To fix flickering, the LED needs to be supplied with a constant current that has as little electrical noise as possible. Rather than immediately throwing away your LED bulbs, it’s highly likely one of the following solutions will overcome any irritating LED disturbances:

  1. Tighten the bulb
    China Led Floodlight bulbs can flicker if they are not fully tightened within the fitting.

Turn off the power, remove the bulb and carefully refit it securely.

  1. Check for dimmer switch issues
    The leading cause of LED flickering is problems with dimmer switches.

Unlike traditional lighting, not all LEDs are dimmable. Most LED bulbs you can retrofit have a driver built-in. This converts AC to DC and keeps a consistent power supply to the LED.

If you try and apply dimming before the driver, it will try to compensate for the loss of power, causing flickering.

But it’s worth noting that even a dimmable LED can flicker. This typically occurs because the dimmer switch is an older 'leading-edge' type, designed for a higher voltage range than is required for an LED.

Some manufacturers will recommend specific models of dimmers for their LED bulbs, where they’ve carried out the testing for you. If a recommendation is not available, try switching to a 'trailing edge' dimmer.

  1. Check the circuit power draw
    If you are retrofitting LEDs, check for other high-powered devices on the lighting circuit.

Extractor fans and ceiling fans are the most common examples. When you turn them on the voltage in the circuit suddenly increases, causing the drivers in the LED bulbs to overcompensate.

  1. Are your LED drivers correct?
    For most retrofit bulbs — like GU10, B22, B15, E27, E14 compatible bulbs — the drivers are built-in. This makes installation easier but limits options for dimming or non-standard installations.

Some LEDs need external drivers, such as MR16 (GU5.3), MR11 (GU4), Panels and Downlights. This makes them much more flexible, but pairing lights and drivers correctly can be difficult.

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