LED 4ft Tubes Flickering

SpudMuffin

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Jun 20, 2018
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I have installed 4ft LED tubes in my office. I eliminated the ballasts and did direct wiring. Most of them are fine. However, some of my rooms have an annoying flicker problem when other equipment starts up. I was thinking about voltage regulators? Or what would you suggest?


Thanks
 

JoakimFlorence

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Jun 4, 2016
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Probably the power draw from these other equipment being plugged is not even. That could be creating a current frequency modulation which the circuitry in your retrofit tubes was not designed to handle.

The best and easiest solution really depends on a number of factors, like how many tubes, what type of equipment, how often the equipment is on and what its wattage is. As one option, for example, you could of course simply start over and get the latest electronic ballasts and then buy new retrofit tubes designed for that, or put the lights wired on a dimmer switch that might help better regulate the amount of current and give it a more even waveform.
 

Genes

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Aug 24, 2003
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This is, unfortunately, a characteristic of LED lighting in general. The response of the LEDs is so fast that they can detect small changes in voltage and current which older incandescent lights could not. Fluorescent lights have also exhibited this behavior but to a lesser degree. Your LEDs and solid state drivers are simply responding to the sudden applied load which is causing the voltage to dip and your eyes can detect this small but sudden change. There are things you can do to minimize this tendency; some are easy fixes and others much more complicated and expensive. Your lighting circuits should be on a branch dedicated just to lighting. I suspect that other loads are also on your office lighting but that may not be the case. This is a very common problem with commercial LED retrofit lighting and a google search will turn up lots of links.
 

ssanasisredna

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Oct 19, 2016
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I have installed 4ft LED tubes in my office. I eliminated the ballasts and did direct wiring. Most of them are fine. However, some of my rooms have an annoying flicker problem when other equipment starts up. I was thinking about voltage regulators? Or what would you suggest?


Thanks

Did you buy cheap, or did you go with good name brand?

This is not a matter of LEDs responding faster than fluorescent tubes, either responds more than fast enough to see a supply "glitch". It is mainly a matter of cheap power supply design in the tubes. Almost all fluorescent ballasts are 2-stage power supplies that are fairly robust w.r.t. power spikes. You will find good 2 stage designs in LED drivers, good 1 stage designs, and some poor 1 stage designs. You have one more on the poor side. The name brand ones tend to be better, but not always.
 
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