Hadn’t thought of AI but a great idea.
Light in room flickers when turning it on
- Thread starter JST0884
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I have paid a premium for a bulb that flickers. Seems they are quite the thing in pubs, it stops one reading the menu too easy, and I note old wiring regulations refer to "Lighting fittings using filament lamps installed in a room having a non-conducting floor," when allowing lighting without an earth. I do not think the writers in 1955 (13th edition) ever considered in their wildest dreams, what we have with LED lighting today?
I think that they had only just started realise that you could light a room using electricity back then (Gas Mantles were the norm)
Thank you all for your advice and suggestions. I have now come across another issue with the lighting in this bedroom - yesterday and this morning after I switched on the light in the room, I then plugged in a hairdryer in one of the sockets in the room and immediately this caused the light in the room to flicker for 2-3 seconds...this now makes me think that's it's not just a case of the light switch or light fitting being faulty or could it still be? Any advice on what could be causing it?
What practically, have you done so far, to attempt to diagnose it?
I had something similar the once it turned out to be a faulty main switch.
Not saying it's your problem but you never know.
Not saying it's your problem but you never know.
So far, I have tried switching the light bulb and the issue is still there. I have tested out all the lights in the other rooms and the flickering doesn't happen, it only happens in one of the bedrooms.
Go around, with the light switched on, and someone watching the light - tapping switches and ceiling roses, to see if any cause the flickering. When you find one which does, then you have found the place which needs your attention.
If that fails to produce a solution, then you will have to progress to undoing switches from the wall, and ceiling rose tops, to check for loose wires.
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One room, wife's bedroom, we have a chandelier with 5 x G9 bulbs, and an electronic on/off switch, that does not require a neutral, on moving to LED the lights had a shimmer when on, and would flash when turned off, latter cured with a load capacitor, but the shimmer was a real problem. Swap one bulb to a halogen bulb, and all bulbs worked A1, but it did not seem to matter what LED bulb I used, we got a shimmer.
So wife got some bulbs from the internet
hardly believe both bulbs are G9, the larger bulb would not allow covers to be fitted, but the covers are to stop white-hot bits falling on the bed should the bulb break, so not really needed with LED, and the flickering stopped, the bulbs are technically not legal to sell in the UK, as no wattage or lumen marked on bulb or packaging, but they work. One bulb did fail, so out of interest I opened it up before putting in the bin, clear why no flickering, it has a smoothing capacitor nearly as big as the smaller bulb inside. I actually found a dry joint in solder, fixed and put back in service. Had already ordered 4 replacements, and 4 years latter still have 4 spares.
Now flicker and shimmer could replace each other, we have all considered your talking about actually turning fully off then on again with flicker?
Had I used a smart switch with a battery like the TP-Link switches, that would have also likely worked.
It seems more likely a loose connection, as already talked about, but it could be what is inside the bulb.
So wife got some bulbs from the internet
hardly believe both bulbs are G9, the larger bulb would not allow covers to be fitted, but the covers are to stop white-hot bits falling on the bed should the bulb break, so not really needed with LED, and the flickering stopped, the bulbs are technically not legal to sell in the UK, as no wattage or lumen marked on bulb or packaging, but they work. One bulb did fail, so out of interest I opened it up before putting in the bin, clear why no flickering, it has a smoothing capacitor nearly as big as the smaller bulb inside. I actually found a dry joint in solder, fixed and put back in service. Had already ordered 4 replacements, and 4 years latter still have 4 spares.Now flicker and shimmer could replace each other, we have all considered your talking about actually turning fully off then on again with flicker?
Had I used a smart switch with a battery like the TP-Link switches, that would have also likely worked.
This may be an interaction with the chip which is inside the bulb, LED bulbs are not all the same, many use a microprocessor to regulate the light, they are trying to get maximum lumen per watt, but some LED bulbs are very basic, they just use a capacitor to limit current, so if more of a shimmer, it may be what we call EMC something in the room is interfering with the bulb.
It seems more likely a loose connection, as already talked about, but it could be what is inside the bulb.
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