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Wayne B

On Wed, 01 May 2013 21:35:15 -0400, wrote:

This came about because the 2 wire devices do not work with LEDs and
CFLs. They work OK with incandescents.

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For us laymen, can you explain why that is?

The switcher power supply in a CFL will store the minuscule current
the 2 wire line powered devices use and when the filter capacitor
reaches the point that the switcher generates a usable amount of
power, it flashes. This becomes a relaxation oscillator.
I have tried CFLs in a couple of my occupancy sensor locations and
they all flash. You can usually get by this by putting a small
incandescent in parallel with the CFL.
I have a 15' string of LED rope light on a SSR (triac) controlled
circuit and it never really turns off. You always see a dim glow
coming from it.
You sort of defeat the purpose of using a 13w CFL or LED if you have
to put a 15w light bulb in there to turn the switch off.

===

Good explanation, thanks. It seems intuitive to me that there must
be some way to fix that at the circuit design level but I'm just
guessing.