I’ve been removing our home automation systems in preparation for the move to the desert this weekend. We’re slowly getting used to using light switches again; for the past 3 1/2 years our Philips Hue lights and motion sensors have turned on the lights where we need them.
The system is slowly being safely packed to be taken down to the new house.
After putting in new GE LED bulbs in the fixtures I noticed the dining room table lamp would not come on if the living room lights (the switches are next to each other) were dimmed down. I found this quite weird, since they’re two distinctly separate switches. I could replicate the issue easily: turn the dining room light off, turn the living room lights to the lowest dimmer setting, turn the dining room light on and nothing would happen until I turned the dimmed lights up a little bit. Then the dining room light would come out as well.
A wiring nightmare, right? No!
It turns out the GE LED bulb in the dining room light was supersensitive to the voltage variations from the dimmer, even though the light bulb wasn’t being controlled by the dimmer switch. I swapped out the bulb with another LED bulb and everything worked fine. So then I put the GE bulb in a two-bulb fixture in the bathroom far away from any dimmer switches and turned on the light.
The GE bulb noticeably lags in coming on compared to the other light.
There’s something up with that bulb, so I removed it and put another bulb in its place.
I’m happy I didn’t have to get into a wiring project tonight. We’re just that much closer to moving out on Monday.
