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6 Basement downlights (spots) going off and on, or partially ... weird!!!

6 Basement downlights (spots) going off and on, or partially ... weird!!!


  #1  
Old 09-29-16, 03:52 PM
J
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6 Basement downlights (spots) going off and on, or partially ... weird!!!

I have 6 ceiling downlights (LED 65w equivalent spots) on one circuit. There are 2 weird things they do:
1. Flip the switch, nothing happens, no light. Leave the switch on, and maybe 15 minutes later or several hours later, all the lights come on. They may stay on for several hours, or several days, then go off without flipping the switch off.
2. Flip the switch and one of the lights will come on very dimly. It's always one of them, but sometimes it's #1 or #2 or #6, randomly.

a. I have replaced the switch. No change.
b. I have flipped the breaker on and off (firmly) many times, even tapping and pushing hard on the breaker to see if it is not fully connected. Nothing. One time only ,the lights came on when I tapped the breaker hard, but only the once.
c. I have not attempted to replace the breaker, as I'm not sure that's the problem, but I don't know what else it could be.

Any ideas? Thanks.
 
  #2  
Old 09-29-16, 03:59 PM
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Welcome to the forums! Have they done this since the original installation? Did you install them? It sounds possibly like they may be wired in series rather than parallel. Is the switch a dimmer? If so, is it compatible with your bulbs, and are your bulbs dimmable?
 
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Old 09-29-16, 07:16 PM
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Hi Chandler, thanks for the reply. The cans have been installed since the house was built sometime in the late 1980's. They started doing this particular thing after I replaced 4 of the 6 CFL spots with LED spots a couple of weeks ago. (Two of them were already LED.) Periodically over the last few years, all of the lights, no matter what kind of bulb, would have spells of subtle flickering, but not all the time ... but they haven't done that in the last few months. The switch is not a dimmer, just a standard switch.
 
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Old 09-30-16, 02:58 AM
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Since you have replicated a good lighting by tapping on the breaker, it is a long shot, but go ahead and replace the breaker. It is seldom they go bad, but it happens. At least for a few dollars you can eliminate that from the equation.
 
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Old 09-30-16, 08:48 AM
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Thanks, Chandler. It can't hurt to replace the breaker anyway, then if the problem persists, at least I know that wasn't it.
 
 

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