Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[dave w]

Hi, yes, it's random. It's also not restricted to this one room. The hallway (also 2-way switch) behaves in the same manner, as do my patio lights. That one is just a single switch. I've tried to ascertain a pattern as well as to think what else might be happening at the same time, but there doesn't seem to be any correlation that I can ascertain.

Well that pretty much eliminates my loose bulb theory. The different wall switches are not all coming on simultainously? but individually, and randomly, correct?
Side thought: Lights are not coming on when large appliance starts, are they? (i.e. heat pump, furnace, electric heat, well pump, etc.).

This whole thread is really puzzling. Either something you are leaving out (forgetting) or you have a poltergiest.
 

[fleff]

Hi, yes, it's random. It's also not restricted to this one room. The hallway (also 2-way switch) behaves in the same manner, as do my patio lights. That one is just a single switch. I've tried to ascertain a pattern as well as to think what else might be happening at the same time, but there doesn't seem to be any correlation that I can ascertain.

Well that pretty much eliminates my loose bulb theory. The different wall switches are not all coming on simultainously? but individually, and randomly, correct?
Side thought: Lights are not coming on when large appliance starts, are they? (i.e. heat pump, furnace, electric heat, well pump, etc.).

This whole thread is really puzzling. Either something you are leaving out (forgetting) or you have a poltergiest.
 

That's right. There's no telling which wall switch will come on and when. As I've said, there's no apparent correlation between heat, etc... coming on. It doesn't mean that there isn't one, it just means that it may not be apparent to me. I doubt that the well pump is turning on in the middle of the night when nothing is demanding water. So frustrating.

[Dan Lawrence]

Frustrating is too simple.   What addresses to all the different wall switches have?  Leave nothing out. Also list any new electronic devices that came into your house since just before your first post. Any and all computers in the house should be listed and checked. 

[HA Dave]

...... or you have a poltergeist. 

I wasn't sure there was any history of poltergeist effects on X10... so I did a search. Sure enough, no poltergeist has ever had a negative effect on an X10 setup.... that has been reported to this forum. (In German, poltern means to knock and geist means spirit. And I didn't find any mention by the OP of a knocking sound.). So I widened my search. Gremlin's.. are a different story! Several posts regarding a gremlin effecting X10 have previously been reported here. After a gremlin search... I reviewed the posts and think the two posts below might provide clues worth searching.

http://forums.x10.com/index.php?topic=5605.msg39419#msg39419

http://forums.x10.com/index.php?topic=18249.msg101881#msg101881

OK... admittedly I am grasping at straws here. But I have reviewed this entire thread at least twice and I really think we have to be missing something. My [newest] guess is a repeater plugged into a remote [basement] receptacle or wired-in by the breaker box (and long ago forgotten). Or some other device that can also create noise or signals on the powerline (some intercoms, faulty CFL's, a device unknown to me).

I'd check each and every plug in the house... and remove anything unknown, unused, or otherwise concerning.

Next... I may check out some of the problems caused by a guy named... Murphy.

[dave w]

IF all tranceivers are disconnected then it must be PLC, whether "morphed", or from something hidden, or (I don't think we have eliminated) neighbor, but it is unlikely.

I question the "morphed" codes because fleff said he changed HC and UC on everything. Seems to me, that would rule out artifically generated ON codes(?).

Without a traffic log, I still put my money on "something missed".

fleff did you install the X10 in the home, or did it have X10 (any) when purchased?

[fleff]

IF all tranceivers are disconnected then it must be PLC, whether "morphed", or from something hidden, or (I don't think we have eliminated) neighbor, but it is unlikely.

I question the "morphed" codes because fleff said he changed HC and UC on everything. Seems to me, that would rule out artifically generated ON codes(?).

Without a traffic log, I still put my money on "something missed".

fleff did you install the X10 in the home, or did it have X10 (any) when purchased?

Some was installed, but I added to it. The one MAJOR change to the house was the installation of a new septic system. For those not familiar, this is one of those new stystems that has a control box to control a 24-hour aerator and a pump to...well..you know. The issue actually began quite some time ago on just the patio lights, but that well prior to the install of the septic system. It was confined for the longest time to that one set of lights, and since I didn't use them all that often, I simply turned the wall module off unless I wanted to turn the lights on manually. It wasn't until more recently, when the Gremlins/Murphys/??? stated affecting my livin spaces, that I sought out this forum.

Now that I'm really focusing on things, I think I can sum up the issue by saying it's been happening for quite some time, and that the issue is progressively getting worse. One other piece of seemingly unrelated (but could it be?) data is that one the breakers in my breaker box is leaking some sort of fluid. I discovered this today quite by accident. Is it POSSIBLE that this slow decline of something on the powerline could be causing all of this?

[dave w]

Is it POSSIBLE that this slow decline of something on the powerline could be causing all of this?

IMHO
Degradation in the electrical system or noise from the septic pump control could cause loss of X10 communications but it is a lot harder to explain the random lights coming ON. Although Jeff Volp has posted several times that he has seen noise "morph" an X10 signal.

For safety reasons, not X10, I would replace the leaking breaker. I did not know they made oil filled household breakers, but that is the only thing I can conceive that would leaking out of a breaker.

[beelocks]

Leaking fluid from a breaker could well be ectoplasm.

This would also explain the first report of poltergeist activity 

[HA Dave]

Leaking fluid from a breaker could well be ectoplasm. This would also explain the first report of poltergeist activity 

I may have been much to quick to rule out poltergeist! fleff are you sure there isn't any "knocking"?

I'd get a ether an exorcist or an electrician to look at that box ASAP. I have seen water leak into a basement mounted panel.

[fleff]

Thanks to all for your help on my issue. After several months, I will be solving the problem today with a quick trip to home depot. In short, I'm a former X10 user. :-(

Frank

[Brian H]

Well you gave it your best shot before removing the X10 equipment.

[HA Dave]

Thanks to all for your help on my issue. After several months, I will be solving the problem today with a quick trip to home depot. In short, I'm a former X10 user. :-(
Frank

That is a bummer [Frank] fleff. It has to be something unusal (as far as noise) on your powerline (IMHO). If not inside your home.... on the outside before (between you and) the transformer. I would guess that could include a neighbor. 

I hope you also have that leaking breaker taken care of as well.