Our apartment had a very ugly fluorescent light in the kitchen (not a fixture with a bulb – but a one piece circular fluorescent with a plastic diffuser cover over top). We replaced the fixture with an IKEA fixture that has three sockets and put in three 9W LED bulbs (also tried three 14W fluorescent bulbs).
After about a minute of being ON, one bulb starts to blink, and then two (but never three). I've tried different LED bulbs (IKEA brand and other brand) and the same two sockets blink. I've tried putting the bulbs that blink in the socket that doesn't blink, and they don't blink there. I even replaced the fixture with an identical one and have the same issue.
I don't think it's the bulbs.
The fixture is on a single switch in the kitchen (not a dimmer) and is wired with black/white (hot/neutral) and no ground.
The breaker is a 15A breaker and the only other lights I can find on the breaker are three can lights in the hallway that are currently on fluorescent bulbs.
We also tried removing the LED bulbs and using fluorescent bulbs in there and they don't even light up.
What might be the issue here? I've read a bad connection on the negative side – is this the likely culprit? Should I just replace this fixture with something that can take a higher wattage incandescent (the IKEA fixtures at rated at 10W per socket)?
MODS: Please don't mark this as a dupe of the question about lights blinking when being turned off. This is: turn ON lights, wait 1 minute, lights begin to blink. The dupe from the last question had nothing to do with this one.
Best Answer
I had the same issue after I remodeled my bathroom. The culprit was an illuminated switch-the switch glows when it is off so you can see it in the dark. Apparently it allows a small current through to illuminate, which in turn was triggering the CFL bulbs, causing them to 'blink' ever so slightly.