Are there any CFL bulbs not made in China?

CFL blinking although they're turned off?

• I live in the Philippines and we are using 220v here and most of the houses here do not have grounding, that's why we use the 2-pronged plugs. Anyway, every time we turn off the lights in our rooms, the CFL bulbs in the rooms would blink every 5-6 seconds. With the little research I made, I came to the unsure conclusion that the bulbs may still be drawing power although the switches are off. Is this correct? The switches we have are the regular on-off ones, not the ones with dimmers and timers, by the way. If this is true, how can we remedy this? Could there be other areas where electricity may be leaking that we may not be able to detect?

• Answer:

  It sounds like you have a back feed on the neutral conductor. This is synonymous with no earthing system. The easiest way to earth your house is drive a galvanized metal rod into the earth near your electrical board and run a 6mm cable from the rod to the main neutral conductor. Australian standards require a 1.2m length rod with a CSA (cross sectional area) of 16mm (i think will have to check my rule book) but not too sure about the phillipines but if earthing systems are rare then im sure and type of galv rod will be fine as long as its exposed to the elements ie rain and is driven at least 1m into the earth. Any surplus voltage from the use of other lights and appliances that is causing the back feed will simply drain away to earth and you wont get flickering CFLs any more.