What Causes LED Lights to Flicker?

Have you recently installed brand-new LED Light bulbs, and they just wouldn’t stop flickering on and off? Well, guess what, you’re not the only one.

LED lights are operated by an electronic driver in which few are more vulnerable to voltage fluctuations, as compared to others depending on the quality of the lights.

But what causes the LED lights to flicker? Well, for starters, there could be a broad array of reasons behind it. However, usually, LED lights may dim or flicker at your place when there are issues with wiring, or there are voltage fluctuations in your house’s wiring.

When electrical loads turn off and on in your house, this enforces a massive shift in the levels of voltage, which, as a result, might cause the LED lights to flicker or dim occasionally.

But that’s not it! There are several different reasons that might be causing your lights to flicker. Let’s have a detailed look at some of the most common reasons:

LEDs Can Flicker From Inrush Current

Some specific electronic appliances at your place require more power when they are first switched on. The inrush current of motors inside the appliances causes the voltage to drop, and in case the lights are on the same circuit, you might even see the dimming of these lights. This is true for several types of lighting, including LED lights.

Keep in mind that you always need to have electronic appliances like a dryer, washer, stove, fridge on different breakers and this will help mitigate any flickering LED lights you may have.

Loose Bulb or Loose Wiring Can Cause Flickering

One more thing that usually causes flickering in LED lights is loose circuits or loose connections. This could be easily fixed without much effort. 

Simply screw the LED Light in tighter and check if that fixes the problem. In case it seems that there’s a lot of dust in the fixture, simply blow out the connection points to clean the dust before putting the LED Light back in. 

There could also be loose wiring at the fixture connection point. An adept and professional electrician will swiftly disconnect power to the fixture and re-tighten the wiring to ensure it’s secure and tight. If ample light fixtures are dimming simultaneously, the electrician will investigate the panel and junction box to ensure that all connections are correctly secured.

Dimmer Compatibility Flickering

Some brand-new and even existing dimmer switches might not be compatible with LED lighting, or there’s a possibility that you might even have a non-dimmable light in a dimmable fixture. 

Carefully reading the labels on your LED Light’s box, and ensuring you have the correct Light for the job can easily fix this. Dimmers further have wattage ratings, which differ based on the type of light source. This severely affects the number of light fixtures on a dimmer based on the particular wattages of each. 

The practice of ganging switches or dimmers inside the same back box will also further de-rate the wattage that the LED light can safely handle.

If none of these common problems are the cause of your flickering LEDs look you may need to replace your LED bulbs.