I had my house built last year and after moving in noticed that in our living room (6 led downlights) when we turn our lights on 5 turns on at once and the 6th one will be delayed ranging from 1/2 sec to 5 sec to turn on… the electrican came to have a looked last year but said its cause the 6th bulb was installed later so it takes longer to turn on (which frankly we thought was BS as we had downlights previously in our old house and always turned on at same time).
The switch controls the living room lights (6 leds), the alfresco (4 LED) and the external flood light, no dimmers.
Anyways it really wasn't big an issue, had someone else had a quick look but he couldn't really tell, so left it, a year pass and not longer is the light still playing up, also the dining and kitchen lights are being funny… taking longer then normal to turn on.
We had our 1year maintenance and totally forgot about the lights! I am concerned it might be the actual wiring behind that's the issue, can anyone advise if this is normal behaviour for LED downlights or if they reckon its more serious than that and we should call the builder back to have a look?
Thanks in advance, hopefully this makes sense to those reading!
Best Answer
It's not the wiring. It's the LEDs themselves.
LEDs have a characteristic delay when turning them on which may be more than you're used to from a lifetime of incandescent bulbs.
Swap the LEDs from one position to another, and the problem should move with the bulb. Replace the LED with the equivalent incandescent (temporarily) and it should go away entirely.
Unfortunately, home LEDs are still relatively new and they suffer from both this characteristic delay --- which may vary from brand to brand -- and manufacturing variation --- where bulbs from the same manufacturer may vary, even within the same batch.
The only way to avoid these issues is to closely watch online and professional reviews (from trusted sources) to pick the better-performing brands; return any product to the store that is an "outlier" in the same room -- or, wait another few years for LEDs to mature (I'm serious) and just live with it for now.