Flickering LED lighting? Here's what's really happening

Just because your lights are flickering, doesn't mean that your house is haunted.

Or even that the LED bulb or fixture is dead. Actually, there's something else going on, let an electrical engineer fill you in on what's happening, and if this can be fixed.

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[stevenhaley]

If you want to watch a video of flashing lights with no hint of how to correct the problem, then you are in the right place.

[swompy]

Excellent video if i want to read while using YouTube and not get information

[ricknelson]

Lots of led fixtures are junk and start burning out usually shortly after the warranty. And to top that off its getting harder to find light fixtures that you can change the bulbs in. I think that SUCKS!

[jec_ecart]

It's absolutely the bulb. Modern bulbs are crappy with poor filtering.

[glowmentor]

I had a filament bulb in the attic from 1950 that only failed post 2013. It was a hefty solid looking thing. Over 60 years of use - not daily, but pretty consistently. Now, LEDs last a year or two, then landfill. Bravo, Green Energy Love the Earth Type People.

[lazzer]

No. They need a rectifier FULL BRIDGE RECTIFIER!! to convert AC to DC. A filter to smooth the ripple. THEN a driver to limit/regulate current to the LED. It all creates heat. If anything fails due to heat, it was a poor design to begin with.

[Truckguy]

So people been saying LED light bulbs don't last long. There's something to that. The base of the LED light bulb gets overheated. If there's not a lot of circulation and then the chip gets Overheated and it dies.

[fp]

it is the bulb, I did allot of testing and found the problem is in the bulb, the PCB with the LEDs most of them you will find the connection from circuit its about 60 volts dc i paced a capacitor 0, 47nF/ 150v no flickering no buzz nothing, works fine

[bmkolb]

We had two rooms in a school that ceiling lights would flicker, switched out both breakers it stopped flickering

[jndominica]

Usually the LEDs burn out from insufficient heatsinking. One of them fails open and may make an intermittent connection. The LED assembly needs a ballast to limit the current matched to the number of elements it has in series. Stepping down the voltage isn't enough. GU5.3 don't work so well either.

[jonsmith]

I call BS, I have some LEDs that are in the west end of my kitchen that are 6+ years now with out a flicker ever, I put some cheaper brands ( Noma from Canadian Tire) in the east side and they flickered after about a month. I returned them for replacements and got another month before they flickered again. This time I demanded and got my money back and bought Some higher quality ones and things are all good again. Good quality bulbs won't flicker simple as that. Whoever is in charge of advertising should ensure that a bulb should last and perform as advertised. Was the same with CFLs, its stupid governing that allows crap products.

[Opnwindo]

The lights are on as often as they are off, they all Flicker at a certain rate

[whatwedointheshadows]

so how do you fix it? otherwise this is just wasting my time.

[roberthalbrooks]

What a waste of time, VIDEO GIVES NO FIX...