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Thread: Flickering LED problem

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    Flickering LED problem

    Right so jhave this annoying thing with with LED's. I have done about a few shop refit in the last year or so and have been putting in 3 watt pure white LED's in place of halogen 50 down lights in for display lighting which the customers have really liked. In some shops they are are perfect. In other shops I'll have a few that start to flicker/blink. Sometimes after a week, smetimes they will work for a few months 90% are working fine
    Spoke to Radiant and they say it may be caused by voltage surges during switching of heavy load else where in the shoppping centre and LED's just don't like any overvoltage.(they were not radiant lamps by the way though I have "trial run" a few of them and they haven't crapped out yet).
    The ones I do buy have 3 year guarentee so i just send them back and they happilly change them but I don't want to keep driving back to a shop just to change a lamp.
    These are not the chinese import things, these are made in SA so don'y say they are just chinese crap.

    So does anyone know of a device made to protect LED's from this. I know about surge arrestors obviously but what I want is something that will protect them from over voltage etc. Ther must be a device specifically made for this.

    Is anyuone else having thsi problem?

    Thanks
    skatingspark

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    Diamond Member AndyD's Avatar
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    It's true that LED's are susceptible to voltage fluctuations and surges, harmonics could also cause premature failure or flickering but it's the power supplies/drivers that are responsible for the power quality at the lamp itself. It can be a complex issue because the lamp may also have electronics in it to handle the LED arrangement. This is also more likely the case with lamps that have multiple LED's.

    I would experiment with different driver units until you find the best option and comb the web to find out if others are having similar issues with the same lamps.

    Quote Originally Posted by skatingsparks View Post
    Is anyuone else having thsi problem?
    You didn't state what make they are.
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    Diamond Member Justloadit's Avatar
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    If it's surge then a 275V MOV 20mm on each transformer input will go a long way in tacking care of the spikes. However if there is a prolonged over voltage, the MOV's will fail as a short circuit and trip your circuit breaker. If there are many units on a line, it can become a nightmare to find the damaged one,a s you will have to check each one individually.
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    The LED's are 220 Volt not with transformers. I know 12V electronic transformers can cause LED's to fliker a little but these 220V are blinking like a strobe light, well not that fast but they just blink. Its rediculous that 9 out of 30 of one batch of LED's has failed. Customer obviously not happy because they thing they are going to last a least a few years.
    The LED's I'm using are a direct replacement for 50 watt GU10 Halogens, there ae no exteral drivers.
    I don't expect a halogen to last long but if your paying the price for LED's they should last.

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    Tell me are you getting these LED's from a guy named Sigi by any chance. Just asking cause you still haven't told us the brand thats a problem.

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    The LED's are manufatured in Cape Town and don't think they come from Sigi. Didn't mention the company name because they have been quite good with replacing them. Its not a big Radiant/Waco/Eurolux size company. I don't think what they are selling me are any worse than what Radiant/Waco/Eurolux make. I just want to find something that will protect a circuit from over voltage. When I spoke to Radiant they said that the only thing that could damage there lamps is the over voltage and where i get them from they are a quite a but cheaper. I know your going to say, "get what ya pay for" but when I spoke to my electrical whole saler they said they had LED's of various makes returned with the same problem.
    So how can I stop this over voltage, spiking thing?

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    If they are made in Cape Town then it must be a company that starts with and M and the owner's name starts with a W. If this is the case then I am sure that he'll bend over backwards to solve the problem. I know the guy very well and he is passionate about LED lighting.

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    Diamond Member AndyD's Avatar
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    If the lamps are GU10 then the power-supply/driver is on-board so there's not much you can do apart from logging power quality over a period of time. If the quality is poor then all you could maybe supply the lights via a cheap UPS, not so much for mains fail back-up, it's usually just the cheapest way to get clean power on low-current systems.

    I recently did a minor re-lamping exercise also with GU10's and used a dimmable 9w (3x3w) 60° LED lamp with Cree driver chips. Out of 40 installed there was one that didn't work from new. We've had no returns or complaints in 4 months......touch wood.
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    Passionate he may be but this is part of the mail I got today

    The following, please:- I have found that the LED globes originally fitted are inferiour. None of the globes I have replaced with Radiant globes or Osram has failed. Can you please arrange that all original globes are replaced.

    I now have to change the other 30 lamps for radiants. I can't argue with them. They changed the failed ones, 9 over period of 6 months to radiant. Radiants didn't fail.
    I'd rather pay more for radiants and that is what I'm going to have to do.
    I have had to drive from Jo'burg to polokwane to change 3 lamps which obvioulsy not only takes any profit I may have got from them but also lost an entire day.

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    Diamond Member AndyD's Avatar
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    From experience, Radiant aren't generally high quality lighting products. Maybe they hit lucky with their LED lamps.
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