Hi, to answer your question with the light flicker i find it happens with all digital timers, i have 4 different digital timers, 1 that i used for growing with, the other 3 are for my coffee table fish tank and my other 2 regular tanks,
i know all my fish tanks flicker on a few times a night, ifi fall asleep on the sofa then my coffee table tank flicks on 2 or 3 times in the night, its sort of just like a flash of light thats not on for more than about a second or 2 at the most, in my other tank i have a flouresent tube and this also flickers on with the digital timers, mechanical timers dont have this issue and the digital timers are fine with the hid and regular old style light bulbs,
but the cfls and strip lights flickering on 2 or 3 times a night, one of my tanks the light goes off for a split second then comes strait back on but my cfl grow room didnt do this and neither do my other fish tanks.
so all i can think it is is the built in power these timers store, when you unlpug a digital timer or have a power cut the time on the timer stays on and it dont mess the light schedule up, so when the timer is in off position their is no power coming from the mains to the bulbs, if their was then regular light bulbs would come on and so would a hid light, but as they dont then im thinking the internal power in these digital timers must give out some sort of current to the light which must just be enough to power them up for a split second or 2,
the timers when plugged in charge their internal battery, so their is a constant power going to this part of the timer, so this power to the battery must also be putting out a small current and this must be just enough to give enough power to fire the lights for a split second, then it must flatten the battery and then when its charged up again it must be enough power to fire the light back up.
i did have a few hermies when i was growing with cfls and i never noticed the grow room cfls did this, but when i started to notice my fish tanks did i decided to try it with the grow room timer, so i unplugged the timer when the lights went out and plugged the timer in in my bedroom with a couple of table lamps with cfls in them, again 2 or 3 times in the night these lights would flash on and go strait back out,
so all my digital timers have the same problem, all seem to cause cfls to flicker on for a short while then back off again, now is this happening to yours, well its hard to say without having it tested, but just keep an eye on it and see if you notice anything, or do what i did and when the grow room lights go off unlpug the timer and set it up somewhere that will will be able to keep an eye on, then you will know for sure if yours does the same thing,
not all digital timers might do this but all 4 or mine do and all are different brands and 1 was an expensive one, but it only has this problem with cfls and the low watt flouresent thats in my fish tank,
im sure someone else on here had a similar problem and also noticed it was to do with the timer, ill try and find out who it was but it was posted in another journal as i commented about mine doing the exact same thing.
maybe if you have enough cfls it wont happen but i dont know how many watts you would need to stop this from happening, but my 60watt incadescent bulb wont flicker on with the digital timer but then that needs a lot more power to switch it on, so personally i wont use a digital timer for my cfl room as its just not worth the risk
also im not sure how much light would cause a hermie, i know with the gas lantern routine schedule we give the plants 12-12 but give them 1 hour of light in the middle of the dark period so it keeps them in veg, so 1 hour of light will keep your plants in veg if its used in the middle of the dark period,
but how much light would cause a plant to go hermie, i just dont know enough to answer that, maybe the odd flicker of light makes no difference but i dont have hermies anymore unless im making my own fem seeds,
ill try and find the grower who had the same problems with his digital timers, but im pretty sure its to do with the stored power inside the timer as they have an internal battery that keeps them going when you have a power cut or switch the plug off, if yours dont have back up battery power then im sure you wont have the same problems, but if you switch the plug off and the time stays on for weeks with no power then it has an internal battery,
when i unplug my timers if i dont turn the timer function off the timer will click on and off even when its unplugged and this continues until the battery has run flat which is about 14 days on the timers i use
its a good style to get close to your plants and learn about them.
