this post was submitted on 01 Aug 2023
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For some reason LED bulbs in my condo start flickering and die after only a few months of use. No idea why, but I actually switched back to incandescent because throwing away so many LED bulbs is more inefficient than running higher power bulbs.
Sounds like your condo may not have properly grounded power, some of mine flicker for that same reason. Have you tried CFLs? Not as nice light but it might solve your issue.
Yeah, those worked fine, but all the stores around me stopped selling them. I can only get LEDs, or I can get decorative style incandescents, so I've been buying the latter.
CFLs will be banned by 2024, however. Keep that in mind.
Have you tried a different brand? Grounding could be an issue, but when I had a similar issue, switching to a different brand made it stop. Some of my LED bulbs are many years old at this point.
Yeah, couple different brands. Same issue with all of them sadly. Longest I've got one going was 6 months, most are closer to 3 before the flickering starts
Check the enclosures. LED lights have controller boards that have to be cooled, lest they burn up. Some enclosures are just not compatible with LED bulbs or you may need a different style. You might consider halogen. They're still incandescent but far more energy efficient and, unlike CFLs, they don't require s hazmat suit to clean up when they break.
That said, CFLs are pretty awesome little feats of engineering too.
Check out the Technology Connections YouTube page. Dude has a few videos on lighting you might benefit from having watched.
They managed to go faulty in a free standing lamp without a shade, just completely open, so I don't think heat is an issue; something in the wiring must be messing with them.
I have used some halogens, but I haven't found many I like the light of. Might try some others to see how they look.
Lol when I was reading the first bit of your comment, I wondered "hmm, does this person also watch Technology Connections"?
He's also where I get all my knowledge of light bulbs from. He makes it all so fascinating.
All of the cheaper brand of Lowe's and Home Depot LEDs are absolutely terrible about this. In my experience. They work for a couple months and then flicker and die.
Which really sucks because the cheaper LEDs are still more expensive and don't last as long as the equivalent incandescent bulbs
Yeah, my local store is only carrying Noma LED bulbs, and they crap out on me so fast. Super annoying.
Could be heat. Could be triac dimmers. Could be a wiring problem. Could be poorly made bulbs (I had some of these die, and they weren't cheap).
Probably not heat, place is 21C at all times. Only have one lamp with a triac dimmer, but the bulbs die in the rest as well. I've tried a few brands, none of them cheap, and they all face the same fate on me. Never had an issue with CFLs or incandescents, but I can't buy CFLs anywhere near me anymore.
LED drivers can get quite hot even when the room is at a comfortable temperature, causing them to die early. Airflow and orientation can matter a lot with retrofit bulbs.
I had bad luck with the expensive bulbs I tried several years ago, but trying different bulbs and switches seems to have paid off. I almost never get flicker any more, and none of my new bulbs have burned out yet (roughly 2 years so far).
Sorry to hear you're having a hard time with it, too. It might be worth having an electrician check for faults and bad wiring. Good luck!
I mentioned to someone else I have a free standing lamp with good airflow and the bulbs crapped out in that one too, so something weird with my condos electricals most likely.
What brand are your new bulbs?
GE Relax HD. I don't know whether the current models under that name are the same as those from a couple years ago.
Looks like Amazon has them for $5 a bulb, so not too bad. Think I'll pick up some and see if they work better than Noma.
This site has some useful info:
https://lamptest.ru/
Of course, you'll need a translator if you don't read Russian.