Eli5 Why is it that, in some rooms, when you turn on the light there’s a delay, but when you switch it off, it turns off instantly?
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Traditional “incandescent” light bulbs would turn on pretty much instantly. But we’re replacing them more and more with different types of bulb like fluorescent and LED. Fluorescent tubes and LEDs aren’t powered directly from the house’s wiring – instead, there’s a circuit called a “ballast” (in fluorescents) or a “driver” (in LEDs). These circuits tend to use at least one or two decently sized “capacitors”. To do their job. A “capacitor” is an electrical component that stores a small amount of electrical energy. Capacitors can be used for a handful of purposes, one of which is to smooth out the voltage in a circuit. Either way, since they store a bit of energy, they take a moment to build their charge, hence the delay.
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