Why do my lights flicker?
One flickering light is usually the bulb or its fitting; one room flickering on a dimmer is usually an old dimmer incompatible with LED bulbs; the whole house flickering, especially when appliances start, points at a loose connection somewhere serious and deserves prompt professional attention.
Scale is the diagnostic. A single fitting: try a new bulb first (LED bulbs fail into flicker more often than into darkness), then suspect the fitting's connections or a worn lamp holder, a small-works fix.
A dimmed room that flickers, buzzes or will not dim low: the dimmer predates the bulbs. Leading-edge dimmers designed for hot filament loads cannot regulate LED drivers; the cure is a trailing-edge dimmer matched to the load, one of our commonest and most satisfying small jobs.
Whole-house flicker is the one to respect, particularly if it coincides with heavy appliances starting or if neighbours see nothing similar. It suggests a loose or deteriorating connection on a main conductor, at the board, the meter tails or the supply head, and loose main connections generate heat. That is a book-promptly fault, and if it escalates (dimming, burning smell, warm meter cupboard) it is a today fault.
One more pattern worth knowing: flicker synchronised with a neighbour's usage or the whole street points at the network rather than your installation; your network operator (105) investigates supply-side flicker free.
More in everyday electrics, or browse all 40 questions on the FAQ index.
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