Tuesday, August 09, 2011

RFI noise from the new light bulbs

I have been plagued with noise for the last few years, most has come from the HV power lines in the community. Now I have found a new noise that I would like to share........These new CFL lamps are the pits...over the last few years I have replaced many of the house hold use of normal lamps with these new CFL and now I find that about half have a very bad RFI issue, age doesn't seem to make a difference as some new ones are very noisy.......Now, I see the new LED lamps at the local Lowes warehouse and I think well let's see how these work.......$$$$$$$$ is the key here so I spend $100.00 and come home with some nice looking LED lamps.......Wa-La ,50 % of these have a big RFI issue, now the noise from the new LED lamp is a bit different, it is a loud white noise, where the noise from the CFL's is a raspy, arc type noise....So be ware as you buy into this type of lamp you may have an RFI issue. more test on levels and freq range of noise to come......So far I see no LED lamps made in USA, only made in China.... I guess they don't have radios in China. Only my thoughts, as I am going to take the offending ones back to Lowes for credit.....I hope.