Dimmable LED bulb flicker

[begreen]

GTK, thanks

 

[mwhitnee]

Just chiming in, does your dimmer have a little black dial (potentiometer?) if you take the dimmer face plate off? You could try experimenting with the settings and see if that helps. Maybe just a bad connection at that exact setting. Worth trying- it's so easy to do.

sportbikerider mentioned this to me as my lights weren't dimming enough and actually shutting off without doing anything. They are perfect now.

 

[mass_burner]

I just replaced 17 recessed lamps using 65w, with LED using 7w. In total, 4 switches, all newer dimmable, 3 pole. The only flicker is on the LR switch, four lights, and only at low levels. Once flickering, turning it up a bit it stops it. The old table lamps used to dim, as this circuit contains the pantry with the microwave. So I believe this circuit is close to being overloaded, I need to test it.

Long story short, consider the circuit, led seem to be more susceptible to this.

 

[jcapler]

I have been in the process of updating our house lighting for the last couple of years. Changed out the entire first floor to LED cans everything is dimmable. The biggest issues you will have when trying to obtain the dim without flicker will be having your light circuit dedicated to just lighting. I have replaced all wiring for our lights and made sure to set the lower end of the dimmer to manufacture recommended settings. This is the only way I have ever been able to make sure that the flicker has disappeared (10+ years as licensed electrician).


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[begreen]

Long story short, consider the circuit, led seem to be more susceptible to this.

Good suggestion, but this is definitely not the circuit. It's a lighting only circuit and the dimming problem happens when the DR lights are the only ones on. Total wattage load = 18w. This just started happening with the LED bulbs, not the dimmable CFLs they replaced.

 

[Seasoned Oak]

2 things iv learned about LED bulbs recently is, some of them they get very hot,and all of them use more power than they are rated. THe 9 W led used 11 watts. To be fair i tested a 14 watt CFL and it clocked in at 18 watts!

 

[begreen]

What bulbs tested hot for you?

 

[Corey]

...

worst is in my island pendant lights - you cannot find an LED bulb (at least i haven't) that doesn't shade the upper part of the light. so, half the pendant is dark; half is light. with old school bulbs, there is a nice warm glow throughout. ...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/E12-E26-C35...hash=item43f53d8486:m:mumclybk2KHae76VDV1D_Ew

(broken link removed to http://www.ebay.com/itm/E26-Base-A19-LED-Edison-Bulb-Filament-Bulb-Dimmable-4-6-8W-110-120V-/291904870005?var=&hash=item43f6e2d675:m:m0nHklPM_B56ynxB2lHqbHw)

http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Vintage...hash=item23740fe781:m:m5ptSnhXM3Fm4jQ7AbTgExg

http://www.ebay.com/itm/E12-E26-110...hash=item5d6312115a:m:mkCYVNVLin3CJlvxE2ZBBKw

(broken link removed to http://www.ebay.com/itm/6W-8W-10W-ST64-2200K-Vintage-Edison-LED-Long-Filament-Bulb-110V-220VAC-Dimmable-/171884971678?var=&hash=item280524869e:m:mL458GLzhj1VcrAzjl014ew)

(broken link removed to http://www.ebay.com/itm/3-5W-Edison-Globe-Light-Bulb-Vintage-Style-2200K-ST21-Dimmable-Led-Filament-120V-/262480144540?hash=item3d1d09289c:g:njUAAOSwzJ5XXmbP)

(broken link removed to http://www.ebay.com/itm/110V-LED-E26-2-3-5W-Industrial-Retro-Edison-Filament-Bulb-Candle-Light-Spot-Lamp-/262279249410?var=&hash=item3d110fbe02:m:m0wVUYGQ33zeYkWJW63BT-Q)

http://www.ebay.com/itm/E12-E26-C35...hash=item43f53d8486:m:mumclybk2KHae76VDV1D_Ew

... etc. But the key seems to be searching for 'led filament'.

 

[blades]

Seems to be a problem with leds in general, not just the dimmable ones. I am going to go with stacked tolerances and floating voltage variances on the lines not to be confused with internal wiring/ voltages but supply side. Leds like any solid state device are a bit finicky when comes to requiring a stable voltage, and for most areas you really do not want to see a "O"scope picture of the hash on the lines.

 

[begreen]

worst is in my island pendant lights - you cannot find an LED bulb (at least i haven't) that doesn't shade the upper part of the light. so, half the pendant is dark; half is light. with old school bulbs, there is a nice warm glow throughout.

This is a standard LED bulb in our kitchen pendant lamp. There's a slight shadow but no one has noticed.

 

[sportbikerider78]

They sell those new (they have been out for at least a year) style filament looking bulbs at Home Depot. Not too bad of a price if you have a fixture that warrants that look. I think they're cool looking. I thought about putting some of them in my new lampost lights on my driveway.

 

[begreen]

Those I've seen are mostly for ambience and don't put out a lot of light.

 

[iamlucky13]

I've seen a range of filament lights. Some are supposedly capable of putting out a regular 800 lumens. Others are intended more as decorative lighting.

They don't inherently solve the light distribution issue. You can get a sense from how the filaments are arrayed what the light distribution of a particular bulb will be - imagine a donut of light surrounding each filament, and all the filaments together defining the coverage. Having some angle to the filaments is important. The reduced or absent heat sink (they're gas filled in order to convect heat to the glass surface) reduces blocked light somewhat, but the traditional way that incandescents used to get uniform light distribution was the same method LED's usually use: diffuse the light at the largest radius possible, such as by frosting the glass or using a translucent plastic.

Of the bulbs I've tried, the weird looking Philips Slimstyle surprisingly seems to have the best light distribution, because they lined the LED's along the edge of the outline, pointing outward at the diffuser, but if I recall, it's reported to dim poorly. The $2.50 Philips bulb also looks pretty good, but is labeled as not dimmable.

 

[begreen]

I finally got into Seattle and a Home Depot. Picked up a pair of Philips dimmable LEDs for $3.97. They work great. No need to change the dimmer. We get the full dimming range and at low levels the light is very warm, just like an incandescent bulb would behave. FEITs claim of dimmability is suspect here.

 

[iamlucky13]

Those must be the ones they market as "warm glow" bulbs? They're marketed specifically for their dimming ability, so I'm glad to hear Philips didn't screw them up.

 

[begreen]

Yes, they are the Philips warm glow bulbs.

 

[woodgeek]

IF they are like the L-prize bulbs, they have separate small red tinted LEDs that get turned on at low dimming states to 'warm up' the color.

 

[begreen]

Not sure, the effect is seamless. Also they've extended the warranty on these bulbs to 10 yrs.

 

[iamlucky13]

I suspect they do have either some red or an amber LEDs in them, but that it stays on continuously, so that as the white light is dimmed, the warm LED makes up an increasing portion of the total output.