Why are my lights buzzing? Buzzing lights can be caused by electrical shorts, bulbs, or loose fixtures. Nothing is more irritating than the sound of buzzing light fixtures when you turn on your lights. That low hum can be just as irritating as the loud buzz.
You may hear a buzzing noise with LED lights, fluorescent tube lights, and incandescent bulbs. This issue might be with the bulbs or it may be due to mismatched dimmer switches, or ballasts that need to be replaced. Some of these issues you might be able to fix yourself, but for issues that aren't easily apparent, you may need a licensed electrician to do the job!
LED Light Fixture that is Buzzing
When the LED light fixture is buzzing, it is most likely due to an incompatibility between the LED light and the dimmer switch. How do you know if this is the cause? You will want to test to see if the LED dimmer is causing the bussing by taking the light off of the dimmer switch.
If you are going to attempt this yourself, you will want to take the dimmer switch out and replace it with a regular switch. Make a not of which wire goes where (I recommend taking a picture of how it is wired) so you can easily wire the non-dimmer switch. If you are afraid of an electrical shock or touching the wires and tripping the breaker, you may turn off the circuit breaker at the panel. You can also leave the dimmer switch in place and remote the two hot wires (typically red and black) and wire them together with a wire nut.
If you stop hearing the buzzing, then the dimmer switch is the cause of your light fixture buzzing.
Incompatible Dimmer Switch
If you recently changed our your lights bulbs from incandescent bulbs to LED bulbs, but you didn't upgrade your old dimmer switch, then you will need to replace your dimmer with a compatible dimmer switch.
When you are at Home Depot or Lowes, be sure you look up the compatible dimmer switches that will work with your LED light bulbs. Generally, you will need a CL dimmer, a LED+ dimmer, or an ELV dimmer switch.
Ballast Lights are Buzzing
All fluorescent tube lighting has a faint buzzing sound when you turn them on. This is normal for ballasts, as they produce a low hum that you can hear when you are near them. When you can hear the buzzing sound after you leave the room, that is when you need to replace the ballast light.
Incandescent Light Bulb is Buzzing
If you still are holding on to your outdated incandescent light bulbs, it is the reason why it is buzzing. The filament is vibrating which causes a buzzing sound. If you are worried about EMF's then you can try adding a dimmer switch to see if that resolves the buzzing sound. If that doesn't work, then you will have to replace the light bulb with either another incandescent light or switch over to a LED bulb.
Would you rather have a professional save you the hassle of troubleshooting your buzzing light issues? Reach out to SHEWORKS Electrical at 602-920-4257 today! Service Phoenix AZ and the surrounding cities.