Wierd electrical problem?

[aardvark]

I have two ceiling fans with lights in my living area. They are both operated by remote. Either remote can operate either fan.

One remote is placed on one wall, the other on a different wall - for ease of access.

If I place either remote on the shorter, internal wall, the batteries will die overnight. Whereas the batteries in the other remote will last weeks.

Could this be caused by some kind of electromagnetic field or similar?

[seiko1]

Electromagnetic field will do it.
There must be live wire directly behind the mound inside the wall.
You will have to move the farker

[Wattie]

well i'll be damned!

[photomike666]

lucky you didn't find the wire when you installed the mount

[rooster]

Devil's triangle perhaps

[aardvark]

I just mounted it next to the light switch. Screwed it straight into the wall. They're only little screws.

Besides, I have one of those protector thingies that cuts the power right before your brain gets fried. I'm sure they never fail.

Oddly enough, the other one is mounted next to the other light switch.

Of course, it's no big deal, but it really, really, pisses me off and I didn't want to just move it without coming up with some kind of explanation first.

[seiko1]

I just mounted it next to the light switch. Screwed it straight into the wall. They're only little screws.

Besides, I have one of those protector thingies that cuts the power right before your brain gets fried. I'm sure they never fail.

Oddly enough, the other one is mounted next to the other light switch.

Of course, it's no big deal, but it really, really, pisses me off and I didn't want to just move it without coming up with some kind of explanation first.

The other one probably has the wires running vertically.
You said short wall so they probably run Horizontally.
The thing thats stops you getting fried is a RCD (residual current device)

[Rossi]

You said short wall so they probably run Horizontally.

If any of my Sparks did that trick they'd be looking for another job pretty damn quickly.

Jase, are you sure it's not the wall mounting bracket keeping one of the buttons pushed in on the remote ??

[tim]

I doubt the ability of 240AC EMF to be a catalyst for the oxidation reduction in the battery itself. Strong ac EMF can remove the polarity of rare earth magnets (If I remember correctly from uni) but that's just redistributing the floating electrons, not accelerating a chemical reaction...... I'll keep thinking about it on the ride home

[aardvark]

I just got an email from the guys who make the fans. Their tech tells me it's a faulty remote. I don't think he actually read my email. If he did, he'd know that the remotes work fine as long as they aren't on that wall!

[tim]

Hey Ardy, got pics of the controls and where they sit on the walls?

[aardvark]

I don't have any pics at the moment, but this is a photo of the inside of the wall - from when the house was being built.

The green box is the light switch - it's a 3 way switch.
The blue and yellow box is where the remote is mounted.

This is the type of remote:
http://www.omegaappliances.com.au/Product.aspx?id=241