How the new energy saving light bulbs (CFLs) can mess up your TV

Warning: The new energy efficient light bulbs (CFLs) governments around the world are busy making mandatory can also mess up your TV remote control equipment.

We were tipped off by reader Nick Flynn who, after replacing his regular light bulbs with CFLs two months ago, found that the remote control for his 27in Sony flatscreen television had packed up. Flynn sent his screen to a repair shop, which found nothing wrong but ....

charged him £100 for the check. “It was only then that the guy on the phone said, ‘Have you recently changed your light bulb?’ Now every time I need to change the channel I just pull the plug on the lamp.”

The problem is that many (but not all) the new bulbs emit infra-red light at a similar frequency to TV remotes. Sometimes this means the remotes fail altogether. On other occasions the channels may be spontaneously switched by the 'impostor' rays from the CFL. They can even interfere with short wave radio broadcasts.

The drawback has been highlighted by a new study in Silicon Chip, Download cfls_april07.pdf an Australian electronics journal. “If you have a CFL in the same room as your television or hi-fi system, the infrared remote control may not work at all — its signal will be completely blanketed by the modulated infrared from the CFL”, it reports.

CFL manufacturers acknowledge the problem. General Electric - which made the bulbs used by Flynn - admits some CFLs could interfere with signals but said the problem was “rare”. It added:  “If interference occurs, our advice would be to move the bulb away from the electronic device, or plug either the light or the device into a different outlet.”

For more info on the problem from GE check out this link.

Comments

[Peter Morrell]

Interesting article on how CFLs affect TV remotes but it is not their only problem. I posted a petition on the Number 10 web site recently trying to get the Government to tell us about all the downsides of CFLs, and there are many. The petition is at http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/BewareCFLs/