LED Lighting - Garage Door opener interference

Background

In November 2012 I started replacing all CFL and Incandescent lighting in the home with new LED bulbs. At our local 'big box' home improvement store I purchased several (35) LED bulbs and began making the switch to LEDs. Over the past several years most of our incandescent lights had been replaced with CFLs. I was not happy with the performance of the CFLs both in terms of light quality and life of the bulb. It seems like every other month I was replacing a bulb or two in the house.

Thus, the switch to LEDs.

But, be forewarned this is not as simple as going down to Home Depot/Lowes and loading your buggy with 35 bulbs and $885 dollars of lights returning home, unscrewing the old and screwing back in a new $24 - $35 LED bulb.

You are used to purchasing a 40w, 60w 75w or 100w incandescent bulbs. The new LEDs are now expressed in Lumens* not watts. Google watts vs. Lumens to understand.

Issues:

1. New Dimmers needed specifically 'rated' for LED.

2. LED 'flash' or flicker on a 3-way dimmer - 4 recessed cans

3. Garage Door remote Frequency (315 Mhz) interference

Ok - I pretty much knew I was going to have to replace a few light dimmers and the 'flicker' flash of four recessed-can lights on a 3-way dimmer is still causing me some grief (i need to add a 5w incandescent bulb to the circuit out of the way in the attic to stabilize the the dimmer - from what I have been able to research online).

But, #3 - my remote garage door opener stopped working. We have a Chamberlain HD900D Whisper Drive garage door opener. At first I thought from the master wall control that the 'lock' button had been activated which 'locks out' the remote control of the unit. I troubleshot this for about 3-days. I stood underneath the garage door opener with the remote and it would work. I went into the driveway 30 ft away and it would not work. Aww, the CR2032 remote battery needs to be changed after 5-years of operation - done... Now, it's fixed~!

Not so fast. Next day pulling into the drive way with the garage door lights illuminated (newly installed LEDs, mind you). Nope, nothing - neither remote from either car will work. The remote key pad which is also RF will not work. It must be something else - not my LEDs? Really... a google search tells me my 315 Mhz garage remote operates in reality around 288 Mhz and I find that the LED bulb circuitry operates from 30 - 300 Mhz. (read: problem is not with the LED lights but the LED circuitry within the LED bulb)

So, off to the garage I go. LED lights on - no remote working. LED lights off - garage remote work. Standing in the drive-way 50 ft away. Lights OFF, RF garage door opener works. Lights on, RF remote will not work...

Not just the lights within the opener, powered by the garage door power unit, but also the adjacent garage lighting with LEDs also interferes with the garage door remote...~!

So, YES there is LED interference that will render your 315 Mhz RF garage door inoperable~! Be forewarned.

* - Lumen defined as: "a measure of the total 'amount' of visible light emitted by a source