Radio interference from LED lamps

yellowvanman · Nov 4, 2015

Just replaced some kitchen light fittings with fittings that have GU10 led lamps, now when the lights are on and they are listening to Radio 4 the radio crackles! Radio is about 2 meters from lights! No dimmer involved.

Any ideas on how to fix. Just going to email Ledhut as well as that is were I got them!

tomspark93 · Nov 4, 2015

Just an off shot but have you tried the radio in a different socket?

telectrix · Nov 5, 2015

see if radio 4 has an alternative frequency.

Richard Burns · Nov 5, 2015

Is the light switch OK? If the switch was original then it may be not making good contact and so causing the interference if the contacts are still arcing slightly.

yellowvanman · Nov 5, 2015

Richard Burns said:
Is the light switch OK? If the switch was original then it may be not making good contact and so causing the interference if the contacts are still arcing slightly.

Switch not changed. Would it make a difference when changing from standard tungsten lamps to LED?

Deleted member 72666 · Nov 5, 2015

It maybe down to cheapo components or lack of filters in the lamps themselves as we have a couple of led candle lamps that interfere with the baby listener also retro fitted a led reverse lamp on the wife's car and there's interference on the fm channels when reverse gear is selected.

Richard Burns · Nov 5, 2015

yellowvanman said:
Switch not changed. Would it make a difference when changing from standard tungsten lamps to LED?

Just thinking that with a resistive joint, of dirty contacts at the switch arcing on each switch on, the higher current of the tungsten lamps may just burn through it but the lower current with LED is struggling to keep it clean.
A bit vague perhaps and just a thought about where you could get arcing which will readily cause interference.
It is harder to get arcing at a PC board but you can get specific frequency faults with the rectifier as stantheman said.

derek · Nov 5, 2015

Is this digital radio? I've read about issues with cheaper LED lamps causing electromagnetic interference, apparently they don’t have the required shielding. Not sure if this is related to your issue.