One of the most annoying things that many people encounter is a flickering light bulb. While LED bulbs have helped to reduce that it is still possible for a LED bulb to flicker. None of the reasons why it is flickering is good and it will not fix itself, so why exactly do they flicker?
Why Is A Flickering Bulb Bad?
This should be fairly obvious as a flickering bulb makes it much harder to see. It can make sitting outside annoying and make some tasks harder to do. Of course for anyone with epilepsy this can be a deadly situation as it can trigger a seizure. Around 1% of the nation’s population has epilepsy though not all will be triggered by a flashing light alone as around 3-5% of those people have photosensitive epilepsy. So, pretty much unless you are trying to simulate a rock concert light show every night or something like that there is no reason to live with it and it could have negative consequences for your family or anyone that you invite to your home.
Why Do LED Bulbs Flicker?
There are pretty much three reasons why a LED bulb flickers. The first is because of a loose connection. Over time things can come loose, either with the wiring or where the bulb itself screws in. Second, the voltage can change. This primarily happens when another appliance is in use on the same circuit and needs a power surge to start, taking power from your lights. Last, an incompatible dimmer switch can cause the issue. Not all dimmer switches work with modern LED light bulbs, in fact few to none of the older ones do.
What Can You Do?
For the most part there is very little that you can do besides making sure that where the bulb is screwed in is clear of dust with a clean connection point while replacing the bulb. If that does not work, you may want to hire a professional electrician unless you are comfortable dealing with the wiring. When it comes to electricity it is best to err on the side of caution since one mistake could kill you. Hire a professional.
Or if you have an older system and just put in a LED bulb you could go back to what you had. At that point you will need to figure out if you want to upgrade or keep what you have. You were trying to switch to a LED bulb for a reason so you are at least interested in an upgrade.
What Could Be The Cause?
There might be too much stress on the circuit. There could be incompatible equipment (a problem you won’t have with a professional landscape lighting company installing your system). An electrician can figure that out for you and fix it.
This underscores why it is important for a professional service to install or upgrade your outdoor lighting system. Especially when it comes to upgrading. A lot has changed in even the past five years and equipment as well as its specs are changing. What was state of the art not even a decade ago is now out of date, mostly thanks to advancements with LED lighting.
These older systems are not able to handle LED bulbs and must be changed. It would be nice if you could simply replace an old compact fluorescent bulb with a LED bulb but it is not that easy. An upgrade is needed and it could be costly. If you are at that point you have a decision to make.
If you would like to upgrade your outdoor lighting system check into seeing what it can do for you. Resort Lighting can come to your home, demonstrate what it will look like and give you a price estimate as well. Whether you want to upgrade is up to you but at some point you will need to do so. Whether you are ready for it at this point is up to you but you have nothing to lose in getting an estimate from Resort Lighting.