Energy Focus makes LED Lighting products, how can we possibly have a say in health and wellness? Especially making claims that something as simple as lighting can be dangerous! Well, we’ve spent countless hours in research and development understanding lighting as it plays an impact on your everyday well-being. Our mission is, and always has been, to develop lighting technology that solves unmet needs for our customers. Whether it’s LEDs, or the next breakthrough in lighting technology, Energy Focus will lead the charge.

So, Flicker. What is it? And why are we so fixated on it lately? According to the Illuminating Engineering Society (IES), flicker is any change in light output due to fluctuations in the electrical power. All lighting types are susceptible to this power modulation, but without a ballast to regulate the power like fluorescents or a heated filament like an incandescent, an LED lamp immediately shows these fluctuations in the form of flicker. In short, the light produced by an LED is physically switching on and off at the rate the power is coming off of the grid to power the light.

While flicker is often imperceptible to the human eye, prolonged exposure to flickering lights can have negative effects on health. Symptoms ranging from mild distraction to triggering epileptic seizures, flicker is not something to be taken lightly, claimes the Department of Energy and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL). We believe that any environment where we spend an extended amount of time under artificial lighting; a classroom, an office, a warehouse, etc. should have the healthiest light possible.

All it takes to remove flicker is specialized componentry in the driver. All LEDs save on energy, but not all LEDs save when it comes to providing the healthiest learning environment for our children, or the healthiest recovery environment for our hospitals, or even the safest working conditions for our manufacturing facilities.

So, when it comes to flicker, what you can’t see can hurt you.

Visit our webpage on flicker, watch our youtube webinar series below, or contact us for more information on what to do about the flicker in your home.