A STUDY ON THE FLICKER OF COMMERCIAL LAMPS

Spiros Kitsinelis (1) , Georges Zissis (2) , Lydie Arexis-Boisson (1)

1 LAPLACE - LAboratoire PLasma et Conversion d'Energie
2 LAPLACE-LM - Lumière et Matière

Flicker has always been an issue for incandescent and fluorescent lamps with possible important health impacts. The AC operation of these lamps at mains frequency (50 Hz) means that a 100 Hz light output oscillation is exhibited and even with high frequency (kHz) operating circuits the flicker at that 100 Hz frequency can be decreased but not eliminated. With the ever increasing penetration of DC operated LED lamps in the market we decided to test this technology and compare it to the other two by measuring and recording the light output and flicker behavior of a number of commercial lamps In each case we calculated the flicker percentages a all available data show a linear relation to the flicker indexes. The measurements and tests show that LEE lamps exhibit a range of behaviors, depending on the driving circuit, ranging from no flicker to the largest flicker percentages of all three technologies. The tests also show that for all three technologies exhibiting flicker, the voltage decreases (dimming) make the flicker percentages larger. Finally we propose are easy flicker detection method based on widely available digital camera displays.

Domaines: Optique / photonique

Spiros Kitsinelis, Georges Zissis, Lydie Arexis-Boisson. A STUDY ON THE FLICKER OF COMMERCIAL LAMPS. Light & Engineering, 2012, 20 (3), pp.25-33. ⟨hal-02867344⟩