LED lighting RF interference?

[12dbsinad]

I don't understand how installing a LED bulb in a garage door opener can reduce the remote's range. The light is only on after the opener is triggered and the bulb can't produce ANY RFI if it isn't on. I must confess that neither of my garage door openers have LED bulbs in them so logic might be failing me on this.

It can reduce the remotes range when exiting the garage. Open the door, lights turn on, pull out and head down the driveway, now you can't shut the door especially with the remote inside a vehicle.

Many times people think it's the remote itself like a dead battery.

 

[12dbsinad]

A friend told me that halogen bulbs also cause RFI. Anyone know if this is true?

A regular filament light bulb does not generate RFI itself. However, it's possible that some electronics like a dimmer or flasher that control the bulb would.

 

[Boombox]

A friend told me that halogen bulbs also cause RFI. Anyone know if this is true?

I use halogen bulbs all over the house and have had no RFI from them.

Like the other poster said, you could be getting it from a dimmer. But not the bulb itself.

 

[nanZor]

LED lighting has been a source of rfi for me, but it depends on my usage.

1) Some of the early ones I had were spewing junk up to about 30 mhz and then quickly tapered off. So no HF ops with those.

2) Newer ones have been pretty quiet on hf up to about 30mhz, but beyond that - they were a disaster up to about 500 mhz.

So It kind of depends and each gets tested when I bring it home before I purchase more. Dinky decorative porch-light leds absolutely killed my VHF reception, so back to standard bulbs for that.

I too tried to choke the wiring with ferrites, and while that may have helped *a little* - like prcguy found out, the electronics in the base just spew energy.

Hmmm .... wonder if there is any rf-shielding material I could wrap on the bases without them degrading from heat or turning into a hazard...

The real fix of course is to ban importation and sale of these natural resource polluters. Sigh.

 

[ipfd320]

Yah well thats the problem--the FCC the way i see it dont give 2 SxxxS about small light interference causing companies--Sure there was a few large fines imposed on some led sign makers but those signs are most likely still in operation

the only thing i can tell you is Amazon for incandecent Bulbs since the government had to control what lights we have to use--Once again they made matters worse

anything with a driver or power supply is a cause of rfi--thanks to the crap unregulated junk coming into this country

 

[jackj]

iMONITOR - Switching circuits can't pass ANY amount of current if none is applied. The on-off switch for the bulb is in the opener, not the bulb.

pixii - Halogen bulbs are incandescent bulbs. The gas contributes to the bulbs life by redepositing atoms boiled off the filament back onto the filament allowing a much higher operating temperature which allows the bulb to be more efficient. This can not generate RFI.

 

[pjxii]

iMONITOR - Switching circuits can't pass ANY amount of current if none is applied. The on-off switch for the bulb is in the opener, not the bulb.

pixii - Halogen bulbs are incandescent bulbs. The gas contributes to the bulbs life by redepositing atoms boiled off the filament back onto the filament allowing a much higher operating temperature which allows the bulb to be more efficient. This can not generate RFI.

Thank you, this is what I thought (on both subjects) but wanted clarification.

 

[Electromatic]

There is no escaping LEDs. LED Street Lighting is the future, DTE started rolling them out 3 or 4 years ago and still is replacing ALL SV/MH Lights with LEDs. 5G sites (every 300M) are being constructed now, they will network the new traffic sensors that will control them, turning them on and off all part of the Smart Grid.

 

[12dbsinad]

There is no escaping LEDs. LED Street Lighting is the future, DTE started rolling them out 3 or 4 years ago and still is replacing ALL SV/MH Lights with LEDs. 5G sites (every 300M) are being constructed now, they will network the new traffic sensors that will control them, turning them on and off all part of the Smart Grid.

True, LED's are here to stay. There is nothing wrong with them, it's the way they are built. LED lights CAN be built without producing RFI.

 

[flythunderbird]

This is an interesting topic. I've had CREE dimmable LED bulbs in my house for a few years with no RFI issues (I monitor VHF and UHF, no HF yet). I recently added some Philips dimmable LED bulbs, and again have not had any RFI issues. Maybe I'm just lucky?

 

[needairtime]

I have a dimmable LED floodlight run at full brightness that causes tremendous RFI on CB, so I suspect HF would be equally as affected. I haven't tested VHF/UHF, will need to try it sometime...

I have a ton of late model self ballasted non-dimmable CFLs and don't notice much interference from these on VHF/UHF/CB. I did try one dimmable CFL at full brightness that also causes interference on CB.

It depends on design I suppose, and current experiments are making me shy away from dimmables.

 

[iMONITOR]

iMONITOR - Switching circuits can't pass ANY amount of current if none is applied. The on-off switch for the bulb is in the opener, not the bulb.

I have some old X10 remote control 120VAC wall light switches that pass some current when they're turned off. Enough to give you a little tingle if you touch the wire while it's off.