Lots of crappy LED lights that are spec'd for dimming will flicker on a dimming circuit

I also have a chandelier with non-crappy LED lights that will flicker when the laser printer in the room powers on.

thanks for this

it seems they do bill by the project/materials, it's just my dad assumed he was paying by the hour - which was what he told me and thus why i was so concerned with them never being on site was thinking it was some kind of billing scam

i'm obviously very biased here and obviously seeing all the bad in every situation so that has my guard up

also been talking to the guys a little and yes they are working other job sites

very concerning seeing my parents regularly writing big fat checks for something which doesn't need doing imo and is taking several months and still almost no project but they claim that it's coming in under budget but they aren't the most reliable narrators

i think a lot of this is i worked in a more corporate construction and my friend owns that company now and he's always talking to me about their bids, how that works and they make the same amount regardless of how long it takes or whatever goes wrong so they need to price in that risk accordingly and how they can sometimes lose money on a job if they underestimated the difficulties they'd encounter - so seeing how a gc is just like "we'll do it and charge as we go" alongside my parents not being 100% there (two weeks ago my mom noticed my sister's wedding ring over dinner and started asking her when she got it - my sister was convinced she must have said where so started telling the story of where they got it and then my mom said again "no when did you get that ring, it's very nice" this is of course the only ring she has and it's her wedding ring - when that's stated my mother immediately goes into "cover the dementia mode" and claims "oh know i was indeed asking where you got it" despite that seconds earlier she absolutely clarified that wasn't what she was asking at all

obviously more concerned about them more than the house and monies flushed down with it and probably venting said frustration at contractor who refuses to say "wow this is a stupid project" and instead keeps reaffirming to them how great it's going to look while literally everyone else who isn't my parents or getting paid to make it happens is recoiling in horror at what is happening

so less concerned about an outright scam etc and more about my parents in general but definitely a bad spot

my mom wants to bake brownies and come bring them over for the crew - i'm trying to discourage this and keep it a more professional arrangement than to have a "brownie party" mid work day as she is wanting to do - age + dementia + covid isolation has given my parents a very weird perception of whom their friends are

Was also thinking the bulbs. I wonder if they're getting too warm in the canister after long use (?)

Not sure how to go about testing whether it's the bulb or the fixture.

View from above of what was previously a deck and going to be the dining room

View of nearby cabin where they removed some exterior stuff like rocks to make parking space, shored up foundation (concrete) and then just stopped for whatever reason

View of house from outside, that roof/wall are all coming down and getting bumped out

You have a rec for a non-crappy brand that would work. The switch is Lutron, which I think is pretty good quality.

The lights themselves were something cheap I found on Amazon (Sunco, IIRC). But if I could just pop in some new lights, that would be the cheapest and easiest potential fix.

Assuming that dining room wall will mostly just be windows overlooking the lake then I definitely approve of this project.

My experience is that newer bulbs (because of a companies more design experience with LEDs) have less issues.

Expensive dimmers can easily have issues if not designed with LED lights in mind.

Btw, what type of flicker is it? E.g. 60 hz? 30hz? Is there a hum if you listen closely?

I think the CCP has infected your brain Rick. No joking around/talking **** and no brownie parties?

Im a contractor. There’s only upsides to bringing those guys coffee/cookies/lunch/cold drinks. Little dumb things like that can get you exponential returns on investment.

Start by replacing the cheapest/easiest options first

1. Bulb
2. Can
3. Switch

Replacement fence panel finally came in. It cost more for shipping than it did for the panel and it still well over three months to arrive. Then ten minutes to install.

everyone who isn't familiar with maine thinks it's a lake but it's actually ocean, maine has more coastline than california because it's all like that, the coast is like a series of fingers stretching out into the ocean

but that's a major reason why it sucks that they're making that indoors as there's nice ocean breezes for meals on the deck

and meanwhile there's a litany of problems in the interior which they are happy to just let continue to exist as all budget going to bumping it out and making it bigger instead of upgrading the interior

that's the main gripe, the best part of the house was the deck right on the water, due to coastal zoning you can't build on the ocean anymore and can only build into preexisting framework so we can't just add on a new deck but rather bump out the house over where the deck was - which means no more awesome place for bbqs/meals/evening cocktails etc and everything is now forced indoors or outdoors on the ground like a bunch of peasants (i kid i kid)

what's happened since construction is most socializing now occurs out on the dock, which is not nearly as nice/comfortable an experience if you're just hanging out and not actively using the water and you gotta move all the canoes/kayaks into the water to make enough space to chill

fair enough, but this is mostly from my time working for a construction company out on the west coast right after college - worked on building a football stadium in pasadena and then got moved up to renovate an office building in seattle - wholly different crews each time - totally different environment where foreman would 100% be on you if you were standing around and chit chatting instead of focusing on the project at hand

like they are using the nail gun and will stop and pause nailing in order to tell an anecdote because if they are nailing the sound is too loud, then once story over back to nailing

today one guy showed up at 9:39 and left at 2:47 - he was the only one to come up today and spent half the time talking to his gf on his phone

i worked from 6-3:30 every day and often worked as late as 7 when they wanted to rush and didn't mind paying OT - we joked around and had fun at scheduled breaks and lunches but other than that everything super punctual and just going about your job - wasn't a great experience but making $55 an hour plus OT at 21 was nice

How's that ocean breeze in February?

There's a real simple solution to this that you should bring to your parents' attention immediately: rooftop deck!

roof is going to be all windows (this we all approve of though there's criminal low window coverage facing ocean upstairs right now) and it wouldn't be allowed anyway

didace - thing is we already have a dining room with windows facing the ocean, my parents being old don't want to carry 20 feet from kitchen and think this new 5 ft walk is much better

but the main thing is nobody lives here in winter, i spent last winter here and was literally the only resident on the entire cove to stay

I'm sure the joke is very well worn out to you Mainers.

It's possible that they are overheating due to being covered in insulation (if they are) and they are not IC rated, insulation contact. Are they LED? Everyone's been talking about LED, but you never said they were leds, did you?

A quick google came back with this:
"Why is my LED recessed light flickering?
LED bulb flickering can be traced in almost every instance to a non-compatible dimmer switch in the lighting circuit. Modern dimmer switches create the dimming effect by switching the power supply on and off many times per second."
So maybe it's the dimmer?

Thanks for all of the responses. I'll try to hit all the questions without multiquoting

1. They are LEDs
2. They are not in contact with any insulation as far as the ones I can see. There are some I can't see because it was an area in the attic that was difficult to access, so I just let the installer go in there. I guess I'll ask him about that when I talk to him.
3. I don't know about the frequency of the flicker. It seems like 60Hz most of the time. But earlier the lights just went off for a full second.

Here's some additional info

1. They were working perfectly fine for 3 months before the problem arose
2. There is another set of recessed lights in the same room on the same circuit installed at the same time. No problems with them (thankfully because they are harder to access). They have different cans, fixtures, and switch, though.

Additional question

1. Anyone think that the wiring has anything to do with it? I hate for that to be the problem. Replacing the other stuff is NBD, but if the wiring needs to be redone that is going to be a huge pain.

Wiring isn't the problem. Why not move bulbs around and see if the problem follows the bulb? Also, does the lights on the same circuit flicker in sync?

Do they have bulbs or do they have the little flat led panel inside? I imagine there aren't any bulbs, right?

Does it only do it when the lights are dimmed? If you crank them to their brightest does it still happen?

How many cans, at how many watts each, are on this particular dimmer?

It's all of the lights connected to this switch. There is one set of eight that are on one switch and another set of six that are on another switch. It only happens with the set of eight. Both sets are on the same circuit (i.e. controlled by same breaker on panel). All of the lights in the set of eight flicker in sync.



There are no bulbs. It's these lights:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MYNVGVM/

8 cans. Not sure if it matters but 4 of them are one brand and the other 4 are a different brand. One group of four is connected with the TP24 connector and the other group of 4 is connected with the E26). Each can has one of the above 11 W (60 W equivalent) fixtures.

It happens no matter what level the dimmer is at. For TV viewing we keep it low and the rest of the time it's at max setting.



Here another interesting fact. Wife noticed that it seems to only happen when we turn the air conditioning on. This makes sense, since we haven't really been using a/c until about a month ago as there has been no need. And that is when we first noticed the problem. There were no problems before that (they were installed in Feb).

So we tested it out last night by turning the a/c off. Flickering stopped after switching the lights off for less than one min (normally that doesn't work). However after about 15 min of a/c off, flickering started again. Not sure if that is some weird coincidence. Might test again today to see if they really is some connection between these two things.

A/C is central and on a different circuit (obv).

Are the dimmers for both sets exactly the same? Are they in the same switch box? If they are in the same switch box, maybe have your guy flip flop the 2 runs and see if that makes the 6 flicker to determine if it's the dimmer, which seems to be most likely.

They’re cheap led cans. You can spend hours/days/weeks/months trying to trouble shoot the issue or you can spend 15 minutes and replace it and realize it’s probably just defective because it’s cheap and that happens some times. How strict do you think the quality control is on something that effectively costs 5 bucks?

If you really want to keep trouble shooting it - switch the can with one of the other ones not having the problem.

If the problem moves with the can - it’s the can

If the problem stays at the same location - it’s something to do with the wiring

No the dimmers aren't the same. The lights are different and the lights had different sets of compatible dimmer. The dimmer I liked the best (which is on the problem set) was not compatible with the other lights so I got a different dimmer.

You mean the light fixtures? Not the housing (that is what I call 'cans').

Replacing those will be my first step. Do you have a recommendation on a good brand?

how many posters does it take to change a light bulb?

I noticed today that my electric meter is below 87900, which means I've generated over 1.21 megawatts.

Just three orders of magnitude and a DeLorean away from time travel.