# Flickering lights how long do they last?



## roadkill_be (Jun 14, 2012)

Hi,

My haunt theme this year is a haunted house and there are some flickering lights are necessary in this theme.

I am thinking of to create this effect by using the fs2 fluorescent breaker technique






Did anyone did this in their haunt? 
How long does it work, I mean do the breaker burn out quickly?

My haunt last from begin October until first week November, 3 nights per week

Oh I live in Europe where we have 240v AC , I know about the flickering lamps you can buy but the p&p is ridiculous and the manufacturer can't guarantee that they will properly work because of our power network.


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## corey872 (Jan 10, 2010)

Seeing no replies, I will take a stab at this. I've never used this specific 'flicker trick', but those fluorescent starters are basically a set of mechanical contacts that spring open once they heat up. If you put them on the proper wattage incandescent bulb, then you can get them to a roughly 'equilibrium' state where the contacts are constantly chattering open and closed to give the flickering effect.

All that said, you're using the fluorescent starter way out of its design criteria and forcing a nearly constant arc across the contacts. I would not expect it to last a long time. You're talking 5 weeks x 3 nights per week, so 15 nights @ 6-8 hours per night? ... 100ish hours total? That might be pushing it.

Of course, given the time frame there are a couple of options between now and then...

1) Make a test set up with a fluorescent starter and see if it gives acceptable lifetime.

2) Gemmy makes a 'short circuit bulb' (google that) you simply screw in to a standard socket and it generates a flickering effect, plus it is LED, so 10's of thousands of hours of use.

3) On the DIY side, consider flickering LEDs as an option. We've discussed flickering LEDs on here quite a bit - either in their 'natural' form, or ways to use a small flickering LED to drive much larger / brighter LEDs, or ways an Arduino can drive multiple LEDs to mimic a flickering effect.

Either way, plenty of time and options out there to test!


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## Haunted Spider (Sep 6, 2010)

I use them in my haunt for my display. I run the lights 6 hours a night all month long, so 180 hours or so on them. The set of starters usually works all season long. I replace them at the start of the next season so they don't burn out early. Of course I use 110 volt so the 220 you have may not play nice.

The biggest thing is don't do what the video does. I did what he did first year. If your copper touches the effect is done. The copper gets wet, it arcs out and corrodes the starter. For a couple dollars you can buy a starter holder that they click into. I bought mine off ebay years ago. Then if you have one go back it takes you less than 10 seconds to change it out. I spend 5 to 6 dollars for each one. I think I bought a pack of 10. Here is a link to one on ebay so you know what I am talking about. This seller is way overpriced. https://www.ebay.com/itm/Leviton-39...957704&hash=item1a22087e3a:g:nxwAAOSwImRYVW0H You can get them with the leads like I did and what is in the link or just the screws on the sides to attach your wires. Depends on your application. I never weather proof them either. It rains at least 10 days in october and I never had one fail to weather. I do wrap one layer of electrical tape on them normally just so someone can't unscrew it out of the base or bump it out as they are mounted on my fence.

Anyway, the starter bases are good up to 500V so it may work just fine. FS-2 is what works here. You may be FS-5 or something else for 220v. Good luck.


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## scooterboiz (Sep 16, 2016)

*It works!*

This approach works well. More so for smaller filament bulbs.



roadkill_be said:


> Hi,
> 
> My haunt theme this year is a haunted house and there are some flickering lights are necessary in this theme.
> 
> ...


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