LED Lights interfere with over the air TV Reception

coneyo · September 3, 2016

I installed Green LongLife 3528101 LED 18" Replacement Light Tube in our kitchen and never associated our TV reception difficulties to the lights till we were watching a marginal channel and when we turned the kitchen lights on the TV channel went out.

We have a Winegard antenna with Winegard Sensar Pro amp

These lights have a broad voltage range and the install indicates they are not to be used in a dimmer circuit.

TV reception problems point to these lights.

Anyone else experiance this?

Is there a potential fix?

AFchap · September 3, 2016

Many have had interference from the florescent fixtures long before led's came along. Led's don't need the ballast that the flourescent bulbs require. Some led conversions remove or wire around the ballast, while some leave it in place. I strongly suspect that if you clip the wires to the ballast & wire around it directly to the bulb sockets your problem will go away.

Tom_M · September 3, 2016

These lights have a broad voltage range and the install indicates they are not to be used in a dimmer circuit.

TV reception problems point to these lights.

Anyone else experiance this?

Is there a potential fix?

This is a common problem with some LEDs. They probably have a voltage regulator circuit that causes RF interference. Sometimes running the power leads through ferrite beads will help filter out the RF.

coneyo · September 4, 2016

Thank you for the feedback, the Ballast have been removed. I will look for some ferrite beads and try that. If that fails I'll change lights.

Kirk W · September 4, 2016

This is a common problem with some LEDs. They probably have a voltage regulator circuit that causes RF interference. Sometimes running the power leads through ferrite beads will help filter out the RF.

This problem is particularly true for the lower priced LED lights. If you examine them, they all have a small circuit board associated with the LED's and it varies quite a bit in size. That is because the higher priced LED's generally have a better quality voltage regulator with less RF problems.

Tom_M · September 9, 2016

This problem is particularly true for the lower priced LED lights. If you examine them, they all have a small circuit board associated with the LED's and it varies quite a bit in size. That is because the higher priced LED's generally have a better quality voltage regulator with less RF problems.

Many of the cheaper LEDs have no regulation and are designed to work on 12 volt only. One benefit of this is that they generate no RF interference. One issue is that they tend to overheat if too high of voltage is applied. During battery charging voltage goes to nearly 15 volts. I have some of the cheap unregulated LEDs and they have worked well for me. I also have some cheap regulated LEDs that affect some VHF channels on my TV. Most TV channels are now on the UHF band so it usually is not a problem for me. I just turn off the offending light if it's an issue.

coneyo · September 17, 2016

Thank you everyone for your input. I did try the ferrite beads on the power leads going to the lights but that failed to help. I have one set of led lights are strips with a separate voltage regulator these lights do not cause problems. I will go in that direction with one regulator and two led strips in the light fixture.