10 Reasons Why Your Led Lights May Be Flickering

Have you ever pictured what it would feel like to live in a rainbow?

A place is full of colors, dreams, and hopes. Well, how would you feel if we could turn your room into a dreamland? 

Yes, it’s possible with the help of the magical LED strip lights.

What Are LED Strip Lights?

Since I was little, I wanted my room to look like those I read about in fictional books. So I’ve finally found a way to make it look like that by using LED strip lights.

So, let’s see what LED strip lights are.

An LED strip light is known as a flexible circuit board populated with LEDs that you can stick almost anywhere you want. It adds powerful lighting in a variety of colors. LED Strip Lights come in several colors, ranging from warm tones to lighter tones to many shades of colored RGB options. These lights are longer-lasting, highly energy-efficient, and cost-effective.

Why Does My LED Strip Light Flicker?

LED strip lights are often reliable and durable for the most part. However, it is common for them to flicker. I know how worried I get when they flicker; hence, to help you out, I’ve listed a few reasons why they might be flickering.

An electronic driver operates LED strips. Some of these are more sensitive to electrical changes than others. Or this depends on the quality as well.Keeping a high-quality LED power supply can also help stop LED strip lights from flickering. However, your power supply may not be enough. For that, you will need a constant voltage LED driver to ensure that the power supply remains constant regardless of any power malfunctioning.    

When electrical appliances turn on and off in your home, this creates a shift in electricity levels, which can cause the LED lights to dim occasionally or flicker. Also, you have to remember that one of these Led strip lights can use up to 50 milliamps when it’s full-on white.

Here are some possible reasons why your LED strip lights might be flickering:

1）Pseudo Soldering

Defective soldering between the lamp beads, resistors, IC, and the circuit board, as well as between the circuit board, can lead to poor contact between components. Eventually, a part of the light bar may flicker.

2）Damp Environment

Used in a more humid environment, or just a small section of the light bar with water, the interior of the lamp beads will absorb moisture; at first, it will flicker, and then the lamp beads will be burned.

This is another factor that may also contribute to the flickering of LED strip lights. A fallen tree or fire near the wires may also cause damage. If that is the case, call the power company to fix the damage. Heavy storms can also cause power lines trouble supplying an adequate amount of voltage, making lights flicker. And it is a significant cause for electrical shortcuts causing many devices to malfunction and be destroyed completely.

3）Poor connection wire or wirehead

With poor wire head contact, there will be multiple lights strips in which are flashing. In addition to this, there may also be poor contact with the connection line. Basically, LED strip lights have four kinds of connection lines, ordinary red and black wire, connection terminal, center connector, and not waterproof/waterproof connector. Their poor contact may become the cause of the flashing.

4）Poor circuit board design

This may also be the reason for the circuit board to cause flickering. The circuit board can be poorly designed resulting in a short circuit. It is also possible that the quality of the circuit board is not good and a section is damaged, thus causing flickering.

5）Light bracket problems

Individual light sets appear to light up a little as well. The reason behind this is that there may be a problem with the lamp bed itself. For instance a crack inside the bracket.

6）Ripple Voltage

The ripple effect is the result of “ripple control,” a type of electrical load control. 

So, ripple control is a common practice in Australia, especially in NSW and QLD. It allows electricity suppliers to manage high-quality electricity demand. Some countries have power lines that are supplied with a ripple voltage or pulse. These are to help switch off specific equipment in times of peak rates.

However, your lights may also flicker due to a sudden ripple in the power supply.

7）Inappropriate Power Supply

It is the most common reason for lights to flicker.

Your LED lights may be flickering due to a change in voltage. Remember that constant current equals constant brightness. Keep good quality LED strip lights with you; sometimes, poor-quality cause flickering as well.

8）Continuous Running Of LED

It’s a prevalent cause of flickering LED strip lights. Sometimes when you keep running the lights, it may significantly reduce the voltage of these strips and cause flickering.

9）Damaged Strips

The first thing you need to do with flickering lights is to tighten their bulbs firmly. Be careful when handling them, as excessive force can cause them to crack. This may also be a reason for lights to flicker. Make sure your strips aren’t damaged. 

10）Bad Weather Conditions

This is another factor that may also contribute to the flickering of LED strip lights.

A fallen tree or fire near the wires may also cause damage. If that is the case, call the power company to fix the damage. Heavy storms can also cause power lines trouble supplying an adequate amount of voltage, making lights flicker.

And it is a significant cause for electrical shortcuts causing many devices to malfunction and be destroyed completely.

How To Stop LED Strip Lights from Flickering?

Over time, dust may collect on the surface of your LED lights and enter through a socket. In addition, if you do not wipe your lighting fixtures for a long time, dirt may be behind your light fixtures. When searching for an LED light, look specifically for “free flicker” names and green metrics. 

Now is the right time to clean up the mess in and out of the foundations. And we have just the right hacks for you to stop your lights from flashing:

1）High Quality LED 

The choice of the high-quality light strip is able to directly try to avoid the LED strip flicker approach, because high-quality light strip with better circuit boards, a variety of connections are more stable, the design will also be more secure, the bracket structure is more solid, etc., these quality issues can become the cause of the flicker of the light strip.

The choice of the high-quality light strip, excluding external factors, from the light strip itself to do the maximum to avoid the cause.

2）Brightness Adjustment

If you’re having trouble with just a single color, such as blue or red lights, you can try this out. Go to the top and far left of your remote. You will find a picture of a sun with an arrow pointing above. That’s your brightness button; your lights will automatically adjust when you click it a few times. Sometimes the flickering occurs when the lights are just too dim. 

3）Installing A Filter

Suppose you live in a country where power supplies are injected with a ripple or a voltage. Notice if your lights flicker in the same window; if they do, you might want to consider installing a filter into the system. This will help maintain frequency in power lines, which will help your lights stop flickering.

4）Give Them a Break

Do not constantly run these lights. They need a few hours of break so that the voltage to the strips isn’t reduced and your lights run effectively. Having more equipment is fine, as long as your meter box can accommodate all of them. This is the element that transmits electricity to all parts of your house.  

If the one you have does not meet your growing energy needs, the first sign will be the flickering of the LED strip lights. As you continue to add household items to your home, regional loading is already possible. At the moment, what they want in your electrical system is more than you can handle. So, always give them a little break. 

5）Cable Connection

Although it is intended to blink at a rate fast enough to be ignored, for some sensitive people and applications, the difficulty of glare in some LED systems can be extreme and problematic. A scientifically accurate way to determine a flicker’s size is to use special equipment such as an oscilloscope or a light meter. 

For purchase prices starting at hundreds of thousands of dollars per test unit, this does not apply to many consumers concerned about their light bulbs’ brightness. So, ensure that the cables are connected to the power supply correctly. Lose connections may lead to flickering as well. Check the power consumption of your lights and make sure the supply is strong enough.

6）Dimmers

Dimmers can cause problems or complete the installation of LED strip lighting in another way. That’s because the normal one’s work extends the ‘off’ part of each on-off flicker cycle to reduce the total amount of light emitted. This method is called wide pulse modulation (PWM). PWM works very well – as long as the frequency does not go down to a level that the human eye cannot see.

Some manufacturers are finding ways to solve this problem by upgrading the LED dimmers with a high-speed cycle. The cycle is thousands of hertz. It will mimic the solution used by electronic ballasts to enable LED lights for many years. So, the higher the flicker frequency, the closer your transformer will need to be with your LED lights. But, unfortunately, that doesn’t always work.

7）Check ALL the parts

Sometimes people do not have complete parts. Check for full parts while also paying attention to details on guide books provided by the company. Most of us are stressed when unboxing a new item, and setting them up is another hassle, hence calm down before unboxing and arranging. 

8）High-Quality LED power supply

Keeping a high-quality LED power supply can also help stop LED strip lights from flickering.

However, your power supply may not be sufficient enough. For that you will need a constant voltage LED driver to ensure that the power supply remains constant regardless of any power malfunctioning.  Power use does not exceed 80% of the rated power.

Final Thoughts

LED strip lights are worth investing in. You can invest money that will last for years. Not only do the lights look aesthetically pleasing, but they can be put to many different uses. These lights come in all colors and tones and have been divided into several sections. So, you can pick the one that suits you.  

Tiktokers, beauty gurus, and influencers are only a few examples of people who use the lights in many different ways. Such as for background purposes, near-camera lenses to look more appealing, and for adding drama and variation to the content. They are programmable, as well as custom-designed. This enables you to set up moving and flashing patterns of colors. It seems like a rather fun choice!