Helping my uncle again this weekend. His basement stairs have a light with a switch at the top and the bottom. He swapped the old bulbs for LEDs and now with both switches off they glow really faint, like a nightlight. He says it's cheap bulbs and to ignore it. I'm a plumbing kid so I don't really know electrical, but it bugs me. Is that a bulb thing or is something wired wrong? Should I be worried about it
Foreman, Inside Wireman (IBEW) · 19 years · Morris County, NJ
Mentor
Could be the bulbs, could be the wiring, and it's worth knowing which. The common harmless cause: on a 3-way the two travelers run side by side in the same cable, and on a long run a little voltage couples from one to the other. An incandescent never shows it. An LED needs so little that it glows. Lighted switches do the same thing.
The cause you want to rule out is the switches breaking the neutral instead of the hot. Then the fixture is still hot when it's off, and somebody changing a bulb gets a surprise. Have someone qualified check it with a meter. If it's coupling, a different bulb or a small device made for this usually fixes it. Stay safe.