Hi, the light in our shower room stopped working, replaced the pull cord and everything is good again, been away for three days and found the said light on dim, pulled the cord and the bulbs got very bright, pulled it again and back to dim, any ideas as to what's happening? Common sense isn't very common.
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2007 Land Rover Freelander2 I6 hse Auto

Pull cord light switches can go high resistance, especially if you are using LED bulbs.
Our bathroom pull cord light switch also went dodgy, causing the lights to occasionally flicker. 2009 Rimini Red SE TD4. Soon to be sold.
Hyundai Ionic 5 Ultimate on order.
Gone. 2006 Tonga Green i6 HSE.

Thanks, it has four LED bulbs, might try a new non LED fitting. Common sense isn't very common.
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2007 Land Rover Freelander2 I6 hse Auto

Assuming you have no earth line, some bathroom fittings do have an earth line and carried through from a double pole switch, I would consider the light is not switching off and the dim is high resistance instead of off, either a new switch or remove remove the switch and check the operation in the off position my PC is slightly to the right of Genghis
2012 HSE SD4 In Orkney Grey now gone, best car ever.

Looks like you may have connected the switch incorrectly and the earth is feeding through causing the light to be dim.

J

In most house wiring the switch has just 2 wires (mayby an earth).

They are an incoming live feed normally connected to the com terminal and an outgoing switched live connected to L1 terminal.

If you have an earth it must go to the separate earth terminal.

From what you say, I would suspect that it is a duff switch (if it is wired correctly)


 FL2 XS SD4 Auto 2010 2012-2017 (21k - 91k miles) (MY2011)
FL2 Metropolis SD4 Auto 2014 2017- (16k - 76k+ miles) (MY2015)

Still pulling a cord to turn the lights on, you need to get up to date with modern technology, what could possibly go wrong!


1970s domestic life before Alexa:

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How dim are you calling dim?
Some LED bulbs use so little power, that enough electricity can capacitively couple through the insulation of the switch wiring, that it makes the LED gently glow.
I've one light in my house like that, but I don't mind as it's above the stairs so is basically a safety feature.
If the light is more than a gently glow, when it suggests the switch or a wiring fault. 2009 Rimini Red SE TD4. Soon to be sold.
Hyundai Ionic 5 Ultimate on order.
Gone. 2006 Tonga Green i6 HSE.

When I looked up the internet I was surprised how common this LED glowing whilst switched off was.

This link is to the best comprehensive answer I could find, and one theory is induction occurring in the actual switch cable, similar to what Nodge says.

https://lightadviser.com/led-lights-glow-dim-when-switched-off/

This could well be true. My experience over the years in tracking down electrical interference from surrounding electromagnetic radiation of all frequencies, 50cycles mains to X-band radar, has led to many surprise results. Most often cured by reinstating the correct earth bonding, shielding or rerouting of cables. FL2 XS SD4 Auto 2010 2012-2017 (21k - 91k miles) (MY2011)
FL2 Metropolis SD4 Auto 2014 2017- (16k - 76k+ miles) (MY2015)

Thanks guys, it is to dim to comfily read by. Wiring is L1, com and earth. Common sense isn't very common.
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2007 Land Rover Freelander2 I6 hse Auto

It's a pull, pull switch relying on an over centre spring operation, they are renown due to wear to failing to disconnect and getting stuck, the contact is made on partial oxidised metal caused by sparking on disconnect thus giving a high resistance contact, LED lamps on 240v can work to as low as 100v as they use a chip to reduce the voltage so as not to supply a high voltage to the led but really the low voltage is not considered. my PC is slightly to the right of Genghis
2012 HSE SD4 In Orkney Grey now gone, best car ever.

Jimboland wrote:

Looks like you may have connected the switch incorrectly and the earth is feeding through causing the light to be dim.

J

Dartman the one wrote:

It's a pull, pull switch relying on an over centre spring operation, they are renown due to wear to failing to disconnect and getting stuck, the contact is made on partial oxidised metal caused by sparking on disconnect thus giving a high resistance contact, LED lamps on 240v can work to as low as 100v as they use a chip to reduce the voltage so as not to supply a high voltage to the led but really the low voltage is not considered.

I may be new, but it's still pull,pull, even new can fail with todays suppliers, I would still suspect the switch, it worked before you went away and now it doesn't, unless you have that annoying broken wire in the insulation that is making poor contact. my PC is slightly to the right of Genghis
2012 HSE SD4 In Orkney Grey now gone, best car ever.

I've had the same issues with pull switches passing enough current to make LED lamps glow. I've had them also momentarily disconnect, then reconnect again, causing the LEDs to flick off then on again. Pull switches aren't that great IMO. 2009 Rimini Red SE TD4. Soon to be sold.
Hyundai Ionic 5 Ultimate on order.
Gone. 2006 Tonga Green i6 HSE.