Slashdot Mirror
Reducing RFI at Home From Lighting Fixtures?
amper asks: "I'm in the process of building a new home recording studio. When I originally moved into my new (very old) house, I decided that in the interests of conserving energy, I would replace most of the incandescent lighting fixtures or lamps in my home with fluorescent fixtures or compact fluorescent replacement lamps in those fixtures which could not easily be replaced. Unfortunately, these fixtures are creating a massive amount of radio frequency interference in my home. The worst culprits seem to be the dimmable fluorescent fixtures in my living room. Barring replacing all my fixtures and lamps with conventional incandescents, can anyone point me in the direction of alternatives? Is it possible that the decreasing quality of most home goods has led to a decreasing quality in fluorescent ballast systems that are much more noisy from an RFI standpoint? Some of these fluo's are so noisy, they even emit audible sound! It's gotten so bad that I can't even play an electric guitar without turning off all the non-incandescent lighting in my house, which pretty much limits me to playing and recording during daylight hours (when I'm supposed to be out making money)."
Are you using good audio cables? for example, balanced instead of unbalanced? Are you using good quality connectors?
Is all of your equipment properly shielded and grounded?
These would be the first things I'd check.
...just how much are these flourescent lights saving you?
I mean they emit horrid RF noise, if you have sensitive hearing which I imagine you do as a recording engineer they sound terribly annoying, and they make everything look wrong (though I suppose some folks are more bothered by that than others).
Personally if I lived in a house with all flourescent lighting, I would just want to go outside all the time, and I would be kind of grossed out by how people, artwork, and even food looked...but that's me. Let's talk about you.
How much money are you really saving using these? You're setting up a home recording studio. I bet a couple of your cables alone, save any of your equipment, costs you more than these lights will save you over several years.
I think you'll find that in your case, you can be a lot more effectively frugal and environmentally friendly by worrying about a properly tuned digital thermostat or improved insulation and HVAC in your older house than saving any real money with these lights, which are fundamentally incompatible with your hobby.