Major Clanger (Chartered Electrical Engineer) strikes again

[major_clanger]

Today I discovered that the shaving light in my bathroom has two microswitches set up so that if the translucent cover is not perfectly in place the power to the light tube is isolated.

This of course took me two days, a new light tube and increasingly confused investigation with a multimeter to work out.

Oh well, at least I now have a spare 12" strip light should the current one actually blow.

Comments

[davidwake.livejournal.com]

My fridge had a energy saving setting, which meant that the light was always on by design! It was basically giving anything stored nearby a long slow cooking. After going through the removal of the bulb and a long search on the internet, I just switched it off.

[bellinghman.livejournal.com]

You are kidding us, aren't you?

No?

(I mean, seriously - whoever designed that deserves to be shot.)

[davidwake.livejournal.com]

I am absolutely not kidding. One of the major problems in fixing it was getting over the disbelief.

It's a Liebherr, fine in all other regards, but it's designed so that if the temperature outside drops below 18oC, it switches the interior light on. This then heats the inside of the fridge (yes, it's a desgn feature) to fool the thermostat into activating the motor to cool it down. The fridge and light then fight for supremacy... or until someone with any common sense realises and switches the er... 'feature' off.

Oh, oh, just read further down the article I found just now to write my reply here: the feature was created to give the model a better energy efficiency rating.