You turn off the bedroom light, and the LED bulb overhead keeps a dim glow. Lighting companies Lutron, Leviton and Brennenstuhl each have a support page on this, and in the trade it goes by the name ghosting. In most cases where LED bulbs glow after shutoff, a little current is still getting to the lamp and the bulb is fine.
Smart dimmers can supply that current, and so can switches with a glowing locator light or some plug-in timers. Buzzing, heat or a burning smell are another matter, and point to wiring an electrician should see.
Power that smart dimmers need
According to Lutron, a standard dimmer gets no power at all once it is switched off. Its Caseta smart dimmers are different, because they must stay ready to receive radio signals.
Even when off, those dimmers still need a small amount of power. “This tiny bit of current can cause this bulb ghosting phenomenon,” Lutron writes in its guide to ghosting and blinking LED lights.
Most LEDs are now built to ignore that current, the company says, but some are more sensitive than others. There are also no manufacturing standards for LEDs, so two “dimmable” bulbs can behave very differently on one control.
“Compatibility between the dimmer and the bulb is key to better LED performance,” the Lutron guide says, and its first advice is to check the company’s list for the exact dimmer and bulb model. If that fails, it suggests a Caseta dimmer that uses the neutral wire, usually the white wires capped together in the box.
Neon locator lights and Leviton
Many hallway switches carry a small light so they are easy to find in the dark. Leviton, a major maker of home switches, says older neon versions are a common culprit.
Its page on LED illuminated switches puts it plainly: “Ghosting is when LED’s can faintly glow even when the light switch is off.” The company blames leaking current. Its newer switches use a white LED instead of neon and are designed to stop the effect.
On three-way circuits, where two switches run one light, a dimmer’s locator light can bleed current through to the lamps. Leviton’s answer there is simple: turn that locator light off.
A live neutral at the socket
Brennenstuhl, which makes power strips, timers and outdoor lights, updated its own answer on August 18, 2026. It says LED lights may keep glowing on wireless outlets, Wi-Fi power strips and timers that have a single-pole relay.
That kind of relay cuts only one of the two wires. When it cuts the neutral and the live wire stays connected, the lamp is still sitting on an energized line, and Brennenstuhl lists a live neutral as one possible cause.
Its fix is to plug the device in the other way around, which assumes a plug that fits both ways. Otherwise, Brennenstuhl says, a licensed electrician can swap the neutral and live wires in the outlet.
Buzzing, heat and burning smells
A faint, steady glow is mostly a compatibility issue. None of the three manufacturers’ guides describes it as a safety hazard, but other symptoms call for a different response.
The Electrical Safety Foundation, a U.S. nonprofit, lists them in its home safety advice. “If you see lights that flicker or dim, notice discolorations, hear buzzing, feel warm switches / outlets, or smell burning, you should hire a qualified electrician to inspect your system,” it says.
Changing a bulb is a homeowner’s job. Opening a switch box or rewiring an outlet is work for a licensed electrician, who can cut and test the circuit first.
Nine watts for 1,100 lumens
None of this is a reason to give up on LEDs. In an Energy Saver fact sheet on lighting, the U.S. Department of Energy says lighting is about 15 percent of an average home’s electricity use.
The same sheet says LEDs use up to 90 percent less energy than incandescent bulbs and last up to 25 times longer. It puts the savings for an average household at about $225 a year.
The department tells shoppers to compare lumens, a measure of brightness, rather than watts. To replace a 75-watt incandescent bulb, look for an LED of about 1,100 lumens. Some screw-in models reach that with as little as nine watts.
Since 2011, U.S. bulb packages have carried the “Lighting Facts” label, which shows brightness, energy cost and lifespan. In the European Union, lamp labels moved to an A to G scale on September 1, 2021.
Nobody publishes the overnight draw
The manufacturers explain why a ghosting bulb lights up, but none says how much power it uses while glowing. The wattage on the box covers normal use, so only a measurement at the fixture would give that figure.
The fixes also involve some trial and error. LEDs differ from bulb to bulb, so a bulb that ghosts on one dimmer may behave on another. For anyone already tracking where electricity is wasted inside a home, a glowing ceiling light is a small, visible clue.
Cheaper light comes in many forms, from a solar bottle bulb pushed through a roof tile to the 4.2 million balcony solar kits in Germany. Nearly 150 years after the bulbs Thomas Edison tested in 1879, a bulb that will not go dark is a newer kind of problem.
Lutron’s troubleshooting guide is on its Caseta support site, and Brennenstuhl’s answer, updated August 18, 2026, is on its service website.
Image: Leviton
