LED Light Flicker
#30
(07-17-2018, 07:02 AM)EricU Wrote: that's impressive that they could stuff all that circuitry into such a small space.  Not surprising that it doesn't quite work well.

My thoughts exactly, I'm guessing the minimalistic approach required some shortcuts.
True power makes no noise - Albert Schweitzer.       It's obvious he was referring to hand tools
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#31
(07-17-2018, 11:07 AM)BaileyNo5 Wrote: My thoughts exactly, I'm guessing the minimalistic approach required some shortcuts.

What happens if just two of the leds are installed and leave the third out ?   Do the two leds flicker ?  Roly
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#32
(07-17-2018, 10:40 AM)TDKPE Wrote: I put three similar antique-look bulbs into our hanging kitchen luminaires over the island, and after a week, one started flickering in a very regular cycle.  It also became quite cloudy inside.  Took it back to Lowes and exchanged it for another, and it and the others have been fine for the last many months.  They're on a dimmer, but they're low output anyway, so we don't dim them.  But they will dim to about half output.

My first guess would be the bulb.

Why replacing one with an incandescent bulb stops the flickering of the other two ?  Roly
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#33
I figure the incandescent is evening out the power cycle.  I'll bet the leds have really bad power factor due to small capacitors. 

I do think your idea of getting a better switch is worth trying, but it depends on how much trouble that would be for the OP.
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#34
(07-17-2018, 12:39 PM)EricU Wrote: I figure the incandescent is evening out the power cycle.  I'll bet the leds have really bad power factor due to small capacitors. 

I do think your idea of getting a better switch is worth trying, but it depends on how much trouble that would be for the OP.

I plan to replace the switch, I think I have one laying around.  Just have to get to it - likely next week.  Still looking for some other 5000k incandescent vintage bulbs, but have yet to find any.
True power makes no noise - Albert Schweitzer.       It's obvious he was referring to hand tools
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#35
(07-18-2018, 10:58 AM)BaileyNo5 Wrote: I plan to replace the switch, I think I have one laying around.  Just have to get to it - likely next week.  Still looking for some other 5000k incandescent vintage bulbs, but have yet to find any.

Try putting one of the lamps in another lamp and see if it flickers.  That should tell you if it is the lamp or circuit it is on.  Roly
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#36
(07-09-2018, 12:43 PM)BaileyNo5 Wrote: I put a 3-bulb fixture in our bedroom, and used LED vintage bulbs, 5000k as we like bright light.  After it was on for about 30 minutes, it started flickering.  I checked all the connections in the switch and light.  Also took the fixture back to where we bought it, and they tested it for 24 hours.  No flicker (I don't know what kind of bulbs they used, I should point out).

The electricians that wired the housed came out to have a look.  2 guys, 2 hours, they were still scratching their heads.  This is what they finally came up with:  The fixture was at the end of the circuit, and had 3 six watt LED bulbs in it.  They figured there wasn't enough current running through the circuit to make it work properly.  So they put one 60 watt incandescent in the fixture.  Problem solved, no more flicker.  Now we have 2 bright white 5000k LED bulbs in the fixture, and one 2700k incandescent bulb (the wife does not like this solution, by the way).

The electricians said they were seeing lots of flickering problems with LEDs, where there would normally not be a problem.  Has anyone seen anything like this?  Are there other possible solutions?  I can't find any vintage incandescent bulbs that are 5000k, they all seem to be 2700k or less.

I had my electrican look at flicker problem he took the switch plate off and there is an adjustment on led dimmers he adjusted it,problem gone.
you said no dimmer switch here but easy to replace the switch with a higher quality or different brand switch. Save the reciept and if does not work return the switch. Or you could call Feit or one of the led bubl makers for a answer.
Let us know if you solve the issue. Very interesting.
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#37
(07-09-2018, 12:43 PM)BaileyNo5 Wrote: I put a 3-bulb fixture in our bedroom, and used LED vintage bulbs, 5000k as we like bright light.  After it was on for about 30 minutes, it started flickering.  I checked all the connections in the switch and light.  Also took the fixture back to where we bought it, and they tested it for 24 hours.  No flicker (I don't know what kind of bulbs they used, I should point out).

The electricians that wired the housed came out to have a look.  2 guys, 2 hours, they were still scratching their heads.  This is what they finally came up with:  The fixture was at the end of the circuit, and had 3 six watt LED bulbs in it.  They figured there wasn't enough current running through the circuit to make it work properly.  So they put one 60 watt incandescent in the fixture.  Problem solved, no more flicker.  Now we have 2 bright white 5000k LED bulbs in the fixture, and one 2700k incandescent bulb (the wife does not like this solution, by the way).

The electricians said they were seeing lots of flickering problems with LEDs, where there would normally not be a problem.  Has anyone seen anything like this?  Are there other possible solutions?  I can't find any vintage incandescent bulbs that are 5000k, they all seem to be 2700k or less.


We had this issue with LED's in some of our homes.  We determined that some appliances (electric ovens where the big culpritet)  return dirty power back into the electrical system and inexpensive LED's didn't have internal filters to clean it up.  We just had to upgrade the LED fixtures to a higher quality. We ended up upgrading a few hundred homes. Expensive, but we have happier homeowners.
...the one thing I can make perfectly every time, without fail, is a mess!
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#38
On our lights, we have occasional flicker.  I'm pretty sure that it's because they are using ground instead of neutral for the control circuitry.  I don't know if they ever dump significant power back to ground, that seems like it would be a problem for UL listing. Unfortunately, this probably means I have some circuits that either have a bad ground or are dumping neutral back to ground.  I suppose I should track that down.  Fix sounds expensive.  It turns out that Lutron has some dimmers that have a neutral, but I'm having problems figuring out a part number
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