devices acting like that. (Plus run a megger on youor ground system.) I have a customer that lost 3K worth of Tv boards, garage door opener controls etc with a much closer strike this summer. A little electronic surge arrestor could have saved him a lot of running around.
In my instance it is most likely spurious radio signals or an overly sensitive reciever. (I live within a mile or so of 4 major radio / TV station antennas.) The short term solution is to use the pull chains to shut of the light rather than only use the electronic remote. We'll get to his fan again soon to change the signaling code, but not for a while.Jack of all trades and master of none - you got a problem with that?