RF Energy Saving Plugs and Interference?

antispam246

I've had a set of Bye Bye Energy saving plugs installed in my bedroom for about 2 years now. Products have worked flawlessly. Lately and randomly, sometimes I come home to find one of the 3 plugs has switched off.

There are 3 plugs in the same room all controlled by same RF remote. Now everythign still works fine but I'm trying to work out why one of them would be turning off. It hasn't done it once in the last week but prior to that it happened 3 or 4 times over a week.

To get it to come back on I have to switch off for it on my remote then on again.

I've tried the usual things like resetting plugs but I'd really like to know if another electrical device coould possibly be interfering with it?

As they work on RF could a long ranged device, possibly a neighbour be causing it? I wouldn't have thought anything from that kind of distance, even anything outside the bedroom would intefere with it.

Could any other electrical devices, even something that has no apparent RF emmitting be interfering?

The other possibility is that this one particular plug has a surge protector (8-way) attached to it (so do the other 2 for that matter). Could it simply be a surge in that particular plug that has caused it to switch off?

Any ideas or suggestions appreciated. As I said, it''s working fine for the past week, but I'd like to be abit more clued up on possibilities

EDIT: Just to add, my household has alot of wireless devices attached to my home network. The only additional device since this issue started occuring was my iphone. Could wireless devices cause this?

Hammyman

They're working on RF and anything could be interfering with them if its a shoddily designed receiver. If they're on the licence free 49MHz band, you may even find baby monitors interfering with them.

antispam246

Hammyman wrote: »

They're working on RF and anything could be interfering with them if its a shoddily designed receiver. If they're on the licence free 49MHz band, you may even find baby monitors interfering with them.

These are specs

• Frequency: 433.92MHz
• Power: 220/240V 50Hz
• Maximum load: 3000W
• Operating voltage: 230v/50hx
• Remote range: 30m

Would it be worth searching for other electrical devices running on same frequency?

Edit: Could it be someones key fob for their car?

hubert_cumberdale

you dont have a wireless doorbell do you?

can you changes the channels on the plugs to try a different frequency

kwikbreaks

433MHz is an unregulated band used for all sorts of things from garage door openers to burglar alarms to car key fobs - it could be just about anything within a few tens of meters interfering.

spenderdave

It is also an amateur radio band. If you are near to a radio amateur who operates on that band, or maybe from a passing car, it will block it or possibly trip it. This is a huge problem (look at all the reports of people getting locked out of their cars) and arose because the EU allocated this frequency for licence-free devices knowing full well it was actively used by legally licenced users. The primary user of the band is in fact the MOD.

I imagine these 'energy saving' plugs use pretty basic electronics with cheap wideband receivers so hardly surprising that you are seeing this problem.