Some LED light bulbs are occasionally dimming / flickering

[mstizomad]

Hi,

Our house has modern wiring, it also has a new metal Consumer Unit, with a split rail, 2 x RCD and SPD.

The house has 2 lighting circuits, Ground Floor and First Floor.

All the bulbs in the house are LED, but some are better quality LED bulbs and four of the bulbs are cheap large "decorative" style LED bulbs from B&Q.

Sometimes, especially if the oven is on, i have noticed that the 4 B&Q LED bulbs, situated across 3 rooms and 3 seperate light switches will very slightly fluctuate or flicker or dim. It's not a severe fluctuation and it can be as little as once every few minutes.

Obviously the lights are on their own 6A circuit and the Oven/Hobbs are on their own 32A circuit.

The MCB's and RCD's have never tripped and nothing else is effedcted.

Other better quality LED lights such as all 5 outdoor spotlights, or the Phillips white LED lights in 3 other rooms are not effected.

It seems like there might be a very slight amount of voltage drop or voltage fluctuation that is only visually effecting these 4 B&Q LED decorative bulbs.

I don't think it's a loose wire on any of the individual 4 light fixings, as the unaffected lights in 2 other rooms on the Ground Floor are between the effected rooms / bulbs in terms of the order of the wiring for the GF lighting circuit.

But I can check the wiring in several places, including one junction box, all the switches, roses and the inside of the new consumer unit.

Thanks

 

[ericmark]

Your not the only one to have problems with LED and it does not seem to be related to price.

I got 5 really cheap G9 bulbs from internet, and one failed, so opened it, there was a massive electrolytic capacitor across the DC which smoothed out any flicker, but they were too big, for the covers to fit. The smaller bulbs I had a problem when used with smart switches, with flicker.

However there is no way to know without stripping them down how big the smoothing capacitor is, so it is a suck it and see.

I had 3 GU10 smart bulbs from Lidi, which started to flicker, so can't even say the smart type are OK. It is down to suck it and see.

In the main the larger the physical size less chance of shimmer. Not had it with any BA22d or ES27 bulbs, but had it with a batch of E14 candle, my daughter got a headake but did not affect me and my wife. And I could see no flicker, but clearly there was some.

But the really cheap G9 cured all problems in that room, even found a dry joint in failed bulb and returned to service, so cost is no indecation.