I’m in a nasty frame of mind right now, and this is what my 'tism brain decided to laser focus on for several hours. I’m mad that my light bulbs cost 10x more than they used to, and don’t last any longer, and my power bill is higher than ever.
Yeah yeah, I know, it’s probably just capitalism shitting it up on purpose for profit. And bulb science is probably solid, I guess. I’m just pissed off that I just barely managed to scrape through this pay period with $2.78 left in the bank before I default on my mortgage.
Anyway, any lightbulb science comrades got any info?
This is a really interesting article on lightbulbs, which have a pretty conspiratorial past: https://interestingengineering.com/science/everlasting-lightbulbs-exist-ed
Did you know that a secret meeting was held in Geneva in 1924 between lightbulb manufacturers that lead to the formation of the ‘Pheobus Cartel’?
"The main objective of this cartel was to agree to control the supply of light bulbs. Each understood that if any one of them managed to develop a long-lasting light bulb, the need for replacement bulbs would likely dry up.
Bulbs were lasting too long. Not ideal from their point of view.
So, to combat this, all members of the cartel agreed to reduce the lifespan of bulbs on purpose. Initially, this was set to no more than 1,000 hours!"
The longest-lasting lightbulb was first turned on it 1901 and is still shining.
EDIT: Seems this is a myth, see replies for more information!
Technology Connections largely debunks this myth.
Light bulb will run for a very long time if you don’t want it to be bright.
I swear i was going to link the same video
Correct. We’ve replaced all our incandescent bulbs except for two 60w contractor bulbs in the a hallway that were installed when the house was built 18 years ago. All of the original higher wattage incandescents died within the first couple of years.
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
https://piped.video/zb7Bs98KmnY?si=SDXvd0E9SPFbxKSG
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source; check me out at GitHub.
Thank you for the correction
I’ve heard that story, but it doesn’t fit the facts. Bulb life and efficiency is a compromise and no conspiracy is needed for manufactures to all settle on a similar optimal compromise. Long life bulbs existed back in the day, they were sometimes useful but mostly not worth it.
Also, that lightbulb that still shines today is kept on such a low output that it would not be useful for anyone.
Technology Connections did a good video debunking the light bulb conspiracy myth: https://youtu.be/zb7Bs98KmnY?si=kuo40VBOPtMzokqZ
Here is a really interesting video on lightbulbs which goes into how the light bulb cartel standard was more of a min-maxing of lifespan vs energy cost vs brightness than it was planned obsolescence.
"The main objective of this cartel was to agree to control the supply of light bulbs. Each understood that if any one of them managed to develop a long-lasting light bulb, the need for replacement bulbs would likely dry up.
Bulbs were lasting too long. Not ideal from their point of view.
So, to combat this, all members of the cartel agreed to reduce the lifespan of bulbs on purpose. Initially, this was set to no more than 1,000 hours!"
The longest-lasting lightbulb was first turned on it 1901 and is still shining.
Thank you for the correction!
I’ve never had an LED bulb go bad. Even those that sit in a drawer or box for years at a time.
Pay for on brand bulbs they last waaaay longer
where are you people buying your bulbs, i have not touched onein a year at least
LEDs run on DC power, not AC like regular bulbs; therefore there is a power supply inside that converts and regulates the power.
The two most common failures in LED systems is shitty power supplies dying prematurely, either because of heat or because of just crappy cheap hardware, or the design is wrong which overcurrents the LEDs which kills it.
I remember my uncle had all the lighting in his kitchen changed to LED with a fancy light, it was bright and really nice, but the power supply died (I tested it by switching the PSU between the units, all the LEDs were fine, just the power supplies sucked). I couldn’t find a replacement for the same serial number, so I put another PSU from a different brand I got on eBay and it was fine. The original PSUs were all dead within the first 4 years, the aftermarket ones are all still fine 6 years later.
Obviously for these lightbulbs, this is a bit harder to do since they are all in one, so it’s probably a good idea to get higher quality bulbs. I am not an expert, but I really like the Philips ones I have right now that are rated for 50000 hours (though they are relatively new, only bought them this year, so I can’t say much about their reliability).
TL;DR: Not all LEDs are created equal.
I’ve had Philips hues for a few years now. And they’re still going strong.
Also. I will vouch for smart lights. Unlike some smart appliances, I can fully see the advantage to them. Laid in bed all comfy and can’t be arsed moving but need to turn them off? Have no bullets for your designated light turning off gun? Just open the app, and you can turn them off, or whatever colour that works for you. Or just tell Alexa to do it.
deleted by creator
Ahh, okay. I haven’t seen anything about cloud stuff, but I don’t really change the colour much myself, in the bedroom at least, and the times I have domne, it’s just through the app. But I do have an account for out of home use.
I use Corsair and the desktop app to control the ones in my other room, though. But the last time I set that up, it was just the push button.
Also, you need an account if you link it to alexa. But that’s the only ones I know of that need an account.
In my opinion, I find the use of the light strip to be really helpful, as I can just set it to either match my pc lights or what’s happening on my main monitor. In the bedroom, I like having the option to dim then, or change them to a softer? Or more subtle colour if I’m watching a movie and eating. I feel it makes it a bit cosier.
I do find it quite appealing for changing colour temperature, having it on 5600k during the day, and as low as it will go for the evening.
Bad design. These bulbs often run supper hot, resulting in premature failure from electromigration and similar. Some manufacturers are better about this then others, so try another one. Filament style bulbs also tend to run colder, and last a lot longer. (But they flicker and play badly with dimmers)
What is a filament style LED bulb?
Programmed obsolescense, the bulbs in my bathroom have to be replaced after 1 or 2 months which is pure torture, however i have 3 LED bulbs i have been using for more than 3 years without problem, i also have a CFL one that has been working since 2013, however it doesn’t put out a lot of light sadly so it’s just sitting in a drawer rn.
They get too hot and the 0.07$ capacitor they put in it dries out and dies. You want the 0.09$ capacitor which lasts 1000 times longer, but usually they only put those in the 45$ led bulbs.
You can do like me, when they die, take them apart and replace the capacitor with a super deluxe 0.11$ one !
Occasionally, for bigger lamps, they do need actual cooling fins though.
Holy shit I never thought about what’s inside an LED bulb past the LEDs themselves.
I’ve heard the explanation that they don’t dissipate heat well and their lives are shortened because of the fixture they’re placed in. With incandescent bulbs, heat wasn’t the issue it is with LEDs.
This is most of it. If they’re facing up (typical lamp), they’ll last for years. If they’re facing down (ceiling fixture), especially with a shroud around the bulb, they won’t last much longer than an incandescent. The control chip burns up if they get too hot.
So just put cheap ones in the fixtures that’ll kill them. You can get decent bulbs for less than $1/per.
Juat don’t buy the ones that say not to use in an enclosed space and they should do fine in any fixture.
And the ability to dissipate that heat apparently depends a lot on the orientation of the bulb (socket up or down), enclosures, etc., so you can end up replacing LED bulbs in certain fixtures more frequently than others.
Cheaper bulbs, definitely. I had a corner display cabinet I tried to switch over to using an LED bulb; the compartment for the bulb was nearly sealed and also lined with reflective materials, so the exterior got hotter to the touch than it ever did with an incandescent bulb. Damn thing started flickering and malfunctioning a few months in. Tried another LED bulb and the same thing happened only on a slightly longer time frame. Finally just gave up and went back to an incandescent bulb.
I’ve never replaced an led bulb and I’ve had them 10+ years.
Dirty power can burn them out, as can bad heat dissipation
Or some fell off the back of the truck chinese knock off crap leds.
As to electricity, even if you left all the non led lights on in your house all month, it’s still only a small portion of the usage compared to the water heater, hvac, dishwasher, and laundry stuff. Along with all them watts in your TV and coursing through a gaming desktop.
Filament bulbs are appreciably more expensive than led, to the point that an led pays itself back very quickly
It would probably cost like $1 of components to make most led bulbs resilient to all but spookiest of power delivery, but why sell something once when you can make them buy it over and over again
I can’t think of a time where I had to replace an LED bulb either.
I mean, when I moved into a new condo, I replaced the bulbs with brighter ones, but the old ones worked and were covered in dust, so I’m guessing they were working for a long time.
What do you mean dirty power?
Let me copy and paste the top search result from Google:
“Dirty power” is a term used to describe electricity that deviates from this standard due to spikes, surges, and dips. The term also applies to electricity that’s been tainted by an outside influence, such as a stray wireless signal. Feb 13, 2023
Appreciate you thanks fam ❤️
No problem, the cost is just one passive aggressive comment 🙂
One man’s passive-aggression is another’s man’s learning annex
Some older wiring and devices can interact poorly and cause fluctuating voltages. The more stable the voltage, the less wear on the components and vice versa.
If you were to lower the voltage would it still cause extra wear? Like is it the fluctuation itself that causes the wear or is the the ‘higher than expected voltage’ during peaks of the fluctuating?
I haven’t explored LEDs too much, but have an education related to transistors. Because they are diodes, significant overvolting will degrade the diode itself and if it were to happen often enough could damage the junction to the point of no longer working. Fluctuating voltage could damage other parts of the device, but I’d guess overvolting is the bigger danger
I know undervolting can make some electronics, including lightbulbs last longer, but I don’t know if that would countermand the extra wear from the changing voltage.
Two factors, quality and heat. If you buy bad quality they will last a short time. If the fixture is not designed to dissipate heat it will last less time. I found out the last one for a couple of mine. The ceiling lights with a shade kinda of a bowl like. The LEDs ones lasted less than a year. Then one of them I didn’t find the nut for it and put some other one that didn’t fit quite well but let the air flow and that one outlasted the other ones. Yes heat will kill your LEDs.
This is why it is good to look out for bulbs that say not to use in enclosed fixtures. Those have the worst heat issues.
Anyone interested in learning more, BigClive on youtube (or alternate frontend) frequently shows off how badly cheap bulbs will cook their electronics if run at full voltage. They put in a dozen massive led chips to get the brightness up and then expect a tiny wafer of aluminum with no airflow to keep them cool.
It’s either the wiring in your house or the light fixtures or both… If I remember right older light fixtures, like before the last 15 years, don’t have the right type of power regulation and it kills LEDs quick. I have the same problem in place.
I think with an old light fixture it’s more likely a heat dissipation problem than it is the quality of the power. Incandescent light bulbs handled heat just fine (that was their whole point - they heated up until they were white-hot inside) but heat kills LED bulbs.
The bulbs generally contain around 10 LEDs arranged in series, so if any one of them fails, the bulb no longer works. Also they are generally not cooled well, and the heat leads to faster failures.
If you have a dead one around, pry it open and you’ll likely see some slightly charred or discolored plastic and also one LED with a tiny charred spot.
Seems like it would be easy enough to mitigate both of those problems with basic design improvements, but cheap design causing early failure is sort of a win/win from the mfg perspective.
16 years ago, when I moved into a new apartment, I bought a 4 pack of colour changing led light globes. I liked them so much, I ended up replacing all of the remaining globes in the apartment with white only versions when they became available.
About 7 years in, 2 of them started having problems, so I replaced them. The other 2, along with the others I bought along the way are still going strong. I took them with me when I moved out of that apartment and put back the globes that the apartment had when I first moved in.
My current place has all the globes I bought, along with some my roommate had from the same timeframe. He never had any problem globes.
Now, these globes weren’t cheap, but I think that’s the point. Light globes don’t burn out like they used to, but if you buy the cheapest piece of crap you can find, you’re gonna get… well, the cheapest piece of crap.
As for your power usage, I suggest you look elsewhere. Even the crappiest led light will use less power than practically everything else.
I usually buy the ones from IKEA and they last at least a few years.
Can confirm. Mine have been going for 4 years so far. I have a mix of smart and dumb bulbs.
