In the interest of power conservation, I used 3 strings of multicolored LED light bulbs in my christmas tree this year. I also used the same AM486 2 pin Appliance Module to turn these tree lights ON and OFF as I have in the past. I can hear the relay energizing and deenergising when the module switched from ON to OFF or from OFF to ON.
But, lo and behold, while they turn ON just fine, they only turn "sorta" OFF, still having a faint glow that is noticeable at the daytime indoor light level. They are considerably dimmer but not OFF. My concern is not so much power consumption, but safety. These are on a good artificial tree (Non metallic), but is there a hazard in using the appliance module to turn these lights "OFF" (sorta)?
Interestingly enough, the lights are UL Listed but do not indicate a wattage or amperage just showing the 120 V AC rating with a claim to use 80% less power than a standard incandescent light string.
I am aware that X10 modules do some funny things to test the ON/OFF status conditions of their loads and I wonder if this testing could be of sufficient power to drive the diodes to emit some light. There are
105 actual LED bulbs in a series parallel array.