Flicker, buzz or lights stuck at 20% are rarely a faulty bulb. It's a mismatch between dimmer, LED driver and load.
The three culprits
1
Wrong dimmer type
Halogen-era leading-edge dimmers upset LEDs. Use trailing-edge (ELV).
2
Non-dimmable driver
Many cheap fittings have non-dimmable drivers. No dimmer fixes that.
3
Minimum-load fail
Too few small LEDs fall below the dimmer's minimum load and flicker.
The checklist that prevents it
- Match the dimming method. LED = trailing-edge (ELV); confirm the dimmer explicitly lists "LED".
- Buy dimmable drivers. Check the fixture's driver says dimmable — and how (TRIAC, 0–10V, DALI).
- Respect min/max load. Total fixture wattage must sit inside the dimmer's rated range.
- Keep the family consistent. Same brand/series of driver on one circuit dims far more smoothly.
- For flawless control, go DALI. DALI addresses each fixture digitally — the premium answer to flicker.
A BOQ that matches driver, dimmer and load per circuit avoids the "half the lights flicker" callback.
Takeaways
- Flicker is a dimmer-driver-load mismatch, not a bad bulb.
- LEDs want trailing-edge (ELV) dimmers and genuinely dimmable drivers.
- DALI is the premium, flicker-free route for whole-home lighting.
Our BOQs match driver, dimmer and load per circuit.
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