21–30 of 90 posts
The longest running light bulb is in Livermore, CA and has been running since 1901. It's installed and maintained in a fire station. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centennial_Light
But still, a quaint thing.
For 90 years, lightbulbs were designed to burn out. Now that's coming to LEDs https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12103244
The counter-argument to our fear of planned obsolescence here is the ridiculous speed of technological improvement in LEDs relative to incandescent lighting. LED's cost per lumen falls by a factor of 10 every decade (see Haitz's Law), while a user's actual lighting needs may never exceed 800 lumens for an standard A19 bulb. Any attempt to form a cartel in this market would be swiftly defeated by ever-falling unit eco…
LEDs suck less, and are much better than garbage CFL, but are still more expensive and less versatile than the old bulbs, particularly when you need a bright bulb.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
LEDs suck less, and are much better than garbage CFL, but are still more expensive and less versatile than the old bulbs, particularly when you need a bright bulb.
except that many LEDs flicker horribly because they have bad electronics, and the consumer has no way to judge quality.
I really wish there was someone like bigclive that just tore down LED lamps sold in the US and posted reviews on Amazon, etc. about the internal driver circuitry.
Now I know whom to blame for all the heartburn that I (and family) had from the continuously fusing bulbs.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
except that many LEDs flicker horribly because they have bad electronics, and the consumer has no way to judge quality.
This really is the crux, unlike fluorescent (including CFL) and traditional incandescent lamps LED's are a lot more sensitive to having consistent DC power, a crappy little capacitive dropper is not appropriate to power them, yet a lot of manufacturers decided to cheap out on an additional diode to build a proper bridge rectifier. The amount of electronics to properly drive an chain of LED's is so simple and cheap I…
For 100 years, if a bulb burned out or you bought a lamp, you went a bought a sodding lightbulb. The choices were clear... good brand/shit brand. 20/40/60/75/100/150/3way. Soft white or not soft white. They cost like a quarter.
Now the Home Depot lightbulb aisle is as complicated as the screw and fastener aisle. My guess is the average bigbox home store has 50 SKUs on the shelf for 60 watt equivalent bulbs. It's ridiculous.
The counter-argument to our fear of planned obsolescence here is the ridiculous speed of technological improvement in LEDs relative to incandescent lighting. LED's cost per lumen falls by a factor of 10 every decade (see Haitz's Law), while a user's actual lighting needs may never exceed 800 lumens for an standard A19 bulb. Any attempt to form a cartel in this market would be swiftly defeated by ever-falling unit eco…
"Consumers for the most part" do not regularly renovate their houses. Most of them are renters. And paying someone else to change your lightbulbs doesn't protect you from having to get them changed.
Not altogether different from tech. today. Ie. Year 1 nobody owns a light bulb, so sell an incredibly efficient bulb. Year 10 everybody owns bulbs so cheapen the product to increase sales. While today we have incredible free service to grow market, then when the market had matured and growth falls and lock-in is complete reduce service to monetize. Somethings never change.
The article mentions CFLs and LED lamps, which are definitely subject to the same engineering pressures: This would result in increases of candlepower of 11 and 16 percent respectively.” That boost in illumination, he suggested, “would be acceptable to all flashlight users” despite the fact that the higher current would shorten not just the bulb’s life but also the battery’s. The cartel’s justification for these chan…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
This really is the crux, unlike fluorescent (including CFL) and traditional incandescent lamps LED's are a lot more sensitive to having consistent DC power, a crappy little capacitive dropper is not appropriate to power them, yet a lot of manufacturers decided to cheap out on an additional diode to build a proper bridge rectifier. The amount of electronics to properly drive an chain of LED's is so simple and cheap I…
Your comment captures the problem far better. For 100 years, if a bulb burned out or you bought a lamp, you went a bought a sodding lightbulb. The choices were clear... good brand/shit brand. 20/40/60/75/100/150/3way. Soft white or not soft white. They cost like a quarter. Now the Home Depot lightbulb aisle is as complicated as the screw and fastener aisle. My guess is the average bigbox home store has 50 SKUs on the…
They have about four bulbs for each socket (pear and candle, dim and bright), and the ones I bought a year ago are very good.
I think they have more incentive to sell good quality bulbs than the average store, since they sell the fitting and market being environmentally friendly.
Of the ones I bought, some were made in China and some in Germany.