LZW36 with LED Bulb - Light will not turn off

I dont have a problem with buying a bypass if its needed but it doesn’t make any sense to me. If the switch is off, I would expect an open on that circuit, not 120v. How is a bypass going to fix that?

UPDATE: I installed another 100W LED bulb that I had laying around and it doesn’t stay on when the switch is off. These are cheap chinese bulbs I got on amazon, the one that works correctly is Feit brand. I’m still not sure why its reading 120v on my multimeter when its off but if I can get it to work then I don’t really care. I just need to find another bulb thats warm white now and not cool white.

Some LED bulbs are problematic with dimmers. That’s just the state of things right now. It’s a function of how the bulb interacts with the canopy’s components. Innovelli has a compatible bulbs list for dimmers but I’m not sure if that applies to the fan dimmer as well.

I had a bit of a weird issue happen and I’ll inform if it happens again, but after installing the bypass, the switch and fan modules stopped talking to each other until I reset the power again. After resetting the power, it seems to working fine now.

The light does turn completely off now with the bypass in place on the W/U wires.

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Something that might also happen is some LED bulbs require such low power that even the tiny bit trickled through from the switch (most dimmers and such do NOT completely cut power, but it gets reduced to such a level that almost nothing will run) can light them. I had some older LED bulbs in my canopy but I just purchased a different (and much newer/better set). Now it looks like I have this problem because they are on just a bit, whereas the old ones did not. The switch specifically is set for off.

So question for @EricM_Inovelli:
How much power does the canopy module still have on the LED line even when it is in the “Off” state? I imagine it is some extremely low value (probably <1w) but something. It do not mind the “night light” effect it will give the room in question (the LED packaging even indicates this could happen because they use such little power). But I am curious about it.

The amount of power allowed through is really low, but I don’t know the exact value. I’ll try to get some measurements.

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Just found this thread, I’m seeing the same behavior with feit electric LED bulbs (15w). The dimmer module seems to be letting enough power through at “off” to keep the LED at around 0.5%, it is dimmer than 1% but just barely.

edit: just verified with a meter. Looks like the dimmer module puts out around 46VAC and will provide 2.34 milliamps of current. That is enough to keep one 15W led lit for a while, giving it access to about .1 watts.

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I think my bulbs are an even lower 7w model, but that measurement seems like it would be plenty to keep things running like they are in an ultra-low state.

It sort of works as a nightlight feature for the room I placed it in (my office/hobby room) which thankfully does not need to be a bedroom, so the constant light is not that big of a deal.

@eric.dalquist, thanks for taking the measurement!

I added a “bypass module” between the Light (blue) wire and neutral and it fixed the “still on at off” issues.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0716BDNFB

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The bypass gets wired in with the fan module, not the switch. The bypass connects the neutral and hot/load of the light wire together.

Yellow = Neutral
Black from Junction box = Hot/Load
Blue = Light Hot
Red = Fan Hot

Fan bypass

The bypass is essentially just a 14KOhm resistor that lets a little bit of current bypass the LED. They are usually used in neutral-less locations but also useful for dimmers when the LEDs don’t present enough of a load for the dimmer to work right. In this case it is acting like a pull-down resistor, dropping that “off” voltage down low enough that the LEDs won’t light. By my measurement with the bypass installed the “off” voltage drops to 10V.

The downside is it appears to have made the flicker described in LZW36 - Slight Flicker worse as the bypass helps the LEDs turn off faster :roll_eyes:

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Crap. Misread the switch model . . was thinking a 30 or 31. Comes up a lot for others so was curious about yours. Good writeup. Thx for taking the time!

So the same fix should work for the non-fan dimmer switches. you just wire the bypass between the Light’s hot/load and Neutral. OR if you don’t have a Neutral you wire it in the light fixture to bridge the two wires that go into the light.

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I ordered one of the bypasses… then decided against actually installing it so I can continue to have the “low level” lighting. Might as well save that resistor (bypass) for some future need. Not like it is going to go bad.

I just installed one of these a few days ago. I wasn’t happy about needing the part without some sort of pre-sales warning from Inovelli, but for $15 it was cheaper than buying a new fan or switch hardware. :man_shrugging:t2:

Anyway, it works. It fixed the problem.

This link appears to be dead. Do you have an updated link by chance?

I’m getting a low glow on an LED light on an LZW36 that’s integrated into the fan and cannot be changed out.

The Amazon link for the bypass works for me. But here is the one from Inovelli. It’s $5 cheaper at Inovelli, so that will make up most of the shipping.

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@Maverick0984 - In addition to what @Bry posted, you could try (guinea pig) Jasco’s branded bypass as well. It’s $5 cheaper than Aeotec’s bypass; however, not tested by Inovelli.

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Sure, enough, the link does work today. I swear it wasn’t yesterday but thanks for the info!

It certainly looks like it’s the exact same concept. Thanks for the alternate option!

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For the more adventurous you can also just get a 28K Ohm resistor for about $.60. I’d get one with at least a 3W rating though worst case (full on light) it probably only dissipates a bit over a watt. I actually found some 5W rated ones on Amazon for $7 for 10. Works like a charm for my one led fixture that used to glow in an inconvenient location and stays cooler than the dimmer.

I ended up getting the Jasco one just because I could get it on Amazon and I was lazy. Other than the instructions calling to install it at the switch (won’t work for us), it seems fine. My glow is very faint so I actually have to wait until nightfall to fully confirm but it’s working well so far.