LED Light Flickering?

LED Light Flickering?

Step 1: Quickly Determine if You Have Flickering

The simplest method: Open your phone’s camera and aim it at the LED light (without the flash) and observe the light on the screen. If you see “scrolling black bars” or “flickering ripples,” you’re experiencing flickering. The denser the stripes and the faster they scroll, the more severe the flickering. (The principle is: the phone camera’s frame rate is out of sync with the LED’s flickering frequency, which can be “captured” as flickering.)

Step 2: Find the root cause! Where does the flickering come from?

Poor-quality power supply: The power supply is the “heart” of an LED light, responsible for converting 220V AC power into stable DC power. Low-quality drivers cut corners, resulting in unstable output current, causing the light to flicker. (90% of flickering issues are caused by the driver.)

Lamp design flaws: Poor heat dissipation and overheating of the driver can also cause current fluctuations. Or, mismatched lamps and drivers can lead to a “small horse pulling a heavy cart” and insufficient current flow, causing flickering.

Interference from external devices: Running high-power appliances (such as air conditioners and induction cookers) at the same time can cause voltage fluctuations, which can also cause LED lights to flicker. However, this is an occasional issue, not a persistent one.

Step 3: Treat the problem! Fix the flickering.

Replace the driver: Disassemble the lamp (make sure to turn off the power!) and check the driver specifications (input voltage, output current, and wattage). Replace it with a reputable driver with the same specifications. For example, if the original driver has a 220V input and 300mA output, choose the same one. For those with limited manual labor, simply buy a brand-name replacement LED lamp and avoid messing with the old one. Check heat dissipation: If flickering persists after replacing the driver, feel the lamp casing to see if it’s hot. If it’s too hot, clean the lamp’s heat dissipation holes or install a cooling fan (such as with high-power LED spotlights) to keep the driver and lamp beads operating at the correct temperature.Avoid sources of interference from plumbing and electrical sources: LED lamp wiring shouldn’t run on the same circuit as high-power appliances (air conditioners, electric water heaters). In your home electrical distribution box, run a separate circuit breaker for LED lamps to reduce the impact of voltage fluctuations.