Led Lights And My Radio

[Apache]

All 8 come on at once. 2 are on a track and two groups of 3.

All on the same switch

 

[ProDave]

Even the humble under kitchen cupboard flourescent striplight interferes with radio up here, because we are out in the sticks with a weak signal and down in a dip.

Listening to the Hungarian Grand Prix coverage just now on R5L on DAB, with the lights on, the radio was "burbling" like it does when the signal is marginal. Turn them off, and reception was fine.

I think the next house is going to have a rooftop DAB aerial piped to various rooms to overcome this weak signal business.

 

[Evans Electric]

Interesting Dave ,    so that would be the magnetic fluxes from the fluoro. ballast  .   We seem to live much of our lives within magnetic / electrostatic fields of various types .   :mellow:  

I'm tempted to resurrect  my post about the 200A meter tails I clipped to a tray , spaced apart , with vague thoughts of heat dissipation , left 25mm between them.

It was then found that the monitor screen in the print studio on the other side of the dividing wall from the switch room was suffering from interference and the operator refusing to sit there.

        Move the monitor 2Mts along the office worktops and all is well .   A similar thing was happening to a screen to the right of the switch room .

These were 70mm tails ,  after I re-arranged them on the tray , clipped  in a bunch of four , the fluxes were cancelled out bt the proximity of the other phases .  

But note that the field passed through a 12" breezeblock wall  and took a screen out  and interfered with another about 3M away.  

 

[ProDave]

No these are miniature flourry's with electronics ballasts, no doubt operating at a high frequency, and with poor (read cheap) design, radiating lot's of RF interference across a broad spectrum. I'll bet the effects on an AM radio would be even worse.

Your meter tails issue was no doubt a magnetic field affecting a CRT monitor. Changing that for an LCD monitor would also have sorted the problem.

 

[Evans Electric]

I think it was a CRT  but the operator , rightly, refused to sit there once the cause was identified.

 

[Blue Duck]

This is watt you need http://www.consumablestore.co.uk/100w-bc-clear-gls-bulb-p-3877.html?gclid=CML0ybTn0rgCFVMetAodqiUAjQ

Strong magnetic fields have quite an effect on a CRT its no wonder the guy wouldn't sit there...

 

[Bruspark]

RF interference from LED lamps is an increasingly well known issue in the Communications / Broadcast technical world,  many related places of work now ban them!!   

Reason is . .   Many lamps don't comply (or even try to comply) with EMC regulations but our regulator maybe too scared to annoy the green lobby .  or something . .

Interference free design would be bigger (doesn't fit) or less bright (doesn't sell) or much hotter (eeek) and more expensive....  and someone will always pop up and say their's is just fine etc

The frequency of the interference varies from make to make so a swap of brand /model will maybe 'cure' the DAB problem in one area while maybe introducing it in another part of the country. 

As the regulator has dozed off "Which" are supposedly looking at it but I don't suppose anyone there will actually understand what the technical issues are.    The BBC are also getting frustrated that some equally "Regulated - Not" powerline Ethernet adapters can wipeout DAB too.

Clip on Ferrite cores etc. may help a little but TBH they are a pest to fit . .may well constitute a modification etc  . . .   try a couple of brands and give up if problems persist.  There is a reason the LED shops offer 30 days MBG !!!

http://conversation.which.co.uk/energy-home/led-bulb-radio-interference-dab-test/

 

[Bruspark]

I have retrofitted two different types of GU10 lamp in the last week

They were all from LED HUT

Lumilife  GU10-320-WW  4W 1200 warm white  (actually came out a fraction greeny-blue but then I'm fussy, excellent wide beam)

Lumilife   GU10-5W-WW  5W  600 warm white   (good brightness and very close to wide Halogen on colour and beam) 

Both had a DAB Radio with internal aerial in the same kitchen (although not particularly) nearby and in both cases these particular lamps did NOT seem to affect reception (London/ Hertfordshire stations, your experience may vary etc)

 

[Apache]

Bought a nice digital radio, but will bear it in mind - thanks