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allen8106's avatar
allen8106
Explorer
Dec 16, 2016

LED Light Considerations

I'm looking at replace all my RV incandescent light bulbs with LED's but I've read that some LED's will cause interference with some electronics such as televisions. What considerations do I need to be aware of when purchasing LED's in order to prevent ordering LED's that won't work properly with the existing electronics? I'm interested in bright lights and no electronic interference. Suggestions?

37 Replies

  • I have been wanting to change over also to all LED. I find the current incandescent ones to be harsh and unpleasant to have on at night. We have solved this so far by getting a table lamp with a 3 way LED and find this much better. We usually have a full hook up so its not about saving the battery for us but not being blinded by the harsh light from the other fixtures. I have changed over the bulbs in our home and it has made a noticeable difference my electric bill.
  • allen8106 wrote:
    I'm looking at replace all my RV incandescent light bulbs with LED's but I've read that some LED's will cause interference with some electronics such as televisions.


    I've never heard of LED bulbs interfering with television signal reception but many sure can disrupt radio reception. Price IMO has little to do with it ... some early version bulbs I bought a few years ago were ridiculously expensive and caused RFI interference, the quite inexpensive ones I bought online from an offshore vendor don't cause any interference problems at all. I run 16 in our Freedom Express, each bulb has 24 5050SMD chips that produce a warm but clean white light @ ~ 3200 degrees Kelvin, draw ~ 250 ma compared to ~ 1.4 amps for the 921 incandescent bulbs they replaced, and I've had no failures at all in 4 seasons of camping. :B

  • What I did recently was to buy one each of 8 different LED lights to test. Half of them do not have regulation, and therefore do not produce any RFI but change brightness with voltage changes. The regulated ones all produced some RFI at a low level. The RFI emissions were all significantly lower that a couple of lights I purchased and rejected a few years ago. Maybe they're getting better on this overall? The RFI is low enough in all of the samples that it doesn't cause a problem with my AM radio reception. I'm surprised to hear about the television interference. Other than the RFI aspect, the light distribution pattern is different with the different lights, the color is different even though they all have the same color spec, and the current draw and light output specs seem to be pulled partially out of thin air. In the end, I chose one regulated and one unregulated type to buy more of.
  • We don't have or use lights enough to bother with LED's. At night we usually have just the light over the kitchen sink on and that is bright enough for us in the living area. We are usually on our computers, or watching tv. Tend to do any reading during the day. During the day. most of the time, lights are not required. We do have led rope lights on our awning and use those instead of the porch light most of the time.
  • I have used almost every kind of led bulbs there is, and never had any kind of interference from any. The unregulated ones from 5-7 yrs ago all burned out from the 14v charging voltage, but still no interference.
    No problems whatsoever w/ any of the later regulated ones.
  • I have halogen lights in my RV. I tried a pilot of 4 LED in my ceiling lights. While I did like the light, the ones I had were square with LEDs on all 4 sides. I found that after awhile some of the sides failed. I switched back to halogen, even though the LED are power savers. I am plugged into electric most of the time, anyway. I found no negatives other than the failure.
  • I don't know but I would Not buy the real cheap ones.
    Mine don't bother my electronics.

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