Energy saving light bulbs can change TV channels

Viewers left completely bemused as their TV regularly changed channel at random have finally seen the light. The unruly televisions appeared to take on a life of their own until engineers tracked the interference to a remote source: energy saving light bulbs. The frequency of the flicker of the bulbs interferes with the infra-red sensors of remote control receivers.

Emma Clements and her husband Alistair were intrigued to find their Virgin Media box switching channels at random as well as turning on and off. They were astonished to find a replacement box did exactly the same thing.


Photo from here.

"At first we thought it was the children's sticky fingers on the remote control and that the buttons were sticking," Emma said. "But the novelty soon began to wear off. With the new box it was worse, if anything."

A Virgin Media engineer suggested it could be related to a Philips energy saving bulb that was in a lamp about 12ft away from the television. The hunch proved a good one when removing the bulb solved the problem. A Philips Electronics spokeswoman said the company was surprised that users of the bulbs experienced the interference.