
LEDs could be harmful to health – the EU halogen ban will make it worse - YeGoblynQueenne
https://theconversation.com/leds-could-be-harmful-to-health-the-eu-halogen-ban-will-make-it-worse-102589
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squarefoot
"Some electronic circuitry is insufficient to reduce the variation in the
supply voltage and this process can generate flicker."

Way oversimplified, yet accurate enough to tell where the problem is: shitty
power supplies, not just LEDs [1]. I've repaired where possible or changed
defective ones on many LED lights and even best ones are less reliable than
traditional linear power supplies. Yes, they can be made rock solid but that
will cost, good luck telling the public that their $10
Ebay/Amazon/Ali*/whatever 20W LED light will blow up in days because it
contains a 10W LED overloaded by a shitty and badly filtered PSU to emit the
equivalent lumens of a 15W one. The PSU also is very likely using abysmal
quality capacitors to smooth both the output and the feedback voltage, so it
mostly goes like that: one or more capacitors start losing capacitance or
developing leaks due to bad dielectric, the output from a clean DC voltage
becomes spiky; part of those spikes end up via the feedback line to the
regulator which takes the event as an overvoltage and shuts down the circuit.
This happens form many times per second to once every few seconds; if you see
a LED becoming prone to flashing go look at the PSU and recap or change it.

[1] The blue light interfering with our circadian rhythm is a different story.
In short: don't use blue leds, especially in dark hours.

~~~
Doxin
Do mind that the state of LEDs isn't that of 5 years ago. There are affordable
and rock solid LED lights available right now.

Taking the IKEA LEDARE bulbs as an example: They provide a pleasant warm light
--though slightly colder than incandescants it's much better than most
fluorescents-- and they have a color rendition index to match.

In addition to that they have no perceptible flicker, turning the light off
leaves a solid 3-4 second afterglow so there's clearly a beefy enough
capacitor in that power supply.

Sure there are crap bulbs available, and it's hard for the average consumer to
pick the good ones from a lineup. but clearly your assertion that $10 bulbs
are by definition no good is incorrect.

