LED RFI Interference

[WIMorrison]

I have been having issues with Wi-Fi and mobile phone signal in the new office and model railway room at home which used to have reasonable coverage and I have been pulling my hair out (what little I have!) as to the cause - especially as my Z21 was being wiped out and I couldn’t connect to it!!

 

I gave up last night and just as a switched the lights out I noticed that my phone picked up Wi-Fi again - switched the lights on, lost everything - off, and it all comes back.

 

A little bit of research shows that the root causes are the new LED floodlights that I put up last week to increase the lighting and reduce the bill, the research also showed that this is a common problem in houses and in cars, especially when using the ‘cheaper’ end of the market. Sometimes ferrite cores can cure the issue but most times it appears they can’t and you either live with it, pay a lot more for fully shielded devices or stick with flourescents - though they can also cause issues.

 

Hopefully this will help someone if they have the same issue in the house with Wi-Fi or phone signal and in the car if they find their LED upgrade kills the radio - it is down to RFI emittance from cheap components - I guess the moral is that your pay the money and take your choice

[mezzoman253]

I have been having issues with Wi-Fi and mobile phone signal in the new office and model railway room at home which used to have reasonable coverage and I have been pulling my hair out (what little I have!) as to the cause - especially as my Z21 was being wiped out and I couldn’t connect to it!!

 

I gave up last night and just as a switched the lights out I noticed that my phone picked up Wi-Fi again - switched the lights on, lost everything - off, and it all comes back.

 

A little bit of research shows that the root causes are the new LED floodlights that I put up last week to increase the lighting and reduce the bill, the research also showed that this is a common problem in houses and in cars, especially when using the ‘cheaper’ end of the market. Sometimes ferrite cores can cure the issue but most times it appears they can’t and you either live with it, pay a lot more for fully shielded devices or stick with flourescents - though they can also cause issues.

 

Hopefully this will help someone if they have the same issue in the house with Wi-Fi or phone signal and in the car if they find their LED upgrade kills the radio - it is down to RFI emittance from cheap components - I guess the moral is that your pay the money and take your choice

This can also happen if you change your halogen bulbs to LED. They use different drivers as one is voltage driven and one current driven. If you don't use the right driver it can cause the LEDs to emit RFI.

 

A lot of LED bulbs do not have the RFI suppression components fitted, although there are marked spaces on the boards. Cost saving by the maker, who's probably self certificated his product with the components in place. Then made them without. That's a loophole that by-passes the CE process. 

 

Mostly from China but not exclusively, and price is often no guide either, although usually dearer is better.

 

The failure rate should be low but is in fact quite high. So the benefits of LED over other bulbs is not what it should be, and you get RFI into the bargain.

 

Rob