LED Flicker: A Drawback or an Opportunity?

Abstract

In this paper we examine the flicker of commercial LED lamps and with the help of volunteers we explore the parameter space (frequency and duty cycle) in order to find pulsing operating conditions under which the light fluctuations are not visually perceived. The results show that LEDs under mains voltage manifest the most extreme cases of flicker and we also confirm that under pulsing mode the overall impression is of higher brightness which is an opportunity for energy savings. The results also show that the background color and luminance contrast is of high importance. Finally we propose an easy method for consumers to detect flickering of light sources under mains voltage.