It's unpleasant to watch an incandescent lamp burn out. However, this problem, familiar to everyone, can be solved by simply replacing it with a new light bulb with minimal impact on the family budget. It is much worse if an LED lamp, the price of which is much higher, suddenly burns out. Similar problems arise among car enthusiasts who want to feel the power of the LED beam on the highway. Why does the declared operating time with four zeros for some LED (light-emitting diode) lamps remain only on the label? What do you need to know to navigate among the many LED innovations? In search of answers, we will look at the reasons why light bulbs fail and provide several solutions.

Driver Significance

Any LED, regardless of its application, must have a stabilized rated current (nameplate value) flow through it. Only in this case will the glow be even, and the operating time of the crystal will be able to exceed the mark of 10 thousand hours. Regardless of the shape, size and number of LEDs, all LED lamps can be divided into two main categories according to the control method:

• based on a driver with a pulse load current driver;
• based on a ballast voltage source.

A driver with a pulse transformer and a current converter is the only correct technical solution for powering LED lamps, which is produced industrially.

To appreciate the importance of a current stabilizer, let's look at its operating principle using a short example. In ceiling chandeliers with LED lighting, as a rule, a current stabilizer unit is installed. Its output voltage varies over a wide range, and the output current value will remain constant even with one LED in the load. In such a chandelier, a burnt-out LED can simply be short-circuited. More powerful current drivers operate on approximately the same principle.

Considering that the production of LED light bulbs with a pulsed current driver is not entirely economically justified, Chinese entrepreneurs decided to simplify its design. Instead of a driver, a ballast power supply without a current stabilization function is installed in the LED lamp housing. Its output voltage is calculated based on the number of SMD LEDs inside the case. As a result of voltage drops in the network, the glow power of the lamp changes. And frequent phase jumps up to 240 V lead to LED lamps burning out.

Low quality products

Most LED lamps from Chinese brands burn out due to poor quality assembly. Under the stylish appearance of the product, several unpleasant surprises may be hidden:

• a cheap electrolytic capacitor that gradually loses capacity when operating in a high-temperature environment;
• lack of high-quality heat removal;
• lack of a good driver;
• “cold soldering” of contact pads, etc.

If you look inside the housing of a burnt-out LED lamp, you will find that the thermal paste is only partially applied to the aluminum substrate. As a result, heat transfer from the board to the radiator occurs unevenly, which leads to overheating of the emitting SMD element, which is in the worst temperature regime. Clever Chinese engineers calculate the ballast power supply so that the output voltage on it is slightly higher than the rated one. The initial brightness of such a product impresses the buyer, which means the commercial goal has been achieved. In the best case, after several months of operation, the luminous flux will decrease by 30%, in the worst case, the lamp will burn out.

The listed facts indicate a deliberate deterioration of the technical characteristics of the product by the manufacturer. After all, if everyone switches to high-quality LED lighting, then who will buy the lamps?

Why do LED lamps in an apartment burn out?

If the quality of the light bulb is not in doubt, then its burnout may be caused by a problem in the electrical wiring. A loose contact in the socket or in the junction box will cause surges in the supply voltage and cause a breakdown.
In cheap LED bulbs, insufficient heat removal from the light-emitting crystals forces the LEDs to operate on the verge of overheating. Installation of such lamps in the kitchen, where the air temperature under the ceiling during operation of a gas or electric oven exceeds 30 °C, also contributes to accelerated degradation of the crystal with all the ensuing consequences.

The organization of decorative lighting from LED strips also needs to be given due attention. If the SMD 5050 type tape is not glued to a special aluminum profile, then it will soon be possible to observe the fading of individual segments.

Why do LED bulbs in a car burn out?

By replacing conventional halogen bulbs with LED ones, the car owner hopes to get the most out of them. However, lack of knowledge about advertised light sources causes them to burn out.

Often the lack of experience involves purchasing automotive LED lamps without the appropriate drivers. A powerful resistor plays the role of a current limiter. It turns out everything is simple, but not reliable. With such circuitry, the voltage of the on-board network increases from 12 V to 14 V, which is detrimental to LED bulbs. A proportional increase in current leads to flickering, partial extinction, and then burnout of the lamp. Blaming everything on low-quality products, you can continue to install lamps from dubious companies and “step on the same rake.”

The second common reason is small-scale wholesale ordering of “no name” LED lamps via the Internet. Having saved a hundred rubles, the buyer risks receiving several defective copies or products with a non-standard base, the manual modification of which will worsen the technical data.

And the design features of some headlights do not allow additional placement of LEDs for size and direction indicators. Such modernization leads to their overheating due to the heat from the original headlight lamps.

As a reassurance, owners of burnt-out LED lamps can be advised to repair them. Compared to incandescent and halogen bulbs, this is a big plus. The main thing is to correctly identify the burnt-out element during repairs and eliminate the cause of the product failure.

Read also

LED lamps are modern equipment that appeared on the domestic market relatively recently. LED devices are quite expensive. But at the same time, they usually last much longer than simple incandescent lamps. LED equipment is actually quite reliable. But unfortunately, sometimes it still happens that the LED device starts blinking or even breaks down completely. Why LED lamps burn out - we’ll look into this later in the article.

Main reasons for failure

An LED lamp can burn out due to:

faulty electrical wiring in the house;

malfunction of a lamp or chandelier;

poor build quality.

Wiring condition

Very often, owners of houses and apartments are interested in why LED lamps constantly burn out. The reason in this case most likely lies in a wiring fault. In order to fix this problem, you should call the house management and call electricians. Specialists will check the network and fix any existing problems.

Of course, you can inspect the wiring in your house yourself. But this should only be done if you have some experience working with networks. First of all, you should check all the distribution boxes in the apartment. Any twists in them (and even more so copper and aluminum wires) should be eliminated. To connect the wires you need to use special sleeves, blocks or adapters.

It is also worth checking the condition of the wiring directly at the point where the chandelier or lamp is connected to the general house network. Poor contact here is also often the answer to the question of why LED lamps in an apartment burn out.

Such equipment can also fail due to voltage surges in the network. It is for this reason that LED devices sometimes have to be changed at dachas. After all, outside the city in Russia, tension is rarely stable. In this case, nothing can be corrected, most likely. Instead of LED lamps, home owners will have to use regular incandescent lamps. You can also buy some powerful stabilizer. For example, Resanta devices are often installed in dachas. If you have such equipment, it will most likely be possible to use LED lamps in your home. However, Resanta, unfortunately, can also produce strong voltage surges when switching.

Why LED lamps burn out: the state of the chandelier

Sometimes such problems with LED devices arise due to a malfunction of the lamp itself. Therefore, such equipment should also be carefully inspected. In this case you need:

Inspect all contacts in the cartridge. If necessary, they should be cleaned. This is especially true for the “tongues”, which it is also advisable to bend upward. All these actions will subsequently ensure reliable contact between the lamp and the socket.

Check all fastenings. It often happens, for example, that the screw on the cartridge is loosely tightened. And this, in turn, usually leads to sparking and burning. The voltage in the lamp is unstable due to weak contacts. This is the reason why LED lamps burn out quickly.

Low quality of the equipment itself

Today there are LED devices on sale both from famous European manufacturers, as well as Chinese or domestic ones. The first ones are quite expensive, but at the same time they are reliable. Mostly Chinese lamps burn out quickly. This is explained primarily by the low quality of their assembly. Domestic equipment of this type is considered relatively reliable.

LED devices, as already mentioned, cannot tolerate voltage surges. Therefore, their design includes a special mini-stabilizer - a “driver”. In particular, increased voltage has a bad effect on the longevity of the LED lamp. When assembling, the Chinese try to make the ice bulb look “beautiful”, primarily in the store. Lighting equipment stands in shopping centers usually take a long time to charge. And to make the light bulb look “worthy,” the Chinese put a weak current limiter on it. Therefore, when turned on on the stand, it lights up with a bright light. And therefore, it looks high-quality in the store. When connected to a household network, such a device will experience severe overloads and ultimately burn out.

Of course, not all Chinese manufacturers supply such low-quality goods to the market. However, the risk of “running into” a potentially short-lived LED device made in the Middle Kingdom is quite large.

Why is it on?

Such devices burn out quite rarely. Most often, a malfunction of LED lamps manifests itself in the fact that they begin to blink. This can happen both when the device is turned on or off. In the first case, the cause of blinking may be:

poor-quality installation of the device;

old wiring in the house;

the switch is not in phase, but at “zero”;

low-quality driver in the lamp itself;

phase imbalance.

Sometimes it also happens that the light goes out after being turned on, and then lights up. This primarily indicates a faulty starter.

What to do when the device blinks when it is turned on

The first step to fix this problem is to check all contacts on the network. If this does not help, you may have to think about replacing the electrical wiring in the apartment. Old high-rise buildings usually have aluminum wires installed. There are many powerful devices used in apartments today. Therefore, it may simply not cope with the load. If blinking occurs for this reason, the wires must be replaced with copper ones.

If the light blinks simply due to a malfunction, you can try the following:

take out the filling of the device and insert the driver there;

to stabilize the lamp, solder another capacitor into it;

use one driver for all light bulbs in the device.

Blinking when off

This type of malfunction can be explained by:

The presence of LED lighting in the switch. The current flowing through it can recharge the lamp capacitor over time. As a result, a faint glow occurs. To prevent this from happening, you can try replacing one of the LED devices with a regular incandescent lamp. This device will simply “take” the excess voltage onto itself. Its strength is simply not enough to light an incandescent lamp.

Inconsistency of the lamp itself with quality standards.

In the off state, often due to a malfunction in the electrical wiring of the house or apartment. Also, in some cases, this phenomenon occurs due to the operation of a large number of sources of high-frequency interference (microwaves, electric stoves, washing machines, etc.). In this case, the problem can be corrected by including a stabilizer with a filter in the network circuit.

Lamp selection. Which one is better to buy?

The answer to the question of which LED lamps are better depends primarily on the design features of the device and its technical characteristics. When purchasing LEDs, you should pay attention primarily to the following factors:

Type of flask. Most often, apartment and house owners purchase (for chandeliers) E14 (for small lamps). Such LED devices can be produced in the form of a flask or “corn”. With the latest version of the lamps, the LED contacts on the outside are energized. Therefore, they are considered fire unsafe. For a house or apartment, it is better to purchase bulb lamps. A very good choice would be, for example, an E27 LED ball lamp. Such devices are considered to be of sufficient quality in terms of safety and reliability of design.

Luminous flux. For devices from good manufacturers, this figure can fluctuate between 900-1000 lumens per watt of power. For example, 10W can have a luminous flux rating of 700-900 lumens. If the seller assures the buyer in the store of other, better characteristics of the device, he should not be trusted. LED lamps with an efficiency of 1300 lumens or more are too expensive. And therefore it is simply impractical to produce them for apartments.

Light temperature of the lamp. Of course, for an apartment you should choose a “warm white” LED device.

Is it worth buying on Aliexpress?

When purchasing a lamp, you should, of course, definitely pay attention to the characteristics of the lamp. But it is equally important to look at the manufacturer’s brand. This is especially true in cases where the apartment owners decided to save money and purchase a Chinese LED device. After all, the answer to the question of why LED lamps burn out often lies precisely in the poor quality of their assembly.

The best manufacturing companies

If we continue to talk about the Celestial Empire, then the answer to the question of which LED lamps are better is the products of the following companies:

Camilion. Lamps from this manufacturer belong to the budget category and are sold not only in Russia, but also in Europe. Most consumers believe that their quality is relatively good.

Maxus. The quality of Kamilion lamps from this manufacturer is inferior. But they are still considered quite reliable. Most consumers advise purchasing them, for example, for a summer house or garage.

It is better not to purchase lamps from unknown Chinese manufacturers at all. Such an LED bulb will most likely not last for too long.

Among the Russian manufacturers of LED lamps, the most popular are:

"Optogan";

"Svetlana-Optoelectronics".

There are, of course, good, relatively inexpensive lamps from European companies on the domestic market. The best such manufacturers are considered to be Gauss, Osram and Philips.

Manufacturers of LED lamps claim that these light sources can operate uninterruptedly from 30,000 to 100,000 hours, then why do LED lamps burn out? The answer lies in the ill-conceived and cheap design of the lamps. What should you pay attention to when buying LED light bulbs and how to test the quality of the product at home?

Choosing LED lamps for your home – two tricks that buyers are fooled into using

There are two main reasons for its popularity. The first is low power consumption. According to manufacturers, such bulbs produce 100 W and consume only 10–12 W, which is 10 times less than standard incandescent lamps and 3 times less than energy-intensive fluorescent lamps. Secondly, the service life of LED lamps for standard models is 25,000–30,000 hours. Considering that on average the lamp will work 6-7 hours a day, the light bulb should last for 11-13 years. Other advantages of these light bulbs include the absence of mercury, the durability of the materials and the ability to create lighting with a different color spectrum.

And now about the disadvantages that outweigh the advantages. First of all, the high price. Conventional light bulbs with a consumption of 4–9 W will cost from 300 to 2000 rubles, and LED lamps – from 5500 rubles. Let's return again to the service life of LEDs and answer the question: is it true? The answer is no. Numerous consumer complaints are direct confirmation of this. Simple arithmetic shows that an LED light bulb should last about 11 years, while the manufacturer gives it a 3-5 year warranty.

Already in the first year of operation, individual LEDs begin to burn out and gradually pull along all the other light bulbs connected by a common chain. You also need to take into account that to get the usual lighting you will need to purchase more light bulbs, since LED lamps have a directional emission spectrum. Therefore, before buying expensive LED light bulbs, think carefully about whether they can pay for themselves over the course of their service life.

Tricks with a current stabilizer and power supply - secrets of manufacturers

Poor build quality, which is inherent in most products from the Chinese series, is the main reason why light bulbs burn out. Such lamps are attractive only externally; the internal content leaves much to be desired. The first thing that is often missing in most Chinese LED light bulbs is a current stabilizer. Installing this element maintains a constant current output even when the load on the network increases, the system does not overheat, and the LEDs operate stably. What do unscrupulous manufacturers do? They replace the current stabilizer with a ballast power supply. It is not able to withstand voltage drops in the network and exceeding the rated heating temperature, so the light bulbs burn out quickly.

The ballast power supply has another clever function - a bright glow effect. The store will offer you exactly these LED bulbs. When tested, they will emit a bright and powerful luminous flux thanks to the built-in ballast power supply, where the output voltage is slightly higher than the rated one. However, at the end of the reserve, the brightness of the light decreases to 30% or the bulbs burn out completely.

Other reasons why Chinese-made light bulbs often burn out include poor-quality soldering, factory defects in parts, and incorrect wiring diagrams.

Among small-scale wholesale supplies of light bulbs via the Internet, there are often products of very low quality. Such LED lamps are most often sold without names; they have a manufacturing defect (non-standard base, manual modification, poor soldering, incorrectly assembled circuit).

Quality of components - what to pay attention to?

Returning to the topic of the quality of parts that affect the operation of LED light bulbs in luminaires, pay attention to the plastic housing, aluminum and other elements. The first thing you notice when you pick up cheap light bulbs is their light weight. If the mass of a standard 12 W LED lamp is about 50–60 g, this indicates that cheap thermoplastic and a thin aluminum heatsink were used for its production. Such materials do not fit tightly in the bending areas, the LEDs overheat, and the contacts oxidize and fail. Therefore, give preference to heavier bulbs weighing 100–120 g, where the likelihood of using high-quality parts is much higher. Pay special attention to the external radiator. It should be made of durable aluminum with ribbed edges through which heat dissipation passes. The diffuser is made of matte plastic and is a good heat conductor. Unlike frosted glass, it quickly builds up heat inside the case and releases it slowly, which also leads to overheating of the LEDs.

However, the most common problem that causes light bulbs to burn out isfast, like matches, - partial application of thermal paste on an aluminum substrate. Unfortunately, this occurs in 90% of light bulbs. As a result of uneven distribution of the composition, the LEDs overheat and the crystals are destroyed. The first to fail are the LEDs that are located in the place where the thermal paste is completely missing. Remember, only if the thermal paste is evenly distributed over the entire surface of the plate will heat be effectively transferred to the cooling radiator. If this problem exists and your LED bulbs have a removable diffuser, we recommend applying thermal paste in an even layer yourself.

Old electrical wiring - routine inspection

If the light bulbs in the chandelier burn out locally, for example, only in one room, it is worth checking the electrical wiring. Inspect the wires in the junction box that go from the switch to the chandelier, the connection diagram for the ceiling lamp. During diagnostics there should be no twisted or exposed wires. For reliability and ease of connection, we recommend using WAGO terminal blocks. They come in two types - disposable and reusable. Use the second option. Thanks to a special lever, the contacts can be easily disconnected and the circuit tested for fault detection.

If the wiring is OK, inspect the cartridge. If damage, burnt wires and parts are detected, we replace the old cartridge with a new one or clean the contacts and bend the wires. Replacing the socket will help eliminate the problem of LED burnout. A leaky seal between the socket and the LED lamp often leads to malfunction of the lamp. Inspect the mounting screw and if it is loose, secure it tightly. Sealing the connection between the light bulb and the socket will help stabilize the current and resistance in the system, preventing the risk of overheating.

Installation of LEDs in an apartment and a car – what to be afraid of?

Cheap LED light bulbs are sensitive to overheating. Therefore, it is important to install such light sources away from heating elements and avoid rooms with high air temperatures, for example, a kitchen. When operating a gas or electric stove, the room temperature can reach 30 °C, causing the destruction of crystals.

When purchasing LED strips of the SMD 5050 type for decoration, it is important to consider mounting the lamps on a durable aluminum profile, which will facilitate heat dissipation. If you neglect this rule, the LEDs will begin to burn out one by one and the entire system will become unusable.

When installing LED bulbs in a car, make sure that they have a current stabilizer unit, and not a regular resistor. Otherwise, increasing the power of the on-board network from 12 to 14 W will negatively affect the operation of the LEDs. Therefore, when replacing halogen bulbs with LED bulbs on a large scale, first test trusted manufacturers - Feron, Jazzway, Camelion, Navigator, Gauss, and choose the appropriate option for yourself.

If you are faced with the problem that the LED lamp is on when the switch is off, do not be surprised. This indicates that current is flowing through the LEDs. The brightness of the glow depends only on its strength.

On the one hand, this phenomenon has a positive side, if the lighting is in the toilet or corridor it can be used as night lighting. What if it's in the bedroom? It is possible that the light does not smolder, but flashes periodically.

There may be several reasons for this phenomenon:

• Use of illuminated switches;
• electrical wiring faults;
• features of the power supply scheme.

The most common reason for a lamp to glow after being turned off is backlit switches.

Inside such a switch there is an LED with a current-limiting resistor. The LED lamp glows dimly when the light is turned off, because even when the main contact is turned off, voltage continues to flow through them.

Why does an LED lamp burn at full heat and not at full power?? Thanks to the limiting resistor, the current flowing through the electrical circuit is extremely insignificant and insufficient to light an incandescent electric lamp or ignite fluorescent lamps.

The power consumption of LEDs is tens of times lower than the same parameters of an ordinary incandescent lamp. But even a small current flowing through the backlight diode is sufficient for the LEDs in the lamp to glow weakly.

There can be two lighting options. Either the LED lamp lights up continuously after turning off, which means that sufficient current flows through the LED backlight of the switch, or the light flashes periodically. This usually happens if the current flowing through the circuit is too small to cause a constant glow, but it recharges the smoothing capacitor in the power supply circuit.

When sufficient voltage gradually accumulates on the capacitor, the stabilizer chip is triggered and the lamp flashes for a moment. Such blinking must be definitely combated, no matter where the lamp is located.

In this operating mode, the lifespan of the power board components will be significantly reduced, since even the microcircuit does not have an infinite number of operation cycles.

There are several ways to eliminate the situation when the LED light is on when the switch is off.

The simplest is to remove it from the backlight switch. To do this, we disassemble the housing and unscrew or bite off with wire cutters the wire going to the resistor and LED. You can replace the switch with another one, but without such a useful function.

Another option would be to solder a shunt resistor in parallel with the lamp. According to the parameters, it should be designed for 2-4 W and have a resistance of no more than 50 kOhm. Then the current will flow through it, and not through the power driver of the lamp itself.

You can purchase such a resistor at any radio store. Installing the resistor is not difficult. It is enough to remove the lampshade and fix the resistance legs in the terminal block for connecting the network wires.

If you are not particularly friendly with electricians and are afraid to “interfere” with the wiring yourself, another way to “fight” backlit switches can be to install a regular incandescent lamp in the chandelier. When turned off, its spiral will act as a shunt resistor. But this method is only possible if the chandelier has several sockets.

Problems with electrical wiring

Why does the LED lamp glow after being turned off even if the backlit button is not used?

Perhaps, when installing the electrical wiring, an error was initially made and a zero is supplied to the switch instead of a phase, then after the switch is turned off, the wiring still remains “under phase”.

This current situation must be eliminated immediately, since even with a scheduled replacement of the lamp, you can receive a sensitive electric shock. Any minimal contact with ground in this situation will cause the LEDs to glow dimly.

Features of the power supply

To increase the brightness of the glow and minimize lighting ripple, high-capacity capacitors can be installed in the power driver circuit. Even when the power is turned off, there is enough charge left in it to light up the LEDs, but it only lasts for just a few seconds.

You are far from the first person to wonder why LED lamps glow after being turned off. In fact, this phenomenon can be called common and not dangerous. However, this is not enough. Therefore, in this article we will analyze all the existing reasons for this effect.

This behavior on the part of LED emitters often causes not only bewilderment, but also acts irritatingly. In addition, regular flickering will quickly damage the device. Therefore, before finding out the reasons, we will understand how the lamp works.

LEDs are powered by direct current, which passes through a capacitor and reaches the optimum value for the light bulb. In some cases, even with the switch turned off, you can notice the glow of the lamp. Voltage on the capacitor can appear for any reason.

The design of an LED lamp is never the same, since each individual manufacturer provides a different layout and circuit for creating the device. However, the general effect of the device remains the same. The required components of LED lamps are: base, driver, radiator, board with sources emitting light and bulb.

When voltage is connected to the light bulb, a chaotic movement of electrons occurs, which, colliding with each other, form holes, as a result of which a bright glow occurs. Thus, even if the minimum amount of current penetrates the semiconductor, it will glow or blink when turned off, so it is advisable to understand the reasons for this.

What causes LED bulbs to flicker?

Let's consider a number of factors that cause the LED device to glow when turned off:

Attention! If the LED lamp is connected to a backlit switch, the backlight must be turned off. In this case, the network will open and the current will stop flowing to the capacitor.

The design of energy-saving lamps and the reasons for their flickering

Why does an energy-saving lamp flicker after being turned off is a trivial, but rather painful question. This scares some people, others simply try not to pay attention to the device so as not to worry.

A fluorescent lamp, similar to an LED source, operates from a small amount of direct current. The rectifier, which reduces the voltage for the lamp, is located directly inside the structure. There is also a capacitor, which is the reason the light bulb glows regularly even when the switch is off.

Please note the backlit dimmer. If you are installing energy-saving appliances, there should not be such a switch. Otherwise, you can penetrate the mechanism of the light source and turn off the backlight. Then current pulses will stop penetrating into the capacitor.

Advice! Be sure to exclude all causes that cause pulsation of LED lamps and energy-saving ones, since after two to three months such lighting will need to be replaced due to the exhausted number of starts.

Solving the problem or how to get rid of the annoying glow of energy-saving and LED lamps

To solve the problem with random flickering or glowing of LEDs and mercury lamps, you must:

Also, the most effective way to eliminate the glare of mercury and LED lamps when turned off is to connect a special resistor in parallel with the lamp, which will resist current up to 50 kOhm. The power of such a device should not exceed 2 W, otherwise the problem will not go away. You can purchase it at any radio store.