Capacitor for LED flickering

Submitted by Leslie on Wed, 02/26/2020 - 17:20

I'm a newbie here so please be charitable.

For the last 25 years I've had trouble keeping the clock set on my microwave ovens at my church. Since they are in a low use area it will generally be a week between seeing the clocks and they are always reset to 000 from one week to the next like there has been a power interruption sometime that week. No other real electrical problems noted. Sound systems are on UPS so any power fluctuations are smoothed there. My question now is, the fluorescent lighting has been deteriorating requiring replacement ballast, bulbs, and etc so I decided to install LED tubes. I cut out the ballast and installed straight wired LED tubes -- no problem, they work great! However, they occasionally flicker for a few seconds and I suspect it is due to fluctuations in line supply. I have discussed this with my power supplier who say they have checked everything out and all is nominal from the supply side. (I find that hard to believe with my 25 year history). I believe the problem is intermittent and difficult to diagnose from their perspective. The transformer on the building is probably 50 years old, but they are loathe to replace it on a whim.

Now, my question: -- would a capacitor in the line smooth the supply to each of the LED bulbs allowing them to operate without the occasional millisecond flicker. If so, what capacitance should I install? I've got 16 tubes installed in one room and they all blink at the same instant, so I don't think it's a single tube power circuit problem.

jaksonlee

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Capacitors can in fact be used to reduce flickering, but they need to be in parallel with the LED diode itself, not the mains connection.
I have some electronic motion switches that when we switched from incandescent lamps to LED lamps, there is not enough of a load to stop the triac in the switch from leaking current when it is off and keep it stable when it is on. I done want to put a dummy load in the circuit, because that will only consume power, when saving power is what we are trying to achieve.

  Joined November 07, 2019      124
Thursday at 04:25 PM

As capacitor play a vital part in reducing the signal fluctuations/flickering. In LED lights, there is a capacitor attached in parallel to the diode and also recommended to place a capacitor with power lines to reduce power fluctuations. For adding capacitors, first need to check the supply voltage and as well as the voltage across each LED, after that you can use any capacitance value capacitors with voltages let’s say if voltage across LED is 4V, you need to place 6V rating capacitor or you can also use 16V rating capacitors. Here I suggest you to get connect with the SSLA platform technical support team for getting better assistance regarding your queries.

  Joined April 09, 2020      55
Thursday at 02:40 PM

What is the LED current, what is the Forward voltage of the LED or the strip?

  Joined February 12, 2018      696
Monday at 02:11 PM