LED light flickers when hot water system is in use

[sometimewoodworker]

36 minutes ago, Arjen said:

It is possible that the wires from meter to the house are to thin, or that the voltage supply is to low. Usual when voltage supply is to low, the problem is not there around midday, and lets say between 02.00 and 05.00.

That is where the need for a meter to check voltage under various load conditions and at various places comes in and until there is one to do the checks it is mostly speculation. No point in doing anything significant and quite likely wasting time, money and good will on pointless changes. 

 

While checking power usage is interesting it isn't essential. I happen to be reasonably equipped to do that but few simple voltage checks will probably go a long way to finding answers.

[4MyEgo]

1 hour ago, sometimewoodworker said:

Really? A good workman who knows enough too do the "plumbing" bits of the wiring. There are quite a lot of people like that,the people who wired my house were like that, but then I needed a professional to fix the things they didn't understand.

 

But not really good enough for trouble shooting or safety it seems. How can he be as he doesn't even have the most basic of tools (a meter)

 

 

 

The basic Bible as far as diy electrical wiring.

 

We shall test how good he is then

[moontang]

22 hours ago, sometimewoodworker said:

It means that there is a mistake in the question ???? as there is no such supply 

 

the meters available are 

5/15

15/45

30/100

Correct..my mistake,, still used to 100 or 200 service...but if he only has 45, he is obviously overloading.  It will be on your contract with PEA..and you can also figure it out by the service charge...

[sometimewoodworker]

2 hours ago, moontang said:

Correct..my mistake,, still used to 100 or 200 service...but if he only has 45, he is obviously overloading.  It will be on your contract with PEA..and you can also figure it out by the service charge...

Probably not overloaded, as even with all 3 heater going it's not going to be much over 40A even if there is no power drop.

 

Also a 15/45 meter will happy supply 70A all day long, though when it gets over 45A there is no guarantee that it is reading accurately.

 

So out of specification sure but not overloaded.

[4MyEgo]

UPDATE: Yes I know it's been a year since I was supposed to update yall, however I got sidetracked so to speak and the issue was only sorted tonight.

 

Background:

Some LED downlights would flicker when a hot water system was turned on.

 

Long of the short for what it's worth, we replaced the transformers on the LED downlights that would flicker and BINGO, no more flickering, suffice to say the same guy that did the wiring said they only have a life of 5000 hours, and to be honest, a year ago the house was 3 years old, now 4, so they were due to be replaced, but no one told me ????

 

So there it was, staring me right in the face, LED transformers need replacing, and me being old school having had downlights back in the day, never changed the transformers because they didn't need to be changed.

[Crossy]

12 hours ago, 4MyEgo said:

So there it was, staring me right in the face, LED transformers need replacing, and me being old school having had downlights back in the day, never changed the transformers because they didn't need to be changed.

 

They shouldn't, certainly not after just 5,000 hours. But if they've been treated to a hot environment, been covered with insulation or similar all bets are off (or are cheapo Chinese beasties). Maybe you just got a couple of early failures.

 

At least it's fixed now. 

[4MyEgo]

2 hours ago, Crossy said:

 

They shouldn't, certainly not after just 5,000 hours. But if they've been treated to a hot environment, been covered with insulation or similar all bets are off (or are cheapo Chinese beasties). Maybe you just got a couple of early failures.

 

At least it's fixed now. 

Thanks for your input Crossy, always appreciate reading your very knowledgeable replies to TVF members, enough grovelling now.

 

Your spot on, I just read the back of the box that the LED comes in and it says rated time 25,000 hours, that said, I have no idea how many hours we would have used when this all started about a year ago, the LED's would have been installed 3 years prior when we built the house.

 

I suspect as you say might have something to do with insulation as we had the place insulated about a year ago and the flickering started after that, as advised by the Mrs.

 

I do note that I went to lengths to make sure the insulation is clear from the transformers, i.e. I placed plastic garden pots (clay looking) upside down, which stand about 6"-8" in height to be above the insulation, with the garden pots having a hole at the top about as big as 10 baht, the transformers are within those plastic garden pots to separate them from the insulation and allow any heat to escape from the hole on the top of the plastic garden pots which are upside down, as mentioned.  

 

The LED's I use as per the box are EVE Panel LED, and I buy them from DoHome and assume they are a fairly decent product, that said, I have about 36 of them throughout the house with my last spares used last night and will be looking to buy replacement, that said, I am open to any suggestions to purchase alternative brands if you think that may sort the life span, i.e. if we didn't use anywhere near the 25,000 hours in those 3-4 years.

 

Appreciate any input, including the insulation, which I believe I have down pat so to speak ?