Sunday, November 4, 2012

The Case of the Flickering Lights


On my first night in my current apartment (I moved in at the end of June), I noticed that the hallway lights never fully go off.  When you turn them off, they flicker.

Being a light sleeper who prefers absolute darkness, this annoyed me; however, I do wear an eye mask to sleep, so I mostly ignored it.

My hunch was that the lights were like this on purpose, so it's never dark in the hallways, so you can find your way to the bathroom at night.

Recently, I was talking to a co-worker's husband, who has lots of experience in all things technical and mechanical.  Their apartment had the same flickering lights issue.  He bought some gadget to measure electrical output, and saw that the light switch was putting out quite a bit of electricity, even when off.  Not only is this a waste of electricity (and more money on your bill), but it means that the light is NEVER off, so if you go to change it, you can get quite a shock!

He said the problem had to do with the light switch, it wasn't turning off properly, and he was able to fix the ones in his home.  He's currently working on fixing my car (long story!) and after that, he has on his agenda to fix the light switches of everyone who has this problem (I'm not the only one).

How interesting!  And how frustrating!  But hopefully soon the problem will be fixed!

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