/diy/ - Do It Yourself

I'm planning to use a solid state relay to turn my hot water heater on and off to save energy since I use very little. In my testing, I used a lamp with a CFL bulb as the test load. Whether or not the DC input to the SSR is open or shorted, the CFL blinks very faintly two or three times per second when it should be off. I have two different SSRs from different manufacturers and they both do it but one seems to be a bit worse. One is rated 280 VAC 25 amps, and the other is rated 240 VAC 25 amps, and the test is being done with 120 VAC and a 23 watt CFL.

In the actual application, the brief pulses will not be that bad and should not harm the heating element, but I'm surprised that the SSR is not 100% off when it's supposed to be. I have very little experience with triacs or whatever is in the SSR, but does this seem normal?