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Wierd issue with LED bulbs

PWC Repair

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 27, 2012
Messages
3,222
Location
Arkansas
OK guys, my house was built in the 50's. With that said, all rooms except one bedroom have been gutted and rewired with romex AND grounds......which are actually just tied to the neutral bar in my 100a panel. I have double boom antenna with a splitter/amp and get around 30 channels, I haven't paid for TV in YEARS! Issue has been turning on a bedroom light and losing signal on the TV. No biggie, must be electrical interference. My wife's Waterpik will also scramble the TV signal. I picked up some new LED bulbs as the others are several years old......maybe they now have a better driver that won't scramble the TV??? NOPE, still does it.....BUT WAIT!! I was thinking I had a bad socket in the bedroom (dual bulb fixture) and switched bulb to other socket....TV still had signal, no scrambling. Installed second bulb....TV still good! Swapped bulbs in sockets, problem returned, signal scrambled. WTH? Same brand bulbs or even with the old bulb. Other bedroom, same thing. I can switch bulbs in the sockets and problem goes away. Why would this matter at all? could there be a 'phase' issue when using 2 LED bulbs that causes an electrical interference?
 
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larry4406

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 27, 2006
Messages
20,274
Location
Northern Virginia
LEDs can cause RFI and impact TV channels. Drove me nuts. My problem was with channels on hi-VHF (real not virtual). The bulb in the hall shower (5-6’ from tv) killed the real VHF channel on demand. Moved bulb and problem fixed.

My limited knowledge of LEDs is there is a spec/listing for RFI resistance and many “import” brands of led bulbs don’t comply.
 

rdoty

ALLIANCE MEMBER
Joined
Feb 7, 2018
Messages
670
Location
Massachusetts
The two sockets in the fixture are pointing in different directions - it could be that the RF interference from the LED bulb is at least somewhat directional and is now pointing away from the antenna.
 
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OP
P

PWC Repair

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 27, 2012
Messages
3,222
Location
Arkansas
The brightness would have nothing to do with the RFi being emitted and possibly bouncing around.

But you may have been speaking in jest??
 

BillK

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 24, 2006
Messages
9,434
Location
Beautiful Southern Maryland
I know this is going to sound crazy but pick one of the lights and wrap as much of the bulb and the fixture with aluminum foil. Then turn it on and see what happens. This will tell you if the RFI is actually being transmitted externally or if it is possibly ending up on the power lines and getting to your TV etc.
 

Matt018888

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 29, 2021
Messages
294
Location
Shelby TWP Michigan
I'm not a electrician but I own a remodeling company and years ago we had issues in a older house with led bulbs and a couple of TV's, our electrician found that a couple of 3 way switches where wired using two sets of 14-2 instead of 14-3 I believe this cause some type of interference, we switched them out to a smart switchs and the problem was gone. Maybe a electrician can further explain. It was a while ago.
 
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