Flickering LED Bulbs

[TheSirSpence]

Hi, hopefully this is a quick one, in my new house I inherited a bathroom mirror with 4 small bulbs in it. This is hard wired to the main lightswitch.

When I first turned it on with new LED Bulbs I found that they were flickering. I took the mirror off the wall to see how they were wired. It seems that they are all wired in series. When I unscrew the last three bulbs, the first one stops flickering. I would be happy if they would dimmer to be honest because they're a bit bright.

Would rewiring them into parallel citcuits fix the issue or will the bulb simply not light up?

 

[James]

It was probably never intended to work with led lamps.
replace with the original filament lamps.

 

[SJD]

As above, if some years old and the lamps are 12V, the transformer is likely designed for halogen lamps. In this case, you'd need to change the driver to work with LED lamps.

Assuming the existing lamps really are wired in series (I'm sceptical of this, but they could also be older current-driven LEDs) then wiring them in parallel from the same supply or driver is likely to blow them up. It could be spectacular.

A photo of the innerds might be helpful.

 

[Carolina]

As above, if some years old and the lamps are 12V, the transformer is likely designed for halogen lamps. In this case, you'd need to change the driver to work with LED lamps.

Assuming the existing lamps really are wired in series (I'm sceptical of this, but they could also be older current-driven LEDs) then wiring them in parallel from the same supply or driver is likely to blow them up. It could be spectacular.

A photo of the innerds might be helpful.

If they were 12V wouldn't the transformer be too big to fit behind a mirror? if it was made for incandescents that is.

With mains voltage it's possible the holders are wired in series because you wouldn't want a blinding amount of light when doing your makeup in front of a mirror. Put four 40W bulbs in series and have better illumination than with a single 25W at the top, plus it looks fancy.

Just making assumptions here as OP hasn't replied with more details. If new LED bulbs are 100-240 and you wire 4 of them in series then none will get enough voltage.
I know because I have a 4-light fixture in my bathroom and it's wired in series. I only use two nowadays, gotta cut on something to lower my bill ^^

I would be happy if they would dimmer to be honest because they're a bit bright.

Since this was mentioned the new ones could be crystal clear "filament" type bulbs, if each is say 5W then whole thing would be too bright, I'd go for something like 1-2.5W each.
Again, I'm practically guessing at this point.