I am using an Insteon (Home Automation) remote control 120VAC on/off switch to control my outside shed Bright LED yard light. The LED light when wired directly to 120VAC , does not glow with the power off. When it is plugged into the Insteon remote On/Off module and the module is in the "OFF" mode, the LEDs have a slight glow. This has caused one of the LED outside lights to die. No surprise there.

Since I do not want to mess with the Insteon (HA) module I was wondering if I could modify the yard light module. Would adding a 300 volt .47uf capacitor between 120 line and neutral help in this situation? Any other thoughts? Better ideas?

Your thoughts
Thanks

 

Would adding a 300 volt .47uf capacitor between 120 line and neutral help in this situation?

Sounds like the module uses a TRIAC to control the power to the lamp, and its leakage in the off state (typically in the low mA range) is causing the LEDs to glow.
The capacitor across the module output may indeed conduct enough current to prevent the LEDs from glowing.
Another option would be a resistor.

 

Sounds like the module uses a TRIAC to control the power to the lamp, and its leakage in the off state (typically in the low mA range) is causing the LEDs to glow.
The capacitor across the module output may indeed conduct enough current to prevent the LEDs from glowing.
Another option would be a resistor.

Thanks @crutschow
I figured that the capacitor would work, but at 72 (suffering from lack of youth) I figured that a 2nd opinion would be good. What resistor range would you recommend? The LED fixture is rated at 10 watts.
I am thinking a 24K ohm 3-5 watt resistor

 

There is an important difference between incandescent light bulbs and light emitting diodes: with very low currents incandescent bulbs emit in infrared or far-infrared and cannot be seen by the human eye, but at low currents light emitting diodes emit at the wavelengths for which they were intended, though at low currents they would not be bright. These tiny currents can easily leak through control circuits intended for incandescent bulbs.

Don’t worry, this tiny amount of light is unlikely to keep you awake at night and costs only pennies per decade, if that much.

 

this tiny amount of light is unlikely to keep you awake at night and costs only pennies per decade, if that much.

True, but the TS was concerned about that causing an LED failure, which he observed.
Not sure if that low current could damage the electronics in the bulb, but I have had premature failures with LED bulbs not designed for dimmer control which were on a dimmer switch.

 

True, but the TS was concerned about that causing an LED failure, which he observed.
Not sure if that low current could damage the electronics in the bulb, but I have had premature failures with LED bulbs not designed for dimmer control which were on a dimmer switch.

Thanks for the input.
I added a 24K ohm 3 watt resistor across the Insteon remote control module and the leakage voltage of 1.2VAC dropped to 0.0 volts. No more ghost LED's. Remote control of the outside LED light is working perfectly. Trying to find the 300 volt .47uf capacitors in bulk, but that is not happening. Sorry about the bad picture. The resistor is gray and at the end of the arrow.