Very strange this one.

[Dave OCD]

This is true - I called in to see a customer who'd reported that every time his wife went upstairs for a shower in the evening the telly in the lounge would lose reception - particularly BBC1 !
I established that it was the bathroom lights being switched on that caused the issue and not the actual shower - and further checking/head scratching tracked it down to a single GU10 led lamp. Replaced this and all is fine - but when I tried this 'rogue' lamp in a downstairs GU10 fitting it didn't cause any problem - much further away from the aerial ??
There must have been some interference caused by the built in driver of this lamp I guess.....

 

[Deleted member 9648]

Seem to recall reading a tech article on LED stuff messing with radio and wifi ,so might well be what you experienced. Did you suggest taking a shower with his wife so you could carry out a proper investigation and provide a professional service?

 

[Dave OCD]

You haven't seen her.

 

[Deleted member 9648]

There are very few mingers when you get to my age...….

 

[Dave OCD]

I daren't say any more.

 

[Adam W]

For some reason I was expecting a punchline

 

[ipf]

For some reason I was expecting a punchline

Lights out...…….if she's that rough....

 

[Gavin John Hyde]

I installed some aurora enlite led tape in a kitchen on a recent job, 3 drivers for each set of cupboards, each driver does top and bottom tape.
When you turn them on from a central switch. it knocks out the radio reception and your phone signal goes very poor. Also literally kills the wifi signal. turn them off signals come back, its as if they create a sort of Faraday effect. being long tapes they are a bit like antennae. Had to look it up on old Google and its quite a common thing. I knew xmas lights could do it but hadnt realised led tapes do the same.
Customer likes the lights and is happy to have a phone free zone to stop kids using phones when eating.

 

[telectrix]

funny that. i recently fitted LED headlamps on the van. when they are on they wipe out my fav. radio station which is a not a very good signal at the best of times. got to be some sort of RFI from the drivers. got onto suppliers and asked them if they could modify the design to wipe out radio 1.

 

[1Justin]

Most GU10's are well suppressed in order to meet EMC regs. Being all-in-one are also easy to test in evaluation labs. - That's not to say a lamp meeting regs produces no interference, it's just that a sample of the model has been tested to be below a level deemed to be adequate. If it's bad and you get it with a "big brand" lamp I wouldn't hesitate to return them. Manufacturing defects might mean a problem exists even if the lamp is otherwise working normally.

It's pot luck with budget/unbranded/Ebay or non EU/CE marked brands. (& that's the "proper" CE mark not the "China Export" con!). - Expect more of this after Brexit. Omission of adequate filtering on the internal switch mode power supply saves the manufacturer a few pennies, perfect for the Ebay trader. And yes, it's then the installation cables which act as the antenna and give off most of the radiated interference, hence location and distance from affected radio receiver becomes very relevant.

This is more commonly a problem when miscellaneous stand-alone LED drivers are married to miscellaneous/budget LED's, perhaps MR16 or other "raw" LED panels or LED tapes. - A state where both manufacturers can claim they are not to blame.

 

[Strima]

I’ve had it with cheap LED lamps killing DAB signals. At a guess cheap rectifiers and drivers leak a stack load of EMF.

Decent brands of LED sorted this.

 

[pirate]

I remember when I put new valves in my radiogram and couldn't get Radio Caroline any more...
Progress?
I don't think so...

 

[Marvo]

I installed some aurora enlite led tape in a kitchen on a recent job, 3 drivers for each set of cupboards, each driver does top and bottom tape.
When you turn them on from a central switch. it knocks out the radio reception and your phone signal goes very poor. Also literally kills the wifi signal. turn them off signals come back, its as if they create a sort of Faraday effect. being long tapes they are a bit like antennae. Had to look it up on old Google and its quite a common thing. I knew xmas lights could do it but hadnt realised led tapes do the same.
Customer likes the lights and is happy to have a phone free zone to stop kids using phones when eating.

Almost certainly the drivers causing the RFI, here's little on the tapes themselves that would cause interference.

 

[Dave OCD]

funny that. i recently fitted LED headlamps on the van. when they are on they wipe out my fav. radio station which is a not a very good signal at the best of times. got to be some sort of RFI from the drivers. got onto suppliers and asked them if they could modify the design to wipe out radio 1.

Doubled the value of your van in no time Tel.

 

[Deleted account]

This is true - I called in to see a customer who'd reported that every time his wife went upstairs for a shower in the evening the telly in the lounge would lose reception - particularly BBC1 !
I established that it was the bathroom lights being switched on that caused the issue and not the actual shower - and further checking/head scratching tracked it down to a single GU10 led lamp. Replaced this and all is fine - but when I tried this 'rogue' lamp in a downstairs GU10 fitting it didn't cause any problem - much further away from the aerial ??
There must have been some interference caused by the built in driver of this lamp I guess.....

A fellow spark told me this scenario happened to him. I was double full, but I guess he was right.