Participate in this Flickering Light Experiment in Portland
If you are bothered by flickering lights and can get to Portland, Oregon in the next month or so, please join this research experiment! If you know someone that is bothered by flickering lights, tell them about this research project!
This is important research that will help science understand more about the light flicker some people see in car tail lights, building lighting, LED string lights, and other places. The research will help characterize people’s response to it, which will ultimately solve this modern scourge!
The experiment is happening in-person, in Portland, Oregon, in mid-January to mid-February (please disregard what the flyer says for timing, email for actual dates!).
PNNL Lighting Lab Flicker Experiment Recruitment Poster
What the heck am I talking about? Look at my Flickering Light Project website.
If you’re interested but can’t attend, I’d still love to hear from you in the comments below! This coalition to improve lighting is slowly gaining momentum and every voice is important!
AS much as I would love to come home to Portland and participate in your study, I cannot. I believe I am sensitive to LED (and fluorescent) flickering, but am uncertain. At home here in Texas, I have voltage issues which may be causing flickering that would not normally be noticeable to me. I deal with LEDs on a regular basis and have mostly LED luminaires in my house so if the problem is real and not caused by my voltage issues, I need to deal with is. I would suggest you document how your experiment/study is to be performed so that it can be duplicated in other locations but with comparable results.
I wish you luck in your quest.
I feel like a crazy person when I complain about all the flicker everywhere. Some restaurants in the area I won’t go to because of it. I wish I could participate!
Jeff writes:
>As much as I would love to come home to Portland and participate in your study, I cannot.
I totally understand. I’ll put you on my list of “Flickering Light Club” members if that’s alright. I hope to keep moving forward with solving flickering light issues!
>I believe I am sensitive to LED (and fluorescent) flickering, but am uncertain.
There’s a bunch of ways you might be sensitive. How -I- am sensitive is demonstrated best when looking at holiday string lights or car tail lights that flicker at night. The holiday string lights give me nausea, especially when in a space and when I move my eyes or head quickly. With car tail lights, the most noticeable thing is that while my eyes or head is moving, I can’t track the speed and location of the car, which (very appropriately!) gives me a sense of anxiety.
>At home here in Texas, I have voltage issues which may be causing flickering that would not normally be noticeable to me. I deal
>with LEDs on a regular basis and have mostly LED luminaires in my house so if the problem is real and not caused by my voltage
>issues, I need to deal with is.
This story from a friend sounds like it might relate to your situation, I’m not sure https://www.lee.org/flicker/domestic-tranquility/
>I would suggest you document how your experiment/study is to be performed so that it can be duplicated in other locations but with
>comparable results.
Oh yes, the study mentioned above is being done by a compatriot of mine, Naomi Miller. She has published several research articles about the subject and I trust their team will take excellent notes! Here are the papers Naomi has published https://energyenvironment.pnnl.gov/staff/staff_info.asp?staff_num=1990
>I wish you luck in your quest.
Thank you! It is definitely OUR quest!
Bill writes:
>I feel like a crazy person when I complain about all the flicker everywhere. Some restaurants in the area I won’t go to because of it. I wish I could participate!
YES! Yes, and yes! My keystone restaurant is Bankok Jam in Berkeley, CA
ttps://www.lee.org/flicker/bangkok-jam/
and I’ve documented many locations that drive me crazy! We have a shared experience!
Your sensitivity to holiday string lights may be because you are one of those rare people with persistence of vision that is outside the gaussian norm and allows you to see flashing when a light source goes on and off at 60Hz or faster. I remember when I saw my first PAL TV in England in the early 80s (50Hz refresh rate) and wondered how anyone could watch something that flashed like that (I had literally just stepped off an airplane). Fast forward a few years and manufacturers creates flat panel TVs with 100Hz refresh (I was living in Germany at the time). Stood in a store with a regular and 100Hz refresh TV next to each other and wondered how anyone could watch the 50Hz set. I notice flashing in some holiday light strings but not in others. If I recall correctly, long strings of LEDs use one half of the 120v waveform to power half the lights and the other half of the cycle to power the rest. Cheap, effective and annoying. Pure color LEDs are probably worse than warm white ones because of the phosphor used to get the lower color temperature. You can notice the effect because when you turn off many warm white (2800k) bulbs, the light decays rather than going out immediately. Of course my interpretation of what I see could easily be completely wrong.
Jeff writes:
>Your sensitivity to holiday string lights may be because you are one of those rare people with persistence of vision
>that is outside the gaussian norm and allows you to see flashing when a light source goes on and off at 60Hz or faster.
Yup! My preliminary research says about 5-10% of people are bothered by flickering lights that others don’t notice.
>I remember when I saw my first PAL TV in England in the early 80s (50Hz refresh rate)…
That’s a great anecdote!
>If I recall correctly, long strings of LEDs use one half of the 120v waveform to power half the
>lights and the other half of the cycle to power the rest. Cheap, effective and annoying. Pure
>color LEDs are probably worse than warm white ones because of the phosphor used to get the
>lower color temperature. You can notice the effect because when you turn off many warm white
>(2800k) bulbs, the light decays rather than going out immediately. Of course my interpretation
>of what I see could easily be completely wrong.
Yes, lights get wired and coated in many different ways to get different effects! My favorite string lights (I use them as mood lighting in my bedroom) are from Ikea and are powered from a 12volt AC/DC “wall wart”. The lights run off of DC and don’t flicker!
There are a zillion ways to create a flickering light situation and a zillion more that avoid flicker! This research is important to address what types of flicker are a bother to what people!