I have had a touch lamp turn on by itself several times. At first I thought I had left it on, than I thought I was dreaming when I woke up and it was on, then I actually watched it turn on by itself. Now Occam's razor would say that the house is not haunted and it is merely a problem with the plug/circuit.....but its still kinda neat. Any EE majors want to explain why a touch lamp will go on without being touched?

6/25/2008 8:41:13 PM

oh and its not the lamp because I switched it with another but plugged it in the same spot and they both did it, so its most likely a circuit/plug thing

6/25/2008 8:45:52 PM

Well, I'm no EE major, but I have a touch lamp that comes on sometimes by itself and turns off by itself. I have read that they are susceptible to power surges and frequencies though. I think they work off of heat from the human body though, so I dunno.

I did find this though:

Quote :

"Touch-sensitive lamps almost always use a fourth property of the human body -- its capacitance. The word "capacitance" has as its root the word "capacity" -- capacitance is the capacity an object has to hold electrons. The lamp, when standing by itself on a table, has a certain capacitance. This means that if a circuit tried to charge the lamp with electrons, it would take a certain number to "fill it." When you touch the lamp, your body adds to its capacity. It takes more electrons to fill you and the lamp, and the circuit detects that difference. It is even possible to buy little plug-in boxes that can turn any lamp into a touch-sensitive lamp. They work on the same principle. "

http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread361993/pg1
http://science.howstuffworks.com/question42.htm

[Edited on June 25, 2008 at 8:58 PM. Reason : ]

6/25/2008 8:46:21 PM

^impossible, has to be ghosts. it's the only logical answer.

[Edited on June 25, 2008 at 8:47 PM. Reason : and i did major EE.]

6/25/2008 8:47:15 PM

naw, its either a bad circuit, or possible interference from the Wi Fi or maybe the alarm clock. EE majors, explain this to me

6/25/2008 8:48:44 PM

Check the connections and make sure they're all tight. If you take the receptacle apart, make sure you de-energize the circuit at the breaker panel!

Sometimes transients in the power signal (some call them spikes, or sags) can sometimes cause touch lamps to turn on. Depending on where you live the quality of your power might be somewhat "dirty," or it could simply be a loose connection somewhere between your service connection and the receptacle. It can also cause things like TVs to turn off (and sometimes on). My power is relatively clean, so the only time my remotely-operated ceiling fans and light fixtures turn on is when there's lightning in the area.

Is it a real touch lamp, or did you buy one of those add-on kits that turn it into a touch lamp?

6/25/2008 8:49:59 PM

ahaha, i don't think there's a problem with wifi interfering with touch lamps

6/25/2008 8:50:45 PM

Quote :

"oh and its not the lamp because I switched it with another but plugged it in the same spot and they both did it, so its most likely a circuit/plug thing"

also take the lamps and plug them into a different receptacle in the same room (possibly on the same circuit) and then in another room (on a different circuit). That will let you know where your problem might be.

6/25/2008 8:54:49 PM

happens to me when i vaccuum the floor...
when i turn on the vaccuum, all the lights in the place flicker anyway, (power surge i guess), and then the lamp comes on

6/25/2008 9:06:52 PM

so its not p-p-p-pirate g-g-g-g-g-ghosts?

6/25/2008 9:13:34 PM

6/25/2008 9:20:37 PM

paging eraser...seriously

6/25/2008 9:20:41 PM

If I found out my place was haunted I would move out the next day...no joke.

6/25/2008 9:24:26 PM

what freaks me out is when i wake up and find kitchen cabinets open in the morning, especially the ones high up over the fridge

6/25/2008 10:21:28 PM

the outlets are leaking electricity!!!
/Thurber

[Edited on June 25, 2008 at 11:06 PM. Reason : I had a bowl of candy fill up with water one time.. . . that was . . bizarre.]

6/25/2008 11:06:04 PM

My New Thread Is Capitalized

6/26/2008 12:46:06 AM

Haha, my touch lamp does the same thing...except for it mostly happens when I go to turn it off. I take a step back, and like magic it's on again. Every so often it turns on randomly, though...scares and annoys the shit out of me

BTW, hi Republican18

6/26/2008 12:46:59 PM

if you had a normal pull-string or knob lamp, i would be worried.
a touch lamp? .... eh, no biggie

6/26/2008 12:52:31 PM

My washer and dryer cause my touch lamp to turn on and off.

6/26/2008 1:02:07 PM

yea its definitely the wifi. all those packets are hitting the touch lamp causing it to turn on by itself.

6/26/2008 1:12:14 PM

happens when he uses bittorrent

6/26/2008 1:19:48 PM

Quote :

"what freaks me out is when i wake up and find kitchen cabinets open in the morning, especially the ones high up over the fridge"

Is your place/your cabinetry old? The cabinets at my parents' house (original to the house, so 27 years old) will fall open by themselves sometimes.

6/26/2008 2:19:27 PM

My aunt says she has a ghost in her attic. Apparently this ghost prefers not to be in the dark and constantly turns on the attic light. At first, she did the same thing as you-- kept thinking she forgot to turn the light off, but then she sat and watched one day and it kept coming back on almost immediately after she turned it off. She figured the ghost just doesn't like the dark and now leaves it on all the time.

I don't know about touch lights though.

6/26/2008 3:53:50 PM

wow...thats not ridiculous at all

6/26/2008 3:54:57 PM

^^if it is a physical switch that is being flipped, then i might get worried.

6/26/2008 5:15:59 PM

Quote :

"the outlets are leaking electricity!!!"

Oh shit, now there's a dangerous problem. It could get really slippery in there with all those electrons rolling around on the floor. They're as slick as marbles, you know.

Quote :

"Touch-sensitive lamps almost always use a fourth property of the human body -- its capacitance. The word "capacitance" has as its root the word "capacity" -- capacitance is the capacity an object has to hold electrons. The lamp, when standing by itself on a table, has a certain capacitance. This means that if a circuit tried to charge the lamp with electrons, it would take a certain number to "fill it." When you touch the lamp, your body adds to its capacity. It takes more electrons to fill you and the lamp, and the circuit detects that difference. It is even possible to buy little plug-in boxes that can turn any lamp into a touch-sensitive lamp. They work on the same principle."

I thought it was impedance, not capacitance, but I really know nothing about either one. (I can add up capacitors in series and parallel, though. Yay ECE 311!)

Either way, those bastards turn on all the time in houses with crappy electricity.

6/26/2008 6:05:57 PM