LED lighting in insulation question for an electrician

[BowhunterNJ]

I'm fixing a couple bad led driver boxes and upon pulling out both a working light and a non-working light to verify it's the driver, I found discolored lines.  These lights and lines are within insulated ceiling bays.  The white coating of the electrical lines are not burned through or anything, it just seems like the outside of them is coated in a dark sticky substance.   
 

Question is would electrical lines melt or burn insulation and cause this or is it just some random crap that was on the spool from the electrician?

 

Spot on insulation where maybe it contacted but I don't see anything of the same length as the marks on the line 

 

specs

[mike033089]

Not an electrician, it is maybe electrical tape that was used to wrap up romex and was then cut and the wire used for your lights.  

[BowhunterNJ]

1 minute ago, mike033089 said:

Not an electrician, it is maybe electrical tape that was used to wrap up romex and was then cut and the wire used for your lights.  

That indeed could be it too.  The fact that's sticky but didn't melt the outer covering of the main line leads me to believe it's just some external crap. 

[BowhunterNJ]

One last bump for some electrician insight

[electric10162]

2 hours ago, BowhunterNJ said:

One last bump for some electrician insight

Unit should be rated IC for "in contact" with insulation. Post the brand and part number. I will do a little more research. The dark sticky stuff is probably remnants of the electrical tape used to fish the wires on install.

Edited June 10 by electric10162

[BowhunterNJ]

40 minutes ago, electric10162 said:

Unit should be rated IC for "in contact". Post the brand and part number. I will do a little more research. The dark sticky stuff is probably remnants of the electrical tape used to fish the wires on install.

Thanks!  This is them:  https://www.lotusledlights.com/resources/Spec-Sheet-LL4G-30K.pdf

The other thing I noticed with LEDs in general across my house, all of which are also this brand but in different styles, is they all flicker a little with a dimmer turned down (lower it gets the worse the flicker) and flicker a lot when we're on generator even with dimmer turned all the way up (off generator there is no noticeable flicker when dimmer is all the way up).  Not sure if that is something symptomatic of LEDs or if there is a wiring/panel issue.

I think the odd part about the black markings is the light brown edges around where that is. Even if it were tape, I wouldn't think that would exist, it would just be discoloration but not what appear like "burn edges" around it.  Yet nothing seems melted at all.

 

[electric10162]

1 minute ago, BowhunterNJ said:

Thanks!  This is them:  https://www.lotusledlights.com/resources/Spec-Sheet-LL4G-30K.pdf

The other thing I noticed with LEDs in general across my house, all of which are also this brand but in different styles, is they all flicker a little with a dimmer turned down (lower it gets the worse the flicker) and flicker a lot when we're on generator even with dimmer turned all the way up (off generator there is no noticeable flicker when dimmer is all the way up).  Not sure if that is something symptomatic of LEDs or if there is a wiring/panel issue.

 

These are IC rated.

Your dimmers need to be rated for LED use, Triac type as specified. If the generator is a temporary type, the "neutral" or white wire is not bonded to the house grounds or bonds. Hence, a "floating" neutral" which plays havoc on LED lights and is perfectly normal. 

[mike033089]

When I installed my leds they listed compatible dimmer switches. Not all switches are the same  

[username]

I saw something like this in cables in my garage.  It looked as if the outside was burnt, similar marks were on the paper of the insulation.

When I pulled the cable I checked the inside of the sheathing.  The inside did not show the "burn."  I figured it was something that the line picked up on the way during its travel being pulled. 

Kind of reminded me of pitch.