Almost every artificial light source flickers. Although with varying intensity, only natural sunlight is completely flicker-free. This flickering, which the human eye often cannot even perceive, nevertheless triggers stress symptoms in the body. If a person is exposed to an artificial, flickering light source for too long, this can have effects on his or her health. This could lead to tiredness, exhaustion, headaches, lack of concentration, increased heart rate or even epileptic seizures. Flicker-free LEDs can help here.
Cause of flickering with artificial light sources
Mains operated luminaires operate on alternating current. The polarity in alternating current changes many times per second between about 50 and 60 Hertz. This indicates an on-off effect in most lamps, which is widely known as flicker or hertz flicker. The extent to which one is affected by the flickering of an artificial light source depends on its frequency, the fluctuation in brightness and the light intensity of the illumination.
The test: Does the light flicker?
It is easy to find out whether a light source is flickering – whether it is a lamp, PC or other illuminated devices. You simply open the smartphone camera and hold it against the light source. If it flickers, you can see it clearly in the camera. Unfortunately, this also has a negative effect on film and photo shoots, because the flickering is often clearly visible there.
Avoid hertz flickering with LEDs
Different illuminants are differently slow and compensate the polarity change differently well. Incandescent lamps, for example, are particularly slow and therefore appear almost flicker-free. Since LEDs react particularly quickly, an integrated circuit (IC for integrated circuit) is often used as a voltage regulator. In the ripple-free process, the frequency waves are flattened by input and output filters until the waveform is no longer perceived as flicker.Smoothing this sinusoidal AC voltage reduces the on-off effect and prevents the lamp from flickering. One way to achieve the same effect as with the ripple-free process for LEDs afterwards is to use high-quality LED converters. On the other hand, the flickering lamp can also be replaced by a new, flicker-free LED lamp.
Advantages of flicker-free LEDs
With particularly good energy efficiency classes, LEDs are generally much more energy-efficient than standard light bulbs and generate less heat. This does not mean you have to make any concessions in terms of design: LED filaments such as those used in the Heitronic LED light bulb imitate the classic light bulb look and are just as flicker-free as the original.
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