Flickering Lights, bit of a Conundrum

[stem]

For the last few days some of my LED lights have started flickering, they are fine for a few minutes then give several short flickers for a second or two before stabilising and repeating the cycle. It appears only to affect the LED lamps with higher ratings. Nothing else seems to be affected, no interference on TV or radio. Here are the details:

• Lamp one - a standard floor lamp in the lounge plugged into a socket on a 32A ring.
• Lamp two - a wall light on the upstairs lighting circuit.
• Lamp three - a 3 light pendant on the Kitchen lighting circuit wired to a different consumer unit to the other two lights. [The Kitchen LED GU10's on the same circuit seem fine.]
• Both consumer units are connected to the same Henley blocks but the connections are secure.
• Without accessing them, as far as I can tell the meter tails and connections to the cut-out are secure.

So, I'm wondering if there is something that is interfering with the LED's somehow, or if I should be getting in touch with my DNO [Western Power Distribution] and reporting this.

Anyone come across this before, or have any ideas please.

 

[bernardgreen]

The most likely cause is a transient disturbance on the mains. Do the lamps all flicker at the same time, if they do then it is almost certain to be mains related.

A transient disturbance can disrupt the high frequency oscillator in a PSU or LED driver making the device operate in an unstable mode.

 

[SUNRAY]

If they are all seemingly unrelated, do you have solar panels or any other sort of inverter in the property?

 

[ericmark]

I had problems using a remote controlled switch, in my bedroom with GU10 lamps it was cured by swapping bulbs for those in the kitchen which did not have a smart switch.

My wife's bedroom was more of a problem, she had G9 bulbs, (5 bulbs) changing make with local bought bulbs did not help, but fit on tungsten bulb with four LED seemed to work.

Wife located a bulb on the internet picture shows how much larger the bulb was it cured the problem, but after just one day one bulb failed, we ordered four more, when they arrived I decided to break the failed on apart, and see what was inside, sorry did not take pictures, there was a current limiting capacitor (driver) a full wave rectifier, a leak resistor and a massive smoothing capacitor nearly as big as the smaller bulb shown. Also found a dry joint, fixed, and bulb still in use after reassembling.

What seemed odd was with the larger bulbs the smaller ones stopped their flicker, one can hear the relay in the smart switch, so did not expect any problems, but impossible to say if due to switch or other mains born interference.

I found smart bulbs seem to work without any flicker, but G9 not available as smart bulbs. Also with an eight bulb chandelier it gets a tad expensive using all smart bulbs.

You say

Lamp one - a standard floor lamp in the lounge plugged into a socket on a 32A ring.

Now that seems a good candidate for experiment, I am sure like me you have some where kicking around a filtered socket extension, wonder if using that cures it?

My incoming supply has a surge protection device so clearly they don't stop it, I have not opened a bulb that did flicker, opened a smart GU10 and it seems rather complex compared with the G9 I opened, so there are clearly many ways to drive the LED.

The smart switch has A light compatibility chart the Philips master G9 2.3W No flicker apparent on any tested bulb compatible Y did flicker, so the chart was no help to me, only one G9 listed, however it may help you.

Daughter says she gets a head ache with our main lights in the living room, all E14 from HomeBargains they do two E14 LED bulbs one was dim-able the other was not, we got the non dim-able bulbs. I am sure smart bulbs would cure the problem, but at £7 each that's £56 for 8, so that is not going to happen. Other bulbs will also likely cure the problem, but which bulbs, there seems to be nothing to say if smoothed or not.

 

[stem]

Difficult to tell if they flicker together, as they are in 3 separate rooms. The pattern of the flickering is the same, a stable few minutes then a few flickers together. I can get Mrs. Stem to check one room whilst I'm in another later on and see if the two synchronise.

No Solar panels / inverters anywhere.

No remote control, or dimmers on any of the lamps.

Re: the test with the standard lamp, I don't have a filtered socket, but I swapped the LED for an old tungsten bulb. That flickers too.

 

[bernardgreen]

Transients can be caused by large motors or welding gear in use at your neighbours.

 

[stem]

Hmm that's interesting. The guy next door but one has a large workshop where he restores motorbikes. Would transients still affect a tungsten bulb?

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

Re: the test with the standard lamp, I don't have a filtered socket, but I swapped the LED for an old tungsten bulb. That flickers too.

A mains transient or fault developing, let you DNO know. We had it one year reported and on investigating they found an underground cable failing. Lots of steam appearing from under the tarmac.

 

[bernardgreen]

Would transients still affect a tungsten bulb?

A disturbance ( volt drop ) due to motor starting can last a few seconds if the motor is struggling to reach it's normal running speed and running current. An incandescent lamp is likely to "blink" on a 1/2 second disturbance.

 

[stem]

The flashing is synchronised..... some of the time. Some lights seem more sensitive than others. Noticed last night that the fridge light has joined the club too. The neighbour's workshop wasn't being used last night, so don't think that's the cause.

I'll let the DNO know.

 

[stem]

Called Western Power Distribution yesterday, they arrived within an hour, opened up the cut-out and took some readings. I don't know what they were, as I wasn't home at the time, however, as a result they are coming back today to replace a section of cable in the street and fit a monitoring device for a 7 days.

However I have since realised that the lights have never flickered in the morning between me getting up and going out [6:30am to 7:00am] and last night we only saw them flickering between 7:30pm and 10:30pm....Hmm.

I've managed to shoot a video on my phone, so that might give them a clue.