I use a lot of LEDs - both mains voltage and low voltage. There's no need to use a special switch. Miains voltage switches work perfectly well on low loads and low voltages. I do agree that radio frequency interference from the LED lamps themselves is the likely source of the problem. You'd be unlikely to hear any noise much above 3kHz on a quiet line test and this is well below the operating frequencies of DSL.

At the moment there are some excellent LEDs on the market and some decidedly dodgy ones. It's also imprtant to have a compatible transformer/driver for low voltage LEDs and these can be a source of electrical/radio frequency noise too.

The lamps I use mostly are these which have "EMC & RFI suppression". They're not cheap but the light output is very good.

In one room I have about a dozen of these and a DSL connection without any problems. Some of these lamps run from electronic solid state transformers and the rest run from a toroidal mains transformer.

No problems with interference whatsoever.

Finding a normal electrician who understands RF interference detection and mitigation will be fun.

LED installation should be old bulb out and new bulb in. The key is what actual bulbs have been installed and searching to see if others have issues with the brand used.

Florescent lights are as old as houses but still can give issues with ADSL.

The simplest way to quickly fault find is remove LED bulbs and see if ADSL behaves better after a resync. The next step is look for RF noise by walking around with a battery radio tuned off a station at around 600 KHz (AM) it will likely be noisier as you get near to certain devices.

They could be ones which have the drivers in the sockets - as I have. That reduces the occasional replacement costs.

Hi

As others have said the brand/type will be important. What I will add is these LEDs can be bought of Ebay more cheaply but often are fakes and/or cheaply made. They may have a CE mark, but typically doesn't mean a lot for cheap stuff of Ebay.

So as well as finding out the details of the brand/type, I would ask the person who supplied them where they bought them from, if they say Ebay, I think there is your answer.

Regards

Phil

In reply to a post by PhilipD:

Hi

As others have said the brand/type will be important. What I will add is these LEDs can be bought of Ebay more cheaply but often are fakes and/or cheaply made. They may have a CE mark, but typically doesn't mean a lot for cheap stuff of Ebay.

So as well as finding out the details of the brand/type, I would ask the person who supplied them where they bought them from, if they say Ebay, I think there is your answer.

Regards

Phil

I have only Ebay purchased LEDs and have no problem with Broadband. It would be interesting if OP has mains or Trensformer LEDs. If the latter more likely to be transformer rating.

Hi

Not all LEDs will be bad from Ebay, just the chances are quite high. The same LEDs may work perfectly for someone else, a lot depends on placement and the potential for other factors shouldn't be ignore such as wiring.

If the lights are running directly from the mains (direct replacements for mains halogen types) then they have built in AC to DC converters and these, certainly from Ebay as generic types, will be pretty crude due to the lack of space and lack of any expense spent on them.

A separate power pack doing the AC to DC conversion will often fare better even if still a cheaper Chinese type simply because there is more space to get the basics correct.

I lot of these types of LED products on Ebay are at best cheap Chinese imports pretending to be nothing else and often you get what you pay for with no particular issues, at worse they are knock off Chinese copies of branded items. Ebay is full of stuff that isn't what you think it is, just ask trading standards!

Regards

Phil

Post deleted by MrSaffron

Other than spamming another site link post added nothing to what others have said

Thank you for that intellectual response. Are you an EMC engineer? Do you have any qualifications which are relevant to this discussion? Oddly I saw nothing in the preceding exchanges mentioning the regulatory issues which are integral to this problem, did I miss something?

It was my understanding that spamming was considered gratuitous advertising. All I have done is offer a link to a site with people who have years of experience and specific qualifications in electromagnetic compatibility - which is precisely what this topic embodies. If the Mods feel that m y contribution is not relevant or the link offered arrives at a site which uses pay per click advertising trickery then I suggest the post be removed.

So I ask, why is it that you oppose someone freely offering help? No one is obliged to visit the site, perhaps you might respect others here enough to allow them to make that decision for themselves?

Best wishes,

Nige Coleman BA BSc.Eng

Alarm bells always ring when you dig up an old post from months ago and post some link at the end.