Local factory possibly causing premature failure of LED lights in nearby house ?

Question

As the subject says. Is it possible that spikes of some sort from a local factory can cause premature failure of sensitive equipment. 
 Over the last few years i have regularly fitted a certain circular LED mains under cabinet light . Out of probably fitting well over a hundred, i know not a massive amount, i have never had a call back to replace any. I fitted 6 in a property local to me last year and have so far replaced 2 and just had a call back as another has failed. So dodgy batch possibly or is it possible that a local factory could be spiking the mains somehow ( literally next door but one to the house) ? I have replaced a couple of external LED lights at the same house. The factory is a wool mill or something similar making tennis balls and snooker table clothes amongst other things and runs all day and all night. 
 Any thoughts please, is that feasible ? I don't currently know if the latest failure is an original or a replacement . 
 Gary

mapj1 · Accepted Answer

In principle it is certainly possible, but I'd like to think it not all that likely, and I think it would be very hard to prove. I presume the factory is 3 phase, and could be pulling the supply to the house either up or down as loads come on or off, and it could be that there are mains born spikes or high levels of RF energy from plastic 'welding' or wood drying equipment 
 Equally there could be things in the house itself, or perhaps another house on the same phase that are causing problems. 
 I presume you have eliminated he simple and confirmed that the mains RMS voltage is in spec. but fast spikes or RF riding on the back of the 50Hz will not be seen by most meters and in any case without 24 hour monitoring a spot measurement may not be at a time some offending machine is actually in the problematic state. 
 A scope may show something but the same risk of missing the effect on the day applies, 
 Another approach would be to have a mains filter to the lighting circuit so that anything coming down the wire from anywhere is attenuated before it reaches what seem to be rather delicate fittings. 
 Note that a surge arrestor that only cuts off anything above about 500V may well not do a lot to help in case where there are a lot of lower level spikes, but they may still affect operation. 
 Before doing very much - it may be worth asking do the neighbours have a problem 
 Mike

Local factory possibly causing premature failure of LED lights in nearby house ?

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