Have you tried one of the fixtures right up next to the garage door opener and powering from the same outlet to see if there's an effect on remote range?
Greetings all
Here's the reply from customer service at EarthLED, which is hardly definitive, but supports Cybrdykes (& others) POV:
Asking them is like asking a sales associate at the Home Depot. EarthLED just sells stuff. You should specifically ask CREE directly if Part 15 Class A fixtures are appropriate for a residential installation and if the answer is no, ask for a list of Class B residential appropriate fixtures.
Good Morning Mr. e36jon
Thank you for your business, we appreciate the opportunity you have provided EarthLED. We are unaware of any issue(s) with placing CREE LS4 fixtures within a residential application. In fact, this is the first we have heard of any violation of FCC rules and regulations. We continue to supply many different CREE products in residential applications and have not come across any code violations for those who are required to pull permits.
Thank you for your time today Mr. e36jon,
EarthLED Sales
That's the problem there. The response is from a vendor's LED salesman, not a factory engineering rep. Did you get him to agree to extend you a lifetime full refund buyback if you were to receive a cease and desist letter from the FCC?
So, now what? I think I'll go ahead and get them installed today / this week and post some installed shots.
Really up to you.
It's a lot easier and cheaper to exchange them for Class B rated fixtures now than later. The more stringent design standards make it less likely that you'll run into a problem and you're much more likely to get help from the manufacturer if there's a problem. A CREE CR6 retrofit downlight I have sitting right here says "this
Class B digital apparatus complies with 47 CFR Part 15" and this is a product marketed to the consumer channel. It's not like LED products only exist as Class A. LED lights are a new trend of extremely loud RF noise.
It's happened with fluorescent electronic ballasts too. Manufacturer stepped in to help, but they were installed as intended.
http://www.networkworld.com/article...nterfere-with-cellular-network--fcc-says.html
http://www.commlawblog.com/2013/10/...i-fcc-goes-after-hair-salon-lighting-fixture/
I wouldn't hesitate at installing one or two fixtures regardless of the rating, but I would give it a more serious thought when a significant quantity of extremely expensive fixtures like yours are involved because of the cost in having to redo them. It's more of an exception than a norm for a residential property to have 20 commercial public restroom style fixtures installed.
If someone installed a military surplus generator in his suburban home because he knows someone out in the boonie who's done it without complaints, how would you view the situation if he gets a noise complaint after someone moved into the house next door a year later?
I would imagine. As you know, as nearby noise gets louder, it gets harder to hear conversations and eventually, you'll have to shout and repeat several times. Communication equipment suffer the same way. There's not much "common sense" perception, because we can't feel it. It's worth mentioning that FCC's teeth are sharper than municipal code enforcement. We can only sense RF energy with an instrument in a way analogous to a totally deaf person observing sound with a sound level meter.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/06/04/ham-radio-interference-pot-growers/9770677/
What your proposed installation and this have in common is the clustered ballast wattage is far above and beyond reasonably expected for a residential property. If you're listening to your car stereo in the parking lot, it might not be bothersome. Have 20 cars pull up and huddle up, then have everyone do the same and what do you think will happen to the noise level to the nearby area?
Just a couple observations: The earlier picture of the insides of the lights appear to show a switching poser supply. These are notorious for RF emissions, and the actual radiated RF is a function of design - how well the supply is filtered and shielded. The only way to tell is field measurements.
Exactly. PWM output control is especially notorious. A computer power supply uses PWM internally to the power supply, but the entire unit is completely encased in a metal box and there's a considerable conducted RFI filtration on the input and output. Some LED drivers pulse the LEDs, so the entire LED assembly and the wires act as an antenna. It's worth noting that the driver is often the point of failure in LED lighting. So don't be misled by "there's no ballast to fail" pitch you might have heard. It's on the same field as fluorescent.
Class B ones are shielded better or they drive LEDs in a way that produces less noise.
Nobody actually says things like "spectrally inferior lighting" except in the driest of engineering documents.
You hear similar claims about fluorescent in LED sales literature, so why not?
Speaking as a guy with a background in color science, I can state that most of what you are spouting is at least somewhat true. All of it, though -- and I mean every last bit -- is overstated and exaggerated out of all reasonable proportion.
Whether its overstated or exaggerated is totally dependent on the usage. I took hint from jon's post that color rendition is important to him. I agree with you if you're talking about lighting for bus shelters, public restrooms, outdoor security lights and such.
When people emphasize on color rendition and actually bring up "CRI" for a shop or a garage, it's a reasonable assumption that there maybe some sort of work or inspection on coating or auto body maybe involved. Metal halide light holds the title for good color rendition in ordinary context for garage/shop/industrial environment where the common alternative is a high pressure sodium.
As for your so-called "triscuit test", the color rendering of printed materials has been known -- since long before the birth of LED -- to vary greatly under different lighting sources. In fact, for many years fluorescent lighting was guilty of only producing a partial spectrum, leading to fun color shifts and other interesting metamerism effects.There are now some very good fluorescent bulbs (and you've cited a few) but most bulbs used in garages and workshops aren't nearly as good
I am sure you're aware that metamerism is HUGE DEAL if you give a hoot about how vehicles appear outdoors. The total defect in spectrum shorter than 450nm and the significant wide-band deficiency between 450nm and 550nm or so are characteristic to LED lighting. Those fluorescent lamps I've mentioned have been around and have been standardized for VERY long time. They're not new. They're not used for general purpose lighting as they have a rather low lumens per watt as a result of producing light in the spectrum where our eyes aren't very sensitive.
What you call "leading to fun color shifts" is leading to NOT a FUN color shift that brings an unsatisfied customer running back into the shop with his face three shades redder and screaming at you after he discovers his car looks like it was painted by a *****. You were oblivious to the mismatch as you were completed color blinded to the mismatch by LEDs.
nor do they need to be. Unless you're involved in the paint or publishing business, all the bluster about the way the triscuit box renders means sweet ****-all.
The thread starter emphasized on color rendition. When shops make such emphasis, it generally means the proper rendition of paint which exhibit the same behavior as the Triscuit box. It's very important if it involves detailing, air brushing, decal work and any type of aesthetic work on chopper motorcycle work in general. If you do not do any paint work or do any type of aesthetic work on vehicles where being able to see as close as possible to what you see outdoors, what I said about color is not too important.
Even the common metal halide lights do a better job than LEDs in disclosing different levels of "glow" in different types of clear coat and upholstery as it does not suddenly drop out at 450nm. LEDs are completely dark between 350-440nm range and it makes people color blind to things that have fluorescence contributing to appearance. Basically, ANYTHING that glows under black light, but not under blue light will experience experience distortion under LED light. Who cares if different parts of furniture and cars have different tints, right?
LEDs may show a good color match with rest of the vehicle, but you see a clear difference once you look at it in the sun light in the morning.
LED can hide mismatch that would be visible under natural light coming in from windows. 
