Are LED light bulbs supposed to get hot?

[keeney123]

Re: Are LED light bulbs supposed to get hot?

Check outside for sockets used for flood lamps.

[Spork Schivago]

Re: Are LED light bulbs supposed to get hot?

There's one on the garage but that's along way aways. It has a motion detector on it but there's no bulb in it. Do you think that switch by the toilet might actually be for that flood light out there? Never thought of that.

It's going to take a bit for the light bulb test. My dad has these light bulb sockets that have a white and black wire coming off the end. I'm going to go grab one from him next time I'm up that way to try the lightbulb idea Stj.

[stj]

Re: Are LED light bulbs supposed to get hot?

do you have a cable tracer / stud detecter?

[Spork Schivago]

Re: Are LED light bulbs supposed to get hot?

I got a stud detector but not a cable tracer. I don't think I've ever heard of a cable tracer before. Why?

[stj]

Re: Are LED light bulbs supposed to get hot?

you could follow the wire from the switch with one.

[Spork Schivago]

Re: Are LED light bulbs supposed to get hot?

you could follow the wire from the switch with one.

Duh! I forgot our stud detector detects electrical lines. The old one didn't, the new one does.

[keeney123]

Re: Are LED light bulbs supposed to get hot?

There's one on the garage but that's along way aways. It has a motion detector on it but there's no bulb in it. Do you think that switch by the toilet might actually be for that flood light out there? Never thought of that.

It's going to take a bit for the light bulb test. My dad has these light bulb sockets that have a white and black wire coming off the end. I'm going to go grab one from him next time I'm up that way to try the lightbulb idea Stj.

I did not know the switch was by the toilet. It could be, but I doubt it. I would be looking for a patch job in the ceiling. Might of been for a fan or heat lamp that failed and was not fixed. When they got ready to sell they may have just patched it over. So I would say if it is in the bathroom it should have something to do with the bathroom. Just don't be surprised if it's a switch to turn on your neighbors outside lights. Could be the previous owner got a chuckle out of driving his neighbor crazy.

[Spork Schivago]

Re: Are LED light bulbs supposed to get hot?

I did not know the switch was by the toilet. It could be, but I doubt it. I would be looking for a patch job in the ceiling. Might of been for a fan or heat lamp that failed and was not fixed. When they got ready to sell they may have just patched it over. So I would say if it is in the bathroom it should have something to do with the bathroom. Just don't be surprised if it's a switch to turn on your neighbors outside lights. Could be the previous owner got a chuckle out of driving his neighbor crazy.

LOL! I love the neighbor idea.

I think it's the opposite Keeney123. To me, it looks like they were trying to add something. They had redone the house but not really all of it. They tore down all the lathe and plaster on the walls, downstairs and upstairs, and put up drywall. The drywall in the upstairs bathroom, that's all new. The house was built in the 40's but it's a newish blue workman's box or whatever they're called. They pulled all the knob and tube wiring out and replaced it with real wires when they did the drywall as well. They also put insulation (fiberglass) in the walls, attic and some of the basement (on the ceiling area, between some of the joists, but not all of them).

[budm]

Re: Are LED light bulbs supposed to get hot?

http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs...mpaignId=29800

LED bulbs can bring heat

[Spork Schivago]

Re: Are LED light bulbs supposed to get hot?

http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs...mpaignId=29800

LED bulbs can bring heat

They're still getting hot and it's just like in your picture there Budm. So I guess that answers the question once and for all.


A question for everyone though...do they make any devices that can help me trace a wire? For example, down stairs in the basement, we have some wires that aren't hooked to anything, just dangling. Are there any devices where I could hook something up to one of those wires and then maybe take the other half of the device and go upstairs and find what wire it belongs to? Kinda like a wireless continuity tester or something?

Does something like that exist? Optimally, I'd like something that could trace a wire, even behind walls. Kinda like a stud detector, but only trace the wire that I have the other part of the device hooked too. Anything like that exist? If so, what would it be called and where would I order one from?

[Spork Schivago]

Re: Are LED light bulbs supposed to get hot?

Maybe something like this?

http://www.techtoolsupply.com/Produc...FU1bhgod6oMBYw

But it doesn't look like I can use this with live wires...at least not 120VAC live wires. Testing them to see if they're dead isn't so hard. We have one that's a bit weird though. There used to be a hood above the stove. The wires are there. The inspector said they were live, but they're kinda live. We measure 17VAC. Corning Appliance Corporation went down and thought they found the breaker for it. They turned it on, and the line stayed at 17VAC. No change. I'd like to figure out where that wire goes...all breakers downstairs are on, none are tripped...

[budm]

Re: Are LED light bulbs supposed to get hot?

They do: Notes: no power to the wire you are tracing. turn off the breaker when tracing the wire, if there are loads conncted to the outlets that will fool the tracing. You have to play with the tools to see what it can do and cannot do, setup some wiring to simulate the problem..
https://www.amazon.com/Extech-TG20-W.../dp/B00APD16D2

http://www.techtoolsupply.com/Produc...FQpofgodKJIAcA

https://jet.com/product/detail/e4b68...wE9A&gclsrc=ds

[Spork Schivago]

Re: Are LED light bulbs supposed to get hot?

They do: Notes: no power to the wire you are tracing. turn off the breaker when tracing the wire, if there are loads conncted to the outlets that will fool the tracing. You have to play with the tools to see what it can do and cannot do, setup some wiring to simulate the problem..
https://www.amazon.com/Extech-TG20-W.../dp/B00APD16D2

http://www.techtoolsupply.com/Produc...FQpofgodKJIAcA

https://jet.com/product/detail/e4b68...wE9A&gclsrc=ds

Budm, what about the 17VAC wire? I'm thinking something is back feeding into it or something. Is that possible? I can't really see why it has 17VAC on it. I'll measure again with my meter. It was early in the morning. Maybe I had it set to DC or something stupid like that.

I guess I can just flip breakers until the 17VAC goes down to 0VAC.


That last one you linked to, the one at Jet.com for 94$, that looks nice. It almost looks like it can do coax cable as well as the RJ11 / RJ45 and the electrical wires. I bet that'd come in real handy. It doesn't show how far it can detect to though. The one I linked to, that says up to 1000 feet in length. Do you have any experience with any of these? Is it worth the 94$ for the fancy one? We use a cable modem for telephone but this has phone wires throughout the house. They're a mess. I'd love to fix them and wire them up properly, so if we ever sell, everyone's all set if they wanted to switch to another phone company like verizon or something.

[stj]

Re: Are LED light bulbs supposed to get hot?

17vac could be capacitivly coupled from another cable running parallel with it.

i have seen hundreds of volts with enough energy to create sparks capacitivly coupled into the earth wires before, when the earth wire became disconnected at the meter from the main outside line.

[keeney123]

Re: Are LED light bulbs supposed to get hot?

Budm, what about the 17VAC wire? I'm thinking something is back feeding into it or something. Is that possible? I can't really see why it has 17VAC on it. I'll measure again with my meter. It was early in the morning. Maybe I had it set to DC or something stupid like that.

So it sound like your seeing the output of a step down transformer. Like for a door bell. It maybe when they were working on the house the wire was broken to the door bell. You could also see if it is connected by having a person push the door bell and see if the voltage disappears. To trace it you can do as BudM has said. Turn off the power etc. What you are doing is inducing a frequency voltage and the pick up is magnetically tune for that frequency. Should not matter what wire you use it on. telephone etc.

[Spork Schivago]

Re: Are LED light bulbs supposed to get hot?

17vac could be capacitivly coupled from another cable running parallel with it.

i have seen hundreds of volts with enough energy to create sparks capacitivly coupled into the earth wires before, when the earth wire became disconnected at the meter from the main outside line.

This brings me to a question. The old gas lines, there were bonding clamps and bonding wires that connected to the water pipes. The new gas lines don't have any bonding clamps. When I asked the young gentlemen who installed the gas lines, they didn't know what bonding was. I showed them the water pipe and the cable splitter and how they shared a common ground. They said it didn't matter, even the flex pipe was designed not to blow out. I don't think they understood the purpose behind it.

Our neighbor, he's some sort of manager at that company and knows a lot more about this stuff. He said it should be bonded outside, at the meter. I told him the meter was in the basement and he thought the bonding would be outside, buried.

He knew what bonding was and said normally they run a bonding wire directly to the box. I thought maybe I could just run a bonding wire directly from the line by the gas meter over to the water line. That's where the cable splitter bonding wire runs. It'd be cheaper.

Is that something I should do or should I just assume he's correct and it's safely bonded outside the house under the ground? It wouldn't hurt nothing buying two bonding clamps and just running the foot or so from the gas line to the water line, would it?

[Spork Schivago]

Re: Are LED light bulbs supposed to get hot?

Budm, what about the 17VAC wire? I'm thinking something is back feeding into it or something. Is that possible? I can't really see why it has 17VAC on it. I'll measure again with my meter. It was early in the morning. Maybe I had it set to DC or something stupid like that.

...What you are doing is inducing a frequency voltage and the pick up is magnetically tune for that frequency. Should not matter what wire you use it on. telephone etc.

Can you go a bit more in depth with this? What's the pick up? We'll check the doorbell idea. I know there were a few transformers down in the basement. One is for the doorbell. The other one I think was on the old hot water tank and I think there was even one on the old furnace. Now, just the doorbell I believe.

So, the doorbell one, it's on the outside of an electrical metal junction box. Is it just magnetically stuck there or is it actually somehow wired up through that cover? I tried pulling it off, thinking it was stuck, but the cover started opening up, so I left it. I was interested in knowing how the doorbell thing worked....

[Spork Schivago]

Re: Are LED light bulbs supposed to get hot?

<GASP> Black and the bare copper wire are reading 126VAC!!! Black and the white wire are reading 17VAC. White and the copper are reading nothing.

So, it seems like the bare copper one, that's what I call the ground wire, is hooked up, the black wire, that's what I call the hot wire, is hooked up, and the white wire, that's what I call the neutral, is not hooked up. Is this normal? Seems like there's maybe a break in the neutral line somewheres or something...

[Spork Schivago]

Re: Are LED light bulbs supposed to get hot?

And why 126VAC? The rest of the house outlets read a steady 120VAC...I almost grabbed the hot wire (the black one). That would have hurt, wouldn't it?

[keeney123]

Re: Are LED light bulbs supposed to get hot?

<GASP> Black and the bare copper wire are reading 126VAC!!! Black and the white wire are reading 17VAC. White and the copper are reading nothing.

So, it seems like the bare copper one, that's what I call the ground wire, is hooked up, the black wire, that's what I call the hot wire, is hooked up, and the white wire, that's what I call the neutral, is not hooked up. Is this normal? Seems like there's maybe a break in the neutral line somewheres or something...

Something fishy there. Any pictures of what what have? If copper bare wire is connected to white in junction box you will read 120 volt from black to gnd and 120 volts from black to white. Where are you reading 126 volt? Is that on the transformer? What happens to the voltage when you disconnect the 126 volt line.?