Determine the flickering of a light bulb using a pen and a phone

The pulsation (flickering) of light is an extremely negative phenomenon that affects ours with you the brain and provokes such phenomena as: pain in the eyes, irritability, fatigue, distraction attention.

Especially children suffer from increased pulsation before 14 years old. Therefore, it is extremely important to buy exactly high-quality lighting lamps with minimal ripple. In this article, I will tell you about two simple tests that will protect you from obvious marriage.

What are the rates of pulsation

Before the tests, I want to say a few words about the regulations that lighting lamp manufacturers must follow. So, according to SNiP 23-05-95"Natural and artificial lighting", the coefficient of pulsation of illumination of the working surface should not exceed the limit 10% or 20% depending on the degree of work intensity.

And if you mainly work at the computer, then according to SanPiN 2.2.2 / 2.4.1340-03, the ripple coefficient should not exceed 5%.

Of course, you can trust the manufacturer and believe what is written on the box.

Or buy a special device (which is not so cheap) and choose lamps with it. Don't want to spend money on a device? Then read on for two simple tests.

Smartphone camera test

Now there are simply no phones without video cameras. So the first simplest test is to take the phone, turn on the camera, ask the seller to light the lamp and point the camera at the lamp.

If you see black stripes running across the screen or a very noticeable flicker, then the pulsation coefficient of the lamp under test is significantly higher.

You can also take a picture of a working lamp. Are there dark streaks in the photo? The lamp is not suitable for your home.

Important. In this way, we observe not the pulsation itself, but its indirect manifestation. That is, there is interference between the pulsation of light and the operation of the camera shutter of the phone.

If the pulse suppression function is enabled in your settings, then you will not see dark stripes on the phone screen. Remember this.

Pencil test

Another simple test to determine flicker is to grab a regular pencil or pen by the tip. And start quickly moving it in front of the light bulb. If during this movement the pencil (pen) seems to split into several separate pencils, in this case, these lamps should be bypassed by the tenth road.

If the pencil (pen) seems to be smeared on the screen, then there are no obvious problems with pulsation.

Note. With the help of such simple tests, it is possible to identify a clear marriage of LED lamps, in which the ripple is close to 100% and occurs at a frequency of up to 100 Hz. Also, remember that ripple over 300 Hz is considered safe and not regulated.

In these simple ways, you can get rid of the obvious slag still found on our shelves.

If you liked the material, then put your thumbs up and leave your opinion in the comments.