LED light bulbs

andre_xs

We have quite a few LED bulbs, most bought from Amazon (not the cheapest ones), some from IKEA.

One thing I've noticed with virtually all of them: They flicker. Not sure what their frequency is, probably 50Hz. Just as an example, when I swipe over the kitchen counter with a swift movement, I tend to see my hand a little stroboscope like.

Disclaimer: People differ in their flicker sensitivity, and I know I'm on the sensitive side. For instance, I could see the old computer monitors flicker at a 75Hz refresh rate, and I found the first LED car brake lights very annoying because of flickering. Relatives and friends usually don't say something. When I point it out to them, then some of them realise, but usually don't mind.

The only bulbs for which I haven't noticed the flickering are actually the low-wattage (can't remember right now, 2W?), warm-white E14 bulbs from IKEA.

A potential solution: Mix LEDs with a few regular tungsten-type bulbs.

societys_child

I've bought GU10 from many different places over the years and the best . . .


Poundland, honestly. No need to pay the inflated prices of the "branded" names.



3w or 5w, excellent and very well engineered. No I don't work for 'em.

cranford

I have got a few 12w LED B22's sockets from Home Bargains for about £3 and £3.50 dimmable and they seem to be about 80w equivalent in warm white and work well. I recently bought 4 12w warm white B22's from ebay for £8. These have a faint glow when put in pendants and are switched off but work ok in table lamps. I have read that with some light switches these is still a residual current flowing when the switch is off but not all Led's do this.
Also have 4 5w golfball E27 for £7.50 on Ebay which work ok and are about 40w equivalnet.


So has another poster has said maybe avaoid Ebay bulbs.

EachPenny

cranford wrote: »

I have got a few 12w LED B22's sockets from Home Bargains for about £3 and £3.50 dimmable and they seem to be about 80w equivalent in warm white and work well. I recently bought 4 12w warm white B22's from ebay for £8. These have a faint glow when put in pendants and are switched off but work ok in table lamps. I have read that with some light switches these is still a residual current flowing when the switch is off but not all Led's do this.
Also have 4 5w golfball E27 for £7.50 on Ebay which work ok and are about 40w equivalnet.

Some timer, remote controlled, or night/day light switches could have a residual current to operate the electronics, but any other light switch ought not to have a residual current when switched 'off'. If the switch is a standard type and this is happening then the services of an electrician might be required.

Also worth noting that some timer, remote controlled, and night/day switches need to have a minimum load attached to them to work properly. I've had to remove a couple of my timer switches because they became erratic with LED bulbs, but still worked fine with a 42w halogen one.

Grenage

cranford wrote: »

I have got a few 12w LED B22's sockets from Home Bargains for about £3 and £3.50 dimmable and they seem to be about 80w equivalent in warm white and work well. I recently bought 4 12w warm white B22's from ebay for £8. These have a faint glow when put in pendants and are switched off but work ok in table lamps. I have read that with some light switches these is still a residual current flowing when the switch is off but not all Led's do this.
Also have 4 5w golfball E27 for £7.50 on Ebay which work ok and are about 40w equivalnet.


So has another poster has said maybe avaoid Ebay bulbs.

You'll often get a dim glow or pulsing from induced current; this tends to be on double-switched lights such as landings/hallways. I believe some bulbs have a resistor which counters the problem. You can make your own, which is what folk used to do.

NaughtiusMaximus

andre_xs wrote: »

One thing I've noticed with virtually all of them: They flicker. Not sure what their frequency is, probably 50Hz. Just as an example, when I swipe over the kitchen counter with a swift movement, I tend to see my hand a little stroboscope like.

What type of fittings are they? If they're 12 volt fittings the flickering can be remedied by swapping the transformers for LED drivers (as I'm in the process of doing at our house right now).

EachPenny

Grenage wrote: »

You'll often get a dim glow or pulsing from induced current; this tends to be on double-switched lights such as landings/hallways. I believe some bulbs have a resistor which counters the problem. You can make your own, which is what folk used to do.

Are you sure about the resistor? It doesn't sound like something a DIYer should be attempting to do without knowing exactly what they were doing. The potential to have overheating resistors setting fire to things would be too risky in my mind.

Also, if the house had 'normal' wiring using T&E cable, how would induced currents come about? (Genuine question). Wouldn't induction into one conductor be cancelled out by a (near) equal and opposite induction into the other?

Grenage

EachPenny wrote: »

Are you sure about the resistor? It doesn't sound like something a DIYer should be attempting to do without knowing exactly what they were doing. The potential to have overheating resistors setting fire to things would be too risky in my mind.

Also, if the house had 'normal' wiring using T&E cable, how would induced currents come about? (Genuine question). Wouldn't induction into one conductor be cancelled out by a (near) equal and opposite induction into the other?

Oh it's pretty basic stuff, there are probably plenty of guides around. Induced currents often occur when there lights with two or three-way switches. The presence of live wires running parallel causes a small amount of current to be generated.


A friend of mine actually likes it; he says they act like night lights.

Rodders53

As well as light output for the watts Lumens and Colour Temperature also look for the Colour Rendering Index...
Tungsten lamps (ca. 2700-3200K) and natural daylight (6500K) both have a CRI of 100. LEDs and others use phosphors to mimic white light, but don't get anywhere near that number. The higher the better.
Poor CRI figures can lead to things (food) looking odd when lit with leds.

EachPenny wrote: »

Are you sure about the resistor?

No he's not. It's a snubber network (R & C) as also used to stop switch spark interference / voltage transients.
Readily bought from electrical / electronics outlets and perfectly d-i-y-able following the guides online.
But it is a flawed design of lamp that does it. A better quality brand probably won't do it.
{LEDs pass current at extremely low voltage (ca. 1.2 V) house wiring is seldom perfectly balanced with L/N wires and the issue is most commonly found on 2-way switched circuits; but can occur on any lighting circuit.}

BoxerfanUK

We bought 13W Phillips B22 LED's from Amazon a year or so back and they have been great. Instant on, no flicker and IMO brighter than 100W incandescent bulbs. No failures so far.