[RFI] Dealing with RFI from light dimmers

[Frank O'Donnell]

On 12/27/19 1:39 AM, Jim Brown wrote:
> My advice -- 1) replace your noisy dimmers with top-of-the-line 
> Lutron. Make sure you're buying dimmers designed for use with old 
> fashioned incandescent lighting. 2) Replace LED and fluorescent bulbs 
> with incandescent bulbs. 3) Apply common mode chokes to both wires 
> connected to each dimmer, as close as practical to the dimmer.

The good news in my situation is that all of the bulbs controlled by our 
dimmers are incandescent.

Last week I phoned Lutron to ask if they could identify any of their 
dimmer models known to have better RFI suppression. Basically the answer 
is they weren't able to say. The rep suggested trying newer models, such 
as Maestro or other C.L. type, but couldn't vouch that these would be 
quieter at RF.

The local hardware store was out of Maestros, so I took a look on Amazon 
to order one. There I noticed one review by a user who said that his 
light controlled by a Maestro dimmer could not be completely turned off 
-- it could only be dimmed to a very low level. This would be a show 
stopper for us.

So, before I move on to working on chokes, I'm a little stuck on which 
Lutron model(s) to try. For our uses it needs to have a switch that can 
turn it completely off. I did note Gary Johnson's post from mid-December 
in which he reported that Lutron's Diva model is not RF-quiet, 
particularly at lower bands.

If anyone has suggestions on a specific Lutron model to try, I'll be 
happy to do so.

Thanks much,

Frank K6FOD