Flickering fuse and lightswitch LED's - Dirty Electrics ?

Hi

Would really appreciate someone's opinion on this. I recently moved into a 1960's house & the previous owner was a local council electrician. He's made a lot of electrical modifications to the house, and addded a new consumer unit to the garage to feed the extension lights & sockets.

I have a few feathertouch lightswitches which have on/off LED's built into them, and some appliances have switched fused spurs with LED's. All the LED's are constantly flickering, and someone mentioned to me that this could be due to 'dirty electrics'.

Does this just mean that there could just be a loose connection somewhere, and if so, why would it occur on different circuits on different MCB's?

Does anyone know if this is what is likely causing it & if so does it need sorting? Dont really like the sound of dirty electrics & would like to address it if need be!

Cheers to anyone able to help.

Steve

LED's and neons would be more likely.

As for cause the way forward is a inspection (PIR) report, a lot of council contractors may have the skills for the job however many work under an umbrella where a.n.other does the checks and tests.
You don't mention having test certs so I assume you haven't got any.

Any decent spark will be able to clamp meter the supply cable and see if the incoming feed is all good.
Then there's your side of the system which the PIR tests on. Earth connections and quality of connections within the CU would be high on the list. It's not uncommon for connections to be much loser than they should be.

Neon's do have an issue with flicker when aged, not too much can be done. I wouldn't bother replacing the socket or switch fitting, but then again I would consider if the fitting really needed a neon. If it didn't then £2 of white fitting over £6+ for a fitting with neon would be justified.

Are you sure they are LEDs and not neon?
Old, knackered neon indicators (e.g. on FCUs) can flicker slightly (one in my kitchen does), or the connections to the neon itself are poor.
The term 'dirty electrics' doesn't carry any specific meaning.

A loose connection causing flickering on multiple final circuits would need investigating pronto and would likely have other symptoms like nothing working properly, and your house being on fire.

EDIT: too slow!

It's not uncommon for connections to be much loser than they should be.

Click to expand...

Very true - I also recently moved into a place with mostly original 1960 wiring and found quite a few very loose connections in switches, ceiling roses etc and inside the CU. Visited everything with a screwdriver.

Thanks for both replying, and yes, youre both right, they are Neons not LED's, my mistake.

Dont have any test certificates, he seemed to do all the work himself, so I suppose it could be worth getting a PIR report. I wasnt't aware of the neon ageing issue, so I suppose there is a good chance it could be that as it's all pretty old stuff. I suppose i could try to replace one with a new neon fused spur & if that doesnt flicker then I know it was a faulty neon.

But dont like the sound of my house buring down, so i'll get to the bottom of it one way or another.

Thanks again for your help.

Steve

saoliver said:

All the LED's are constantly flickering, and someone mentioned to me that this could be due to 'dirty electrics'.

Click to expand...

After a certain passage of time, things stop getting discernably worse!

Its a well known fact that flickering neons are caused by dizzy electrons. Somewhere in the circuit is a coil of cable, which is causing the electrons to get dizzy. When they emerge into the neon, they cause the gas cloud to flicker.

Don't believe Steve. He's having you on.

He should know better than to come on here spouting a load of tripe.

Of course it's not dizzy electrons causing the gas cloud to flicker.

The flickering neon is because they're so disorientated, they can't flow smoothly.