I'm Having Problems With LED Light Bulbs

Lethe200 said:
A couple of lamps with fluorescent or halogen, but otherwise ALL our lighting - and that's a lot as we have installed track lites throughout both floors - is LED. No flickering.

Not only are LEDs cheaper, but give off much less heat as well.

Estimated lifespan for all bulbs is based on continuous usage, never turning it off. Turning on and off, especially for just a few minutes' of light, shortens their lifespan considerably.
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the rating cycle of an led is based on different parameters than other lamps since leds are not effected much by on off cycles ….because they technically never blow out they are rated in hours for when the lumens fall off to 70% or 50% depending on rating used
 

mathjak107 said:
I will take a guess and I think you may be using regular leds in enclosed fixtures …any fixture with a glass cover or plastic one needs leds rated for enclosed fixtures. It will say on the box approved for enclosed fixtures
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Thanks for the reply.

I just checked, rated for indoor/outdoor enclosed fixtures. None of the bulbs are in an enclosed fixture, just ones that have a shade to diffuse the light, otherwise plenty of air circulation around the bulb.
 
Oris Borloff said:
Thanks for the reply.

I just checked, rated for indoor/outdoor enclosed fixtures. None of the bulbs are in an enclosed fixture, just ones that have a shade to diffuse the light, otherwise plenty of air circulation around the bulb.
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Other causes of flickering is voltage fluctuation in the house , wrong style dimmers and just plain old cheap badly designed leds lamps .

being in the industry I like philips,cree , sylvania
 

I also stocked up on incandescent lights several years ago. I use LEDs in overhead fixtures but prefer incandescent for reading lamps and lamps for evening lighting.
 
On the amateur radio forums I visit, leds are the subject of frequent and lengthy discussion. Poorly made led lighting can be a source of rfi (radio frequency interference). The USA has extensive standards which led manufacturers are expected to meet.

Unfortunately some of our Asian trading partners don't pay much attention to our manufacturing standards. I've bought some led bulbs that wiped out major chunks of the high frequency spectrum.
 
win231 said:
My electrician explained why LED's might flicker, especially when used with dimmers on lower brightness settings.
The older dimmers were designed for regular bulbs; not LED's. When he replaced 3 of my dimmers, he upgraded them for LED's & they never flicker.
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Win, it appears you've helped me get to the bottom of why this is happening! Thank you. The flickering is taking place in the lamps connected to dimmer switches even when I haven't lowered the brightness settings. When I put the LED bulb in another lamp without...it didn't flicker. But the problem is I have dimmers in the living room, hall and the bedroom lamp I turn on when I first enter the room. I have three lamps in the BR. One of them uses a special bulb which is probably incandescent. I may replace the lamp on my dresser, which is on dimmer, with that one. But I'm hesitant because I bought the dresser lamp especially for that spot and the base on the other one is much wider. I hate it when so called upgrades/improvements make things more complicated.

@Mike Thank you so much for the info about the bulbs sold at Ikea. I'll definitely check that out as soon as I can get either my son or grandson to take me there.

@John cycling I never would have thought to order lightbulbs online. I'd be afraid some of them would get broken in transit somehow. They must take extra care with the packaging.

@Nathan The only problem I had with CFLs is they couldn't be used with dimmers...they'd die. They did come out with dimmable ones but they were too expensive. I haven't seen CFLs on the shelves in quite awhile.
 
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mathjak107 said:
I will take a guess and I think you may be using regular leds in enclosed fixtures …any fixture with a glass cover or plastic one needs leds rated for enclosed fixtures. It will say on the box approved for enclosed fixtures
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I have a linen lampshade that sits on top of the bulb via metal pieces. It has a wide opening at the bottom and smaller at the top (but wider than the bulb itself) so I don't know if that's considered enclosed. But with Win's explanation about the use with old dimmers switches, enclosed or not is moot in my case.
 
@AnnieA @Gaer @fmdog44 My grandson took me to Home Depot and found a box of 16 Ecosmart incandescent bulbs for $17.64 (including tax), which is just a little more than what I paid when I was getting them from Dollar Tree. I've seen incandescents as high as $9.95 for 4 bulbs. I think I'm going to go back and get at least one more box. I only need them in three of my fixtures. I don't know if at some point companies will stop making incandescents (I thought they had already) and I'd hate to be stuck with only LEDs for the rest of my life.
 
I sort of got "ripped off" when the change came from the regular bulbs to the LED. I bought 2 dozen packages of the old bulbs as the "advertisers" said that they would no longer be manufactured and the LED were so expensive. Then the price of the LEDs went down and I just gave my bulbs to some good place like the Salvation Army Thrift Store. Now, I have just LEDs. Some flicker and some don't. There is one in my computer room that likes to flicker. Dirty little bugger! When I figure out which one of the 3 up there is flickering, I'm gonna send it "to the promise land."
 
Packerjohn said:
I sort of got "ripped off" when the change came from the regular bulbs to the LED. I bought 2 dozen packages of the old bulbs as the "advertisers" said that they would no longer be manufactured and the LED were so expensive. Then the price of the LEDs went down and I just gave my bulbs to some good place like the Salvation Army Thrift Store. Now, I have just LEDs. Some flicker and some don't. There is one in my computer room that likes to flicker. Dirty little bugger! When I figure out which one of the 3 up there is flickering, I'm gonna send it "to the promise land."
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It's nice to be charitable but too bad you got rid of all your incandescents!
 
We've got 2 4ft. florescent ceiling fixtures in our kitchen, and I had to replace the florescent bulbs with LED's a couple of years ago. After a few weeks, one of the fixtures started to "flicker" a bit, and changing the bulbs didn't help. I wound up replacing the "ballast" in that fixture, and haven't had any more problems. I bought a spare ballast for the other fixture, and if it starts to flicker, I'll replace that one, too.
 
I got wild and crazy today. I ordered two more boxes of Ecosmart incandescents instead of purchasing just the one. My son will pick them up from Home Depot for me today. So I've purchased 48 incandescents in the past week for the same price they used to be at Dollar Tree. I will try each one (tried 16 already) to make sure they all work. I'm happy now. :)

@Don M. It's a good thing you identified the problem and could take care of it yourself. Smart to get the extra ballast too.
 
I've had a problem with flickering LED bulbs. I've tried different brands. The ones that seem to work the best are the Great Value bulbs I bought at Walmart. You might want to give them a try.
 
Lorenzo Lago said:
I've had a problem with flickering LED bulbs. I've tried different brands. The ones that seem to work the best are the Great Value bulbs I bought at Walmart. You might want to give them a try.
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Thank you Lorenzo...but refer to the reply I added just before yours.
 


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