Illuminated wall switch glows but bulbs won't light

Paul in Maryland · 10-20-2007, 04:46 PM

Greetings from a first-time poster. By design, our bathroom wall switch glows orange; the switch operates a pair of over-the-sink lightbulbs.

After about eight years, something is now wrong with the switch...or the wiring. The bulbs won't turn ON, yet the switch will glow as long as it detects at least one good lightbulb. And its companion switch continues to turn the fan ON and OFF.

So it's not a bad bulb, and it's not a bad circuit. The wiring between switch and lighting must be good, since the switch "knows" when nothing is there.

Is the switch probably faulty?

I've taken a 41-second video to try to illustrate the problem.

travelover · 10-20-2007, 07:55 PM

Nice video. I think you have a bad switch. These are inexpensive and easy to change yourself. Shut off the circuit breaker first!

Daryl in Nanoose · 10-21-2007, 08:01 AM

Turnm the breaker off to those switches, then loosen the switches off the box and check all wire connections and do the same for the lightfixture on the wall and then do it all up again and check it. If it does not work then the switch is gone. Your getting power to the switch but its not coming out of the switch.

JoeD · 10-21-2007, 08:34 AM

Try replacing at last one of the CFLs with a regular incandescent bulb.
Also test the CFL in a different lamp. That minimal current used to light the switch could have killed the CFLs.