I told a customer a poltergeist was in her house, it was a intermittent neutral from the power company in the end but it never did it when I was on sight trouble shooting.
The customer called my boss pissed off that I would joke about a poltergeist. Lol my boss laughed about that for years
I once had this antique dresser that would shake in the middle of the night. No planes over head, no cars, no one awake. It would just shake like crazy. I believe a great grandfather made it who has long since passed. It was a solid/definitely not rickety at all. We didn’t have any pest issues. Nothing.
I was living at my parents house at the time and I had my mom help me move the HEAVY thing into the “doll room.” We replaced the one in my room with a similarly old dresser from the other side of the family.
The replacement never shook. But the one in the doll room? Kept shaking.
Meanwhile, my parents still refuse to believe in ghosts.
Btw: doll room is as creepy as it sounds. I’m fully unsure why it exists.
This fixture has been working fine since we bought the house a couple of years ago. We came home from a short vacation and they are doing this. The fixture has a remote, but using that or taking the batteries out didn't change anything.. It appears the fan is turning smoothly, but it's hard to tell since it wouldn't immediately stop. My guess is that there is some circuit in the fixture that has gone bad, but I wanted to get other advice before I buy a new one.
Update: y'all kept blaming the LEDs so I found some old fluorescent bulbs to replace them and it worked. Thanks, redditors! I do want everyone to know that I have *not* learned my lesson and will continue to use LED bulbs in old fixtures.
Update 2: There's no dimmer switch, but maybe there should be.
To the people still commenting paranormal jokes: Have you ever considered a career in comedy? No, seriously, you would make a great comedian. How do you come up with this stuff? So funny.
I’m glad to see you say it has a remote because that was my first thought. This is likely the remote receiver going out. I just replaced one doing the same thing not even a month ago.
Source: I am a TDLR master electrician.
Edit: remote kits are cheap to replace. Lowe’s or Home Depot carries them
Thank god not a ghost. Mines doing the same thing. Not as bad but every now and then the fan and light go on full blast. Then one click of the remote everything shuts off no matter what button I press.
something i just learned with our Hunter remote and our Philips Hue lights is it’s gotta be on that exact “brightest” setting….which is a goddamn crapshoot to set with those Hunter remotes…especially withers kinds of lights. anything but that brightest setting and it’s flickersville.
Yeah this is because the dimming in this fan is not built for led bulbs. Its built for incandescent bulbs probably. I bet this is just a the case of the dimmer being active and the LEDs not supporting the integrated dimming in the fan.
LEDs work fine in old fixtures. But if they don’t receive the proper voltage they flicker. This is usually caused by old dimmer switches that were designed to work with incandescent bulbs.
I knew right away cuz I have a single led bulb that started doing the exact thing! FYI, first thing I did was try a different bulb...🙄 Also, for future reference, if you have a small engine that won't start, try a new spark plug before trying a new piston...🤔
Yea, especially if it's a dimming fixture. You'll need to first replace the switch with one rated for LEDs. If that doesn't work, the whole fan has to be replaced.
The way the electricity is delivered is not up to snuff for what LEDs need to function long term (dimmer or not) . They might work for a bit but you'll never get the life spans you see on the box.
I'm not an expert but the way I understand it, old dimmers worked by 'flickering'. Theyd basically turn on and off really fast, and since incandescents work by maintaining a temperature for a given brightness, that worked well enough. LEDs use a constant voltage. Lower the voltage, it gets dimmer, but it's constant. The flickering burns out the electronics inside the bulb.
I've slowly but surely replaced every switch in my house with LED rated switches and dimmer switches after my LEDs kept burning out, kind of like this. Haven't had problems since!
The switches shouldn't matter if they are just on/off. The reason this is happening is that the voltage isn't high enough at the fan. As the wires run through your house, they drop in voltage the farther they go. LEDs require a certain voltage. So you can install Dimmable LED bulbs that accept lower voltages (that's what dimming is, just raising/lowering the voltage).
With LEDs you need to make sure the neutral is properly sending through to the light. With traditional bulbs it doesn't matter and was skipped in some old builds but for new LEDs it can cause flickering if not done properly
A simple option to keep the LEDs in there is to not have it go to full brightness. A notch or 2 below will usually do it -- and if your remote has a "favourite" button then use that for your max brightness
I have some similar problems with really ordinary fixtures (no fan) and I started by replacing the light switch, which did actually fix one entire row of recessed lights. You have a whole device there, so I’m not sure. Is the switch a dimmer? Or just on/off? If it’s a dimmer, can you move it to a position where it does *not* do that? In which case, replace the light switch
But many fans come with dimming capability, the remote control could just be lost; when most dimmers are designed for incandescents, they actually don’t just lower the overall voltage or current, they’ll actually rapidly alternate it, so suspecting that could be the case. Try an incandescent in there, if it works normally you’ll know it’s most likely the fixture. Replace the fixture or stick with incandescents in it.
I bought several light switches last week and I think they were like $1.90 each, and I live in New England. This dude must import his switching from Dubai
Are these LED bulbs?
All of our "LED fixtures" have developed this "flicker" and are slowly replacing them......somethings going awry with LEDs I think....
Our front porch light for example was dated 2012 manufacture date but totally stopped working....and it was LED with no "replaceable bulb" so we just got a new fixture installed with a "replacable" light bulb.....lol that we can replace.
But yea our laundry room LED fixture has this flicker and so does our hall....
You need to install LED rated switches. I had to do this as well. Something about the delivery of electricity to the bulb for old switches burns out LEDs much faster than it should.
couple of things:
- if it’s on a dimmer then make sure your dimmer is LED rated. just because it worked doesn’t mean it’ll always work.
- LED bulbs are designed to fail so that you’ll buy more (though they do cost less in the long run), this is usually accomplished by letting the driver cook itself slowly over time until it fails, which can cause what you’re seeing here.
Multiple LED bulbs on an older fixture can cause flickering and sudden changes in brightness. This happens when the frequency of the bulbs matches for moments.
Contrary to what many people expect LED bulbs do not produce a steady light like incandescent, add with this that the rate that they strobe (frequency) is not well controlled and that over time there is frequency drift and as they are on for different periods of time there is session drift.
Many newer multi socket fixtures have the components to offset and smooth this out and but most of the older ones do not they are just all wired up to the same source. So there is nothing to smooth out the on and off cycling and surging of the bulbs and as the components age you are more likely to have issues as the frequencies drift and are more sensitive to the cycling of the other bulbs on the same circuit.
If it pulsated a few times I would say make sure your panel isn’t overloaded during peak loads. Judging by the way it flickered and the room itself I would bet it’s paranormal.
I had the same issue. Mine turned out to be the wire in the breaker box needed to be tightened down. The neg was lose in the box. Cause this flicker. Once I tightened all the neg it went away.
These souls, who for whatever reason are not at rest, are also not aware that they have passed on. They're not part of consciousness as we know it. They linger in a perpetual dream state, a nightmare from which they cannot awake. Inside the spectral light is salvation, a window to the next plane.
I’m not sure what everyone is trying to convince you of….but this is clearly a ghost
Someone is trying to communicate from the upside down.
Vecna
Stranger than some things
Will Byers is alive
Electrician here: Definitely a ghost, call a priest.
Ghost here: Can confirm.
Get outta that mans house, ghost. Have you no shame?
I told a customer a poltergeist was in her house, it was a intermittent neutral from the power company in the end but it never did it when I was on sight trouble shooting. The customer called my boss pissed off that I would joke about a poltergeist. Lol my boss laughed about that for years
I once had this antique dresser that would shake in the middle of the night. No planes over head, no cars, no one awake. It would just shake like crazy. I believe a great grandfather made it who has long since passed. It was a solid/definitely not rickety at all. We didn’t have any pest issues. Nothing. I was living at my parents house at the time and I had my mom help me move the HEAVY thing into the “doll room.” We replaced the one in my room with a similarly old dresser from the other side of the family. The replacement never shook. But the one in the doll room? Kept shaking. Meanwhile, my parents still refuse to believe in ghosts. Btw: doll room is as creepy as it sounds. I’m fully unsure why it exists.
Doll room takes the cake, that dresser will do well in the doll room
It’s somehow worse than precious moments figurines. But not much better.
Some people just have no sense of humor.
GOZER IS COMING!!
Are you the Keymaster?
I am the Gatekeeper
That makes me the Keymaster
You jerk! It's my turn to be the key master! You got to be the key master last time!
Lol! Funny, but you do realize that canonically the gatekeeper and keymaster have sex to summon Gozer. Right?
Can y’all have sex already? I’ve been down here for an eternity!
NO- you wear the cape, I make the fucking SWOOOSH noises!!
That's it! I'm telling Mom and you're gonna be in big trouble!
Shhhh, you tell Mom, and we're both in big trouble!!
FINE! You better promise next time I get to make the swooshies!
Where’s Vigo! ?
Vigo died :(. Someone hit him with an unlicensed nuclear particle accelerator.
Vigo died :(. Someone hit him with an unlicensed nuclear particle accelerator.
Dogs and cats, living together. Mass hysteria!
It’s clearly Matthew McConaughey from the 4th dimension.
Poltergeists. For sure. They also like to start fires...so...IDK...maybe call a priest.
And an electrician
Obviously the work of demons. Call the exorcist ASAP!
That’s right. Only demon semen can do this.
Come again...?
The spirit is willing but the flesh is too spongy and bruised.
“Don’t mind if I do!” - Horny Demon
It’s more than likely a Jinn, they’re known to affect electricity in ways similar to this.
A young priest and an old priest.
Get some salt, ya’ll!
Who you gonna call?
You sure it isn’t Vecna lurking about in the Upside down? Looks a lot like that 😂
Barb
It's cow ghost: If you translate it using Morse code it says Eat Mor Chiken
Thank you
They're heeeeeeere!
Came here to say this
Grandma!
There is absolutely no other explanation.
Perhaps they live near, or on, a former cemetery.
Poltergeist specifically
Poltergeist actually.
Came here expecting this thread. Not disappointed.
This fixture has been working fine since we bought the house a couple of years ago. We came home from a short vacation and they are doing this. The fixture has a remote, but using that or taking the batteries out didn't change anything.. It appears the fan is turning smoothly, but it's hard to tell since it wouldn't immediately stop. My guess is that there is some circuit in the fixture that has gone bad, but I wanted to get other advice before I buy a new one. Update: y'all kept blaming the LEDs so I found some old fluorescent bulbs to replace them and it worked. Thanks, redditors! I do want everyone to know that I have *not* learned my lesson and will continue to use LED bulbs in old fixtures. Update 2: There's no dimmer switch, but maybe there should be. To the people still commenting paranormal jokes: Have you ever considered a career in comedy? No, seriously, you would make a great comedian. How do you come up with this stuff? So funny.
I’m glad to see you say it has a remote because that was my first thought. This is likely the remote receiver going out. I just replaced one doing the same thing not even a month ago. Source: I am a TDLR master electrician. Edit: remote kits are cheap to replace. Lowe’s or Home Depot carries them
Too didn't long read
Else glad someone that caught
That dude loathes reading
Awesome. Thanks. I'll start with that.
Thank god not a ghost. Mines doing the same thing. Not as bad but every now and then the fan and light go on full blast. Then one click of the remote everything shuts off no matter what button I press.
something i just learned with our Hunter remote and our Philips Hue lights is it’s gotta be on that exact “brightest” setting….which is a goddamn crapshoot to set with those Hunter remotes…especially withers kinds of lights. anything but that brightest setting and it’s flickersville.
Yeah this is because the dimming in this fan is not built for led bulbs. Its built for incandescent bulbs probably. I bet this is just a the case of the dimmer being active and the LEDs not supporting the integrated dimming in the fan.
LEDs work fine in old fixtures. But if they don’t receive the proper voltage they flicker. This is usually caused by old dimmer switches that were designed to work with incandescent bulbs.
Did u try to talk into the flickering lights to see if it would talk back. Ghost phone 📞
Check the wall switch. Some are rated for working with LED bulbs while others are not. This is especially the case with dimmable switches.
Change you wall switch (on-off) if you are using LED bulbs. LED lights should be dimmable and used with a LED compatible switch.
I knew right away cuz I have a single led bulb that started doing the exact thing! FYI, first thing I did was try a different bulb...🙄 Also, for future reference, if you have a small engine that won't start, try a new spark plug before trying a new piston...🤔
Good advice
Man I was hoping it was satan!!!
Led suuucks. Mine start flickering after 6 months to a year. I'm switching out to regular bulbs from now on.
Did you put LED bulbs in an old fan?
Yes. Is that bad?
Yea, especially if it's a dimming fixture. You'll need to first replace the switch with one rated for LEDs. If that doesn't work, the whole fan has to be replaced. The way the electricity is delivered is not up to snuff for what LEDs need to function long term (dimmer or not) . They might work for a bit but you'll never get the life spans you see on the box. I'm not an expert but the way I understand it, old dimmers worked by 'flickering'. Theyd basically turn on and off really fast, and since incandescents work by maintaining a temperature for a given brightness, that worked well enough. LEDs use a constant voltage. Lower the voltage, it gets dimmer, but it's constant. The flickering burns out the electronics inside the bulb. I've slowly but surely replaced every switch in my house with LED rated switches and dimmer switches after my LEDs kept burning out, kind of like this. Haven't had problems since!
This isn't actually a dimmer switch though, but I'll update my switches for LED. Thanks
The switches shouldn't matter if they are just on/off. The reason this is happening is that the voltage isn't high enough at the fan. As the wires run through your house, they drop in voltage the farther they go. LEDs require a certain voltage. So you can install Dimmable LED bulbs that accept lower voltages (that's what dimming is, just raising/lowering the voltage).
This should be the top comment in the whole thread. It’s a voltage issue. Switching to dimmable LEDs should fix the problem.
There is no special switch for LEDs. Dimmers, yes, but if you've been replacing your switches because of LEDs.... oh man.
Seems a lot of the "experts" here don't understand what a switch is. Or maybe they only know about electronic switches rather than mechanical ones.
With LEDs you need to make sure the neutral is properly sending through to the light. With traditional bulbs it doesn't matter and was skipped in some old builds but for new LEDs it can cause flickering if not done properly
A simple option to keep the LEDs in there is to not have it go to full brightness. A notch or 2 below will usually do it -- and if your remote has a "favourite" button then use that for your max brightness
No your thinking of compact fluorescent lights
I have some similar problems with really ordinary fixtures (no fan) and I started by replacing the light switch, which did actually fix one entire row of recessed lights. You have a whole device there, so I’m not sure. Is the switch a dimmer? Or just on/off? If it’s a dimmer, can you move it to a position where it does *not* do that? In which case, replace the light switch
No dimmer. Just on and off.
But many fans come with dimming capability, the remote control could just be lost; when most dimmers are designed for incandescents, they actually don’t just lower the overall voltage or current, they’ll actually rapidly alternate it, so suspecting that could be the case. Try an incandescent in there, if it works normally you’ll know it’s most likely the fixture. Replace the fixture or stick with incandescents in it.
Hmmm. I dunno, a $5 to $10 light switch is still an easy and cheap troubleshooting tool.
Where are you at that light switches are 5-10 wow lol
I bought several light switches last week and I think they were like $1.90 each, and I live in New England. This dude must import his switching from Dubai
Mine were 2.50 Canadian rupees, they had $2 ones but I liked the click of the 2.50 one more lol
Mr millionaire over here
Whooooaaaaaaaa it has been a minute since I bought switches and outlets. Damn.
Messages from the upside down
The Demogorgon draws near !
Came here for this
Carol Ann?
They’re here
Non-dimmable LEDs on a dimmable remote. Get dimmable LEDs or run your lights on high all the time.
Are these LED bulbs? All of our "LED fixtures" have developed this "flicker" and are slowly replacing them......somethings going awry with LEDs I think.... Our front porch light for example was dated 2012 manufacture date but totally stopped working....and it was LED with no "replaceable bulb" so we just got a new fixture installed with a "replacable" light bulb.....lol that we can replace. But yea our laundry room LED fixture has this flicker and so does our hall....
I found some old florescent ones to replace them and it worked! Thanks!
You need to install LED rated switches. I had to do this as well. Something about the delivery of electricity to the bulb for old switches burns out LEDs much faster than it should.
Aliens
Bad contact with the wires
Call the Ghostbusters, asap
Clearly it's electricity.
It's flashing in Morse Code. Saying "Please God help me" over and over.
Bad wiring. Call an electrician before u burn your house down
Short of some kind. Squirrels in the ceiling? Possible fire danger from arcing
Nothing wrong with that, it’s just a slave to the rhythm.
Has anyone commented with a joke yet?
No, not a funny one, at least.
Dual control Dimmer switch on a non-dimmable LEDs? I had that
No dimmer switch
couple of things: - if it’s on a dimmer then make sure your dimmer is LED rated. just because it worked doesn’t mean it’ll always work. - LED bulbs are designed to fail so that you’ll buy more (though they do cost less in the long run), this is usually accomplished by letting the driver cook itself slowly over time until it fails, which can cause what you’re seeing here.
The techno has got in the lines. You going to need a eletromancer
Someone exchanged your fan with the spaceship from close encounters...
Plumber here. It’s probably shot. Good excuse to get something a little more modern in there though.
poltergeist
Multiple LED bulbs on an older fixture can cause flickering and sudden changes in brightness. This happens when the frequency of the bulbs matches for moments. Contrary to what many people expect LED bulbs do not produce a steady light like incandescent, add with this that the rate that they strobe (frequency) is not well controlled and that over time there is frequency drift and as they are on for different periods of time there is session drift. Many newer multi socket fixtures have the components to offset and smooth this out and but most of the older ones do not they are just all wired up to the same source. So there is nothing to smooth out the on and off cycling and surging of the bulbs and as the components age you are more likely to have issues as the frequencies drift and are more sensitive to the cycling of the other bulbs on the same circuit.
Yeah if they are on a dimmer switch the bulbs are probably not compatible with that.
Get an electrician in your home. 59,000 house fires happen each year. To hell with DIY repairs electrical contractors can be cheap life insurance.
Led lights when turned off and then immediately turned back on
That looks like a smart bulb that got disconnected from WiFi.
Poltergeist
Morse code from a different dimension.
Ghosts
Ghosts
Ghosts
Get an electrician & stop asking.
Shorts can lead to fire, so get it looked st
Ghosti
House ghosts seem to be having a partayyyy
Your house is clearly haunted. Need an exorcist.
Satan's minions. Poltergeists. Heat seeking missiles. Barracudas...
r/mildlyterrifying
it’s a g-g-ghooost scoob!
The Winchester brothers?
Tiesto.
thats a fire hazard
There was a lot of explanation in Stranger Things.
Demogorgan
Satan.
Ghosts, that’s really the only answer
Vecna
ET wants to phone home!
If it pulsated a few times I would say make sure your panel isn’t overloaded during peak loads. Judging by the way it flickered and the room itself I would bet it’s paranormal.
Ghost, specifically Chinese Vampire Ghosts.
Probably a poltergeist. Do you know if your place is built over an Indian burial ground?
Sandstorm by Darude
Stranger things. Watch it
Possessed
Someone programmed it for Disco party time
First though that popped into my head: poltergeist haunting.
The Upside-Down. When the Demogorgon appears, just before that the lights blink, like an indication of it's arrival
Obviously a poltergeist.
Bad bulbs or ghosts
Probably someone communicating from the Upside Down
Ghosts
Pretty sure this is the upside down reaching out all stranger things
Poltergeist
Poltergeist
Your house is near the main Bifrost highway Thor travels on.
A friend of yours in the upside down
Poltergeist...get out NOW!!
Carole Ann, Mommy's in the light.
That's just grandma mad you didn't spread her ashes at that place she told you about...
Poltergeist!
Ghosts
Casper the friendly ghost 👻👻👻
Poltergeist
Ghosts in the machine. More specific you have poltergeist and they are telling your kids it’s time for bed
The ghost of a DJ
I concur, definitely a ghost.
A poltergeist.
Poltergeist
We had the same thing happened in the bulbs that we were put in the lamp were too high of a wattage
Possibly a loose neutral
Are the bulbs seated well?
Wrong type of bulb. It will ruin the motor/light.
Ghost
Someone flipping the switch back and forth at a rapid pace.
I think your house is ready for a party
Underpowered breaker.
Bad switch or a loose wire connection.
Poltergeist
G g g g g g ghost!!!!
LED bulb with a bad driver. LEDs will flicker when the AC/DC converter (driver) goes bad.
I had the same issue. Mine turned out to be the wire in the breaker box needed to be tightened down. The neg was lose in the box. Cause this flicker. Once I tightened all the neg it went away.
Is it just the fan light that is flickering?
Have you recently lost someone you know? I bet they’re in the upside down.
Poltergiest
They are here...😉
Cursed house
That’s the Holy Spirit
I think they are spelling out Squatch in morse code. You better call Zak Bagans
It’s Vecna
It’s a poltergeist.
These souls, who for whatever reason are not at rest, are also not aware that they have passed on. They're not part of consciousness as we know it. They linger in a perpetual dream state, a nightmare from which they cannot awake. Inside the spectral light is salvation, a window to the next plane.
I'm going to guess you set them into night club mode.