Browse Forums Lighting + Lighting Design 1 Aug 27, 2013 9:01 pm Hey.
New house and there was some drama with the LED downlights during the build. Apparently the dimmer switch provided by builder would not work with led lights the electrician said. They could source one that would work, but it was much more expensive. Anyway, took a while and and a lot of misinformation was given, but eventually the builder/electrician finally sorted it out and the lights were installed. However, after moving in we notice that they flicker. Not much, but about every hour maybe they will flicker. Maybe that's not the right word, but they will blink once very quickly and then be fine again. They all blink in sync so it is not a single light being broken. They usually flicker a couple of more times within the next couple of minutes and then they are fine for another hour or so. Is this due to the dimmer or something else? Could it really be this difficult to have LED lights on a dimmer switch? The light in question is the Atom one (link below) which seems quite popular. It has a "dimmable LED driver", which I assumed meant it would work fine with any dimmer switch, but who knows how these things work. Maybe the electrician even cut it off, he did cut off the power point and wired them directly.. Any advice is much appreciated. Waiting to be contacted by electrician, but I suspect he will say that it is the lights fault and that LED lights do not work on dimmer switches full stop, so would be good to actually know a little bit about the problem beforehand. The more I think about it, and thinking back to all the drama beforehand, I'm fairly confident that he will simply insist on removing the dimmer switch. Which obviously isn't ideal. So any insight or comments would be much appreciated! "It comes with it's own Dimmable LED Driver which can be hard wired directly to 240V power." http://www.lightingillusions.com.au/sho ... -downlight Re: Led lights flickering (once an hour or so) - why? dimmer 2Aug 27, 2013 9:22 pm We have LED dimable down lights in our theatre room, and mainly watch tv with them dimmed... I haven't noticed them flicker once... I think the LED lights you have installed may not be the dimable kind. Built a Hawthorne 31 with EB nessjeffdreamhouse.blogspot.com.au Building an investment now with New Living homes... We are at nearly finished... Just landscaping and driveway to go! Re: Led lights flickering (once an hour or so) - why? dimmer 4Aug 27, 2013 9:35 pm 1sttimebuilding2012 We have LED dimable down lights in our theatre room, and mainly watch tv with them dimmed... I haven't noticed them flicker once... I think the LED lights you have installed may not be the dimable kind. Which LEDs do you have? Re: Led lights flickering (once an hour or so) - why? dimmer 5Aug 27, 2013 10:22 pm 1sttimebuilding2012 We have LED dimable down lights in our theatre room, and mainly watch tv with them dimmed... I haven't noticed them flicker once... I think the LED lights you have installed may not be the dimable kind. I had this quote in my first post, but I'll paste it again. "It comes with it's own Dimmable LED Driver which can be hard wired directly to 240V power." Hence, I assumed that it would be easy to dim. But to be fair, I'm not entirely sure what a dimmable driver does exactly and what types of dimmers it works with. FionaT If there is a problem and you have a new house that should be the builders responsibility to fix under warranty??? Yes, for sure. It was not an immediately visible problem though. We have contacted builder and electrician will be in contact with us. I just want to have some idea on what is going on before we hear from him because no one knew anything about how LED lights worked during installation, and I'm worried that unless I have some ideas on what can be done, he will simply say that he will have to remove the dimmers. He was not too keen on matching dimmers with the LED lights to begin with. Re: Led lights flickering (once an hour or so) - why? dimmer 6Aug 27, 2013 11:21 pm You need the right dimmer for them. You can't just use any old kind. There are a few different types suited to different LED lights. Check the brand of your downlights and research the dimmer that's meant for it. My one's are the Clipsal trailing edge ones, they're green. They were the only one recommended by the downlight company. GOODLIFE - Bravo - BUTLER http://getmistyfied.blogspot.com.au Display 20/02/2012 PPA 01/04/12 Prestart: 25/07/12 Settlement: 31/07/2012 Contracts:August Slab 19/11/12 BRICKS 10/11/12 Roof 16/01/13 Re: Led lights flickering (once an hour or so) - why? dimmer 7Aug 27, 2013 11:26 pm turtleschell You need the right dimmer for them. You can't just use any old kind. There are a few different types suited to different LED lights. Check the brand of your downlights and research the dimmer that's meant for it. My one's are the Clipsal trailing edge ones, they're green. They were the only one recommended by the downlight company. They were sourced by the builder and/or electrician. They were supposed to work with LED lights, but I know no more than that. Wouldn't an LED suitable dimmer work for most LED lights, or does it vary that much between brand as well? It's a fairly standard 13w downlight (as can be seen in link in original post). Does my problem even sound like a dimmer issue or could it be something else? I've googled this and found videos of led lights constantly flickering due to dimmer switches, but not anything about them working perfectly fine and then giving a quick blink once in a while, so quick that you are not sure if you imagined it the first time. Re: Led lights flickering (once an hour or so) - why? dimmer 8Aug 27, 2013 11:38 pm Clipsal have these push button universal 'smart' dimmers http://www.clipsal.com.au/trade/__data/page/81/W0001440.pdf Great dimmer, have a heap of them in out new place, all on groups of 'dimmable' LED DL's. ----------------------------------------------- http://pab34newdigs.blogspot.com.au/ ----------------------------------------------- Re: Led lights flickering (once an hour or so) - why? dimmer 9Aug 27, 2013 11:48 pm Alrighty. From what you have written, its pointing to one common component as all lights exhibit the problem at the same time. I'm going to make the following assumptions: -The LED lamps are for the transformers supplied. -No other lights are on the dimmer switch except the ones in question. -No other lights in the house are showing the same problem at the same time or at all. What I would do is the following: 1) Get the electrician to bypass the dimmer. See if the problem shows without the dimmer in circuit. I know that you are keen on the dimming capability but by physically bypassing the dimmer we can rule that item out. See how it goes for a week like this. 2) If the problem is still present, get your electrician to check the active and neutral connections from the circuit breaker to the first light. Reason for this is a loose connection may be just making contact. Loose neutrals in installations play havoc due to voltage drop. 3) If the above doesn't work and it is now pointing to the dimmer, you may have the wrong dimmer mechanism. There are two types-leading edge and trailing edge. Ensure you have the correct one for the LED lights. Your electrician should be able to nut this out. Best of luck, let us know how it goes. Re: Led lights flickering (once an hour or so) - why? dimmer 10Sep 19, 2013 9:58 pm Alright, so I have not had this fixed yet, but I have some updates. We have two sets of led lights on dimmers. Both sets has the same symptoms. Our bedrooms has ceiling fans (one with a dimmer, the rest without) and they are all experiencing humming (no flickering). The flickering and humming happens at the same time. I also started timing it, and it is happening on regular intervals, so it is something on a timer causing it. For example, I wrote down some times when the lights flickered one night (and I was doing other things, so it probably happened every 30min and I just missed it) 7.01 pm 9.01 pm 10.01 pm 10.31 pm 11.01 pm 11.31 pm As you can see, it is extremely consistent. I've googled this problem and got a few results, but not sure what to think exactly. Seems to be a lot of talk about ripple control, could that be the issue? Not a hundred percent clear on what that is or whether it would be this regular. When this happens, the lights will usually blink once quickly, and then maybe a couple of more times shortly after. The humming from fans however is constant and lasts maybe 30sec or so at a guess. None of the lights in fans or elsewhere around the house is flickering (they are all CFL). I assume the problem is probably happening everywhere, and other lights are not as sensitive? That sucks! Hope it all works out. Good to move away from steel anyway for all your reasons, but it's also thermally poor. 16 17915 Hi All, I just wanted to close this topic out with an update. So we ended up agreeing to a number with the insurance company, and after an extensive amount of hand… 8 23439 |