161–170 of 519 posts
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How do you predict product lifetime?
There are standardized tests for all this stuff, as you might imagine. One in this case would be the LM80 test. Source: https://www.amazon.com/LED-Lighting-Primer-Future/dp/1449334...
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Pro tip: Home Depot recently started to allow receipts to be pulled up and items to be returned with just a credit card. Ikea does this too if you always scan your Family Card.
> if you always scan your Family Card i.e., if you agree to be tracked.
Edit: the source is not mentioned anywhere. This is an excerpt from Gravity's Rainbow.
I also have been disappointed with LED "bulbs". They get too damn hot in recessed fixtures but NOT because of the LED's. It's all because of the shitty power converter embedded deep inside the bulb getting too hot and failing. The industry has necessarily had to retrofit to where incandescent bulbs are supposed to go. I think that we'll start to see improvements in this area as people move away from "screw-in bulb" a…
And it's not only hams, but also other radio spectrum users, like mariners -http://www.professionalmariner.com/December-January-2019/Onb...
Seems like some municipalities got sold a pile of crap. At least they work even with the missing lights, but who knows how often they are having to replace those?
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Every so often, I come back to the "I should have DC power on demand in my house!" until I'm reminded that DC power loss over a distance can hurt bad, even 48VDC telecom power. Perhaps USB-C PD might help? USB power adapters are compact and PD offers standard, useful high power DC. If the adapters become ubiquitous, you could see "USB-C lightbulbs".
Slight tangent but "in-building DC" exists, and is rapidly gaining popularity but not via the medium many assumed: Power Over Ethernet. You can buy PoE LED light fixtures now, which are both powered and controlled over ethernet. You buy a single PoE switch, run some low voltage Cat6, and you can power an entire floor's worth of lighting. EEPoE (Energy Efficient PoE) offers more efficient PoE too which claims up to 94…
? Must be either very low current lighting or that's some pretty beefy Cat6. I think the average Cat6 cable is only 24 gauge and that won't carry a lot of current very far.
This is what amazes me, I've been an early adopter of LED bulbs (Google even gave out a bunch at one time to employees) and have seen my share of failures, from color shift, to brightness degradation, to controller failure. That said, they nearly always cost less to operate than the previous incandescent lamps they replaced.
When the LED 'tubes' which replace fluorescent bulbs became cost effective I replaced all the bulbs in my garage. And when a credible can light with acceptable dimming came out I replaced all of the recessed lighting in the family room and living room. I now don't have a single incandescent lamp in the house and it has reduced by monthly energy by anywhere from 35 to 55 KWhr per month. That represents about a $50 a year in energy cost savings. The cost has come down to the point where the bulbs pay for themselves well within their lifetime range (my experience over a population of 62 different bulbs has been 7.5 years MTTF).
That said, I haven't been as diligent in figuring out exactly why a bulb has died, if it is just the power supply I expect they could be resurrected less expensively than a new bulb, caveat the reassembly of the light diffuser bulb.
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>Look on the bright side- in terms of real power, the electric oven, vacuum cleaner, AC compressor, and fridge compressor totally swamp the entire load, waste and all, of those 5V devices. This isn't an appropriate comparison. Those appliances actually do useful things that need to get done so the energy isn't just wasted like it is with power supply inefficiency. Sure a 12vdc circuit would be nice. It wouldn't be ni…
The point is the power delivery system we have does a good job for 99% of real power consumed (or whatever the number really is). I hate waste; my mains-connected smoke detectors (1% efficient) and garage door opener (15W standby) gnaw at my soul. But that's scope for improvement, not an efficiency crisis.
Those aren’t a waste, they are critical life safety equipment. If their 1% efficient power supply lasts the full 10 year lifespan of a smoke detector rather than 6-18 months like a typical LED lightbulb, I’d say that’s the appropriate level of reliability.
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>requires an electrician to replace the whole fixture would like a word with you. Kind of like how replacing a gas dryer "requires" a licensed plumber to make the gas connection or you're "required" to drive no faster than the speed limit at all times. You're getting the runaround. If it was in a vacant apartment that they were showing to people it would already be fixed. If they cared about getting it done ASAP they…
yeah, darn those pesky laws around liability getting in the way of some good old-fashioned handiwork.