Tried converting a story from TIFU to greentext because I'm bored at work.
I saved a Gimp Template while working on it: https://files.catbox.moe/ipnjzk.xcf
this post was submitted on 25 Apr 2025
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The text is about a halogen bulb, though, not a CFL. Those generally use flanged prongs.
It still wouldn't be dim, it would either work or not. If it's dim, it's either a bad bulb or a setting on the light housing causing less voltage (I think?) to make it to the bulb.
Aren't you just describing dimmers, the topic of the post?
Exactly!
I'm saying the likelihood of the socket/housing causing a dim light is vanishingly small, so OP should have caught this 6 years ago if they had even a passing understanding of how lights work.
My immediate asumption without looking it up was either it's not getting the right voltage or enough amperage since electricity is generally passed through to lights, so it would either work or not. So, either the bulb is bad (old lights get dim) or there's a setting somewhere on the fan or switch messing with the voltage or current. My first guess is the bulb, and if two fail, I'd check the fan.
After a quick search, apparently dimmers are fancier than that, and they actually modify the signal instead of adjusting voltage or amperage. But my initial intuition wasn't far off. The power is indeed on or off, and something else was interfering (the dimmer). If the fan didn't have the capability to adjust brightness, there would be no reason to interfere with the signal.
Simple logical deduction based on a passing understanding of electricity and lights would've led to the problem.
it's less that dimmers are fancier than you thought and more like adjusting voltage or amperage without ridiculous losses is hard and or significantly more expensive than you thought.
Dimmers are incredibly simple with just triac and a variable resistor. However LEDs and CFLs do not work well with triac dimmers since they normally are expecting full voltage. Thats why you need "dimmable bulbs" becsuse they have circuitry to account for different voltages.
Makes sense.
My point is that a little bit of deduction should lead someone to the conclusion that the dim light was an intentional feature going "wrong" or a bad bulb.
The integrated circuits in a lot of lighting fixtures (and you know OP's light is run by integrated circuit because it can be controlled by remote) are basically a black box of complexity where things can go wrong in a non-intuitive way. Some kind of failure to deliver sufficient power to a particular bulb or LED or other element isn't necessarily an indication of anything in particular.
I doubt they're all that complex. It's probably something like a relay for the light, plus an analogue chip to control the dimming, which is likely completely separate from the digital logic (remote, motor control, etc).
I wouldn't expect OP to know anything about circuits though, but I do expect the bare minimum educated guess that a dim light isn't likely a bad fan and is either a bad bulb or a setting somewhere, because a light going dim because on an electrical problem is incredibly unlikely.
I'm pretty sure he meant a CFL.
For exactly that reason.
I totally misread that.