Electrical – Low voltage track lighting flashing at low frequency

electricallightingswitchtransformerwiring

I have two sets of track lighting on the same switch, and one of the tracks flashes at a low frequency at seemingly random times. Video of the behavior.

Some relevant details:

  • The two tracks are on different transformers. The transformer on the issue track has a 150W max. It is an electronic transformer.
  • The track with the issue has 2 50W halogen bulbs, but exhibits same behavior with 3 50W bulbs.
  • It doesn't appear to be related to high load from my condo unit, i.e. even if the AC / heat, washer / dryer, dishwasher, etc are all off, it can still happen.
  • The lights are on a 3-way switch with a dimmer, but I swapped out the dimmer for a regular switch and it exhibited the same behavior.
  • The voltage on the track when it's doing this oscillates between 0 and 1.5V. Normal output should be 11.5, but I'm reading closer to 10.5 during normal operation.

Any ideas?

Best Answer

Because you have too much lighting load for the power supply (not transformer*) to cope with, so it is crowbar-ing.

Reduce load. This is a good time to think LED.


* "Transformer" is a proper term for a very specific thing, which this is not. Transformers are quite heavy and withstand short-term overload very well. This weighs 6.4 oz. for 150W, and fails instantly at 100W. They can call it an A-10 Warthog if they please, but it's actually a switching power supply. As such it has a protective circuit (crowbar) which is tripping for whatever reason (defective? Misapplied? Loads you don't know about?)

The RU mark is a good sign, but still it's only rated as an electronic component, it would need a UL mark to be legal for direct use in mains wiring.