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Flicker Checker - Once for Magnetic Ballasts, Now for LED

6/15/2012

13 Comments

 
As a student at the University of Kansas I worked for the EADC - Energy Analysis and Diagnostic Center. This was a fantastic DOE-sponsored program (now called IAC) which employed college students to perform free energy audits of manufacturing plants and commercial office spaces and then provide them a report full of Energy Conservation Opportunities (ECOs.) One of our most common ECOs at that time was: replace existing T12 fluorescent lamps and magnetic ballasts with energy-saving T8 fluorescent lamps and new electronic ballasts. One of the added benefits of this upgrade was the elimination of "flicker." Though imperceptible to some, flicker can be quite problematic for sensitive individuals, causing headaches or even seizures. Flicker happens with the natural cycling of AC power, but with the higher frequency inherent in electronic ballasts, the fluorescent phosphors do not have time to dim, and therefore flicker is eliminated.

We had a handy tool that we could use to verify whether the existing ballasts were magnetic or electronic. It was a top, called a flicker checker. When you spin it under electronic ballasts, you see a series of concentric gray circles like in the first video below.
However, if the existing fixture had magnetic ballasts, the flicker checker displayed choppy squares instead of concentric circles, illustrated in the video below. 
The thing is, this second video wasn't a top spinning under a fluorescent lamp with a magnetic ballast. It was spinning under a dimmed LED fixture! Once again we need to watch out for flicker in our lighting. The great news is that this time almost everyone is armed with their own personal flicker checker! No...maybe not a top. Pull out the camera on your phone and point it at the nearest LED source. If you see a series of bars or stripes on your display, the source is flickering. If not, then you have a high-quality LED with a compatible dimmer and/or driver.
Picture
LED source with flicker - note white vertical lines in photo
Picture
Magnetically ballasted fluorescent with flicker
Picture
Electronically ballasted fluorescent - no flicker
Try it. Let us know what you find! 
13 Comments
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3/30/2013 12:19:56 pm


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Louis Lance link
6/18/2013 06:57:13 am

I have look every where to buy a flicker Checker Device. Can you help me out. I want it to check out fluorescent light fixtures. Thanks for you help

Reply
Lisa
6/27/2013 02:31:57 am

You can get a free flicker checker top from any Osram Sylvania rep. If you want an electronic one, I believe they are available for sale through your Osram Sylvania rep as well. Hope that helps!

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6/27/2013 02:16:08 am

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7/17/2013 07:50:49 pm

I have got a chance to work with EADC once and that was a good experience for me throughout my life. When I was doing my graduation, in the second year the EADC people came to our college for a seminar and they selected few people to work with him. Luckily I was one of the team to work with EADC, and that was a wonderful experience.

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7/11/2014 09:38:40 pm

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JB
1/7/2015 08:58:51 am

You can use your phone's camera to check for magnetic ballasts (and flicker). How about that... you already have a "flicker checker" and you didn't even know. : )

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