Lights flicker while charging at home

[24R1TLimestone]

I noticed recently that my Rivian, when charging at my house causes any dimmed light to flicker. I had replaced many lightbulbs and four light fixtures thinking they were the problem until I realized the issue started when I got my Rivian. My Rivian is currently in service and my rental is a Chevy Silverado EV and that does not cause my lights to flicker when charging nor does my Tesla cause the lights to flicker.
It is only when they are in a dim state and they do not flicker if the lights are set to 100%. All these lightbulbs are dimmable and on LED dimmable switches.
Has anyone else noticed this while charging at home?

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[natedogg]

You might want to have an electrician look at that.

The lights and charger are on completely different circuits, so it should not be impacting them.

I had something like this happening at my house, and eventually my main panel arced due to a loose wire and I had to get a bunch of electrical work done to replace the panel.

 

[harkco]

My lights will flicker when dimmed to a low level as well. My whole house is on Lutron Caseta dimmer switches. Initially had my electrician check and he said all was good. I don't recall what reasoning he gave. This was over 2 years ago.

 

[shamoo]

Do you have dimmable LEDs in your home? Did they come with the home or did you install them afterwards?

LEDs are very sensitive to power inputs and many of the "cheaper" aftermarket dimmable versions may not work too well when it is set very dim. Any fluctuation in the house power may reduce power a bit overall, causing things to dim.

For example, when my HVAC turns on at home, if anything is dimmed low, it will flutter for a split second.

Source: I'm not an electrician, but this is my observation across several homes where I have aftermarket vs. original builder LED dimmable lights.

 

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

What amperage is your service panel? How old? What make/model charger? Is the charger correctly wired on a dedicated 60A breaker? Or plugged into a wall outlet?

Honestly there's so much to unpack here we'd all just be guessing as to the issue. But if you truly suspect the Rivian is the cause, have you tried lowering the charging amperage in the vehicle or in the app? I'd probably start with that. ?

 

[24R1TLimestone]

You might want to have an electrician look at that.

The lights and charger are on completely different circuits, so it should not be impacting them.

I had something like this happening at my house, and eventually my main panel arced due to a loose wire and I had to get a bunch of electrical work done to replace the panel.

Thanks I don’t need an electrician. Everything has been checked. It only happens when charging a Rivian. it doesn’t happen when charging multiple other electric vehicles so it’s something the Rivian ac charger is doing.

 

[Kacey3]

I have a similar issue, only there is exactly one bulb in the entire house that buzzes slightly when I am charging the Rivian. I'm sure I could change out the bulb, but it's one that we barely use at the same time that the truck is charging anyway.

 

[24R1TLimestone]

For any of you asking questions I can give more info. 200 amp service. 60 amp breaker 48 amp Tesla charger. Every dimmer switch in my home is new and made for LED lights. All of my lightbulbs are new and have been replaced as stated above.
The lights do not flicker when they’re at 100% only when they’re being dimmed. It is some type of interference or feedback coming from the Rivian’s AC charging system. I have a Tesla Model 3 and it is never done it while charging that vehicle and it is not doing it with my current rental which is a Chevy Silverado EV. My electrical system is 14 years old and my EV charger was replaced last year. Everything has been checked by an electrician, and there are no loose connections. I know other people have had issues. I’m wondering if there was a solution. The only lights that are not having any issues are the ones on my guesthouse, but that’s another panel.

 

[R1Tom]

Mine does same thing. I look it is as a way to know my scheduled charging actually started at 10pm.

I don't know if it is noise introduced into the system by the Rivian or what...but I am not worried about it. Seems LED dimmers are sensitive to noise on circuit.

 

[24R1TLimestone]

Do you have dimmable LEDs in your home? Did they come with the home or did you install them afterwards?

LEDs are very sensitive to power inputs and many of the "cheaper" aftermarket dimmable versions may not work too well when it is set very dim. Any fluctuation in the house power may reduce power a bit overall, causing things to dim.

For example, when my HVAC turns on at home, if anything is dimmed low, it will flutter for a split second.

Source: I'm not an electrician, but this is my observation across several homes where I have aftermarket vs. original builder LED dimmable lights.

There is nothing builder grade in the home. All of the bulbs in the house are dimmable led that I replaced. I have actually replaced some a few times because I thought they were the problem until I realized what was causing it. 75% of the switches are control4 dimmers and the other are from Kasa. It’s only when charging the Rivian. It’s so strange. I’ve charged multiple other electric vehicles and I have no issues and I’ve even changed the amperage while charging to see if that would help.
I don’t get any dimming of any lights when appliances turn on in my home because I have a 200 amp service and they are on their own breakers. I can run every appliance in my home and I noticed no difference in the lighting. Just the Rivian that affects it.

 

[Electrified Outdoors]

I would also be curious to see what your line voltage is when those lights are flickering. How is the circuit wired? Is this is Rivian charger?

 

[DeafPug]

There was a similar thread recently, but didn’t look for it. Seemed like the Rivian was introducing some noise on the line leading to the flickering. The Rivian did seem to charge at slightly changing current instead of being locked into a stable current while charging. Good luck!

 

[shamoo]

There is nothing builder grade in the home. All of the bulbs in the house are dimmable led that I replaced. I have actually replaced some a few times because I thought they were the problem until I realized what was causing it. 75% of the switches are control4 dimmers and the other are from Kasa. It’s only when charging the Rivian. It’s so strange. I’ve charged multiple other electric vehicles and I have no issues and I’ve even changed the amperage while charging to see if that would help.
I don’t get any dimming of any lights when appliances turn on in my home because I have a 200 amp service and they are on their own breakers. I can run every appliance in my home and I noticed no difference in the lighting. Just the Rivian that affects it.

I'm not hinting that "builder grade" is bad. Typically what the builder installs works without issue. My original "builder grade" LED dimmable lighting at my first new construction home had zero issues. My current one which I swapped out from non-LED to LED with some cheaper units have some issues.

Keep in mind charging an EV takes a ton of power. You can certainly have every appliance in your home running, but your Rivian charging will pull more amperage than all of it combined.

I have two HVAC units and my Rivian will pull more power than both combined as soon as it starts charging.

Anyway, just offering a suggestion of what it might be. Yours may indeed be different.

 

[AYAYRON]

Thanks I don’t need an electrician. Everything has been checked. It only happens when charging a Rivian. it doesn’t happen when charging multiple other electric vehicles so it’s something the Rivian ac charger is doing.

it is but.....it's the lights, if you switched to non-led dimmable, they wouldn't flicker, it's the frequency of the light transmission it's not always on, it's on/ off on/off thousands of times a second, so when you change the dimming, on a LOT of LED's the flicker

 

[Serky]

I have posted on another thread about this before but Rivian puts “noise” on the power lines when charging. I use UPB/HLC lighting system that sends signals across the neutral. When charging, many lights will not turn on/off when programmed or through signal manually sent. Other systems probably get different issues such as the flickering.

I have reached out to the company that makes this technology and he thinks has created a solution. It is some type of a capacitor across the charger leads. I have no idea what the details are about it and am waiting to receive one to test it out.

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