Flickering LED bulbs.

G

Greg Gniewkowski

Member
Location
Ford Motor Company
Occupation
Industrial Electrician
Hello. Looking for advice & counsel for the following problem I have in our home. All of the LED bulbs will 'flicker' slightly but enough to be noticeable - no strobe effect. Like watching the light level click up or down by a factor of 1; nothing major but slightly annoying. Some background on our home; built 1971 with all aluminum wiring from meter socket to main panel and all throughout the home. Standard 120/240VAC 150A service. It is more noticeable when a resistive load is plugged in (clothes iron, coffee pot, dryer) or when the HVAC fan motor runs. I have done a thermal scan of the main with a FLIR camera I have and also checked the incoming V with a Fluke True RMS DMM - did not notice any significant changes in temp with FLIR, and V levels fluctuated @ 0.4~0.8 with the DMM held steady on the main lugs for @30 seconds. I am making an educated guess that what is happening is - due to minor V level fluctuations that older Incandescent bulbs would not have been affected by, that the V level changes are causing the internal circuitry of the LED bulbs to constantly adjust due to V levels and that this is causing the current problem. Can I correct this problem by putting an SPD in the main panel or is there some other method I should consider. Any advice I can get would be appreciated. Thank You.
 
Greg Gniewkowski said:
Hello. Looking for advice & counsel for the following problem I have in our home. All of the LED bulbs will 'flicker' slightly but enough to be noticeable -....
It is more noticeable when a resistive load is plugged in (clothes iron, coffee pot, dryer) or when the HVAC fan motor runs. ...

Does the HVAC fan run off of 240V or 120V? If it's off of 120V, then perhaps there's a connection issue on the neutral upstream of the main. If it he HVAC fan is run off of 240V, does the flickering happen with LED bulbs powered from either phase or just one of them? If just one phase, that could point to an upstream poor connection on that phase. Granted, you said all off the bulbs flicker, and so they are most likely on both phases. If on both phases, something on the MV distribution could also be happening.

Do you have a small transformer to step down from 240V to 120V? If the LED bulbs still flicker off of that, then the neutral is not likely to be an issue.

... Just a few suggested checks in order to zero in on the source of the problem.
Click to expand...
 
(link) A bulb that will not flicker.
I have worked many flickering light calls. Usually caused by a non-compatible dimmer or dimmable LED or just a poor-quality bulb.
There have been utility PQ problems, but most have been issues with the arrangement between switch and/or bulb
 
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