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What Happened to the 100000 Hour LED Bulbs?

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Re: What Happened to the 100000 Hour LED Bulbs?

#431
post #235

Lifetime isn't even my #1 concern with LED bulbs. It's strobing/flickering. I film all the LED bulbs I buy in slow motion at 240 fps with an Android phone, and play the movie back on a PC with mplayer using the dot(".") key to move frame by frame. Here is a shot I made comparing 2 brands of LED bulbs: https://youtu.be/QbenId_F2RQ (Edit: yeah you don't have to transfer to a PC, just playing back in slow motion on the…

Ah! I'm glad someone found the same thing as I did regarding Phillips bulbs. Here's my old post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18645237

Re: What Happened to the 100000 Hour LED Bulbs?

#432
Reading about bulbs lead me on a journey and I somehow stumbled upon limelights (aka oxyhydrogen bulbs), which was the original theater lighting 'bulbs'. Basically, you can direct a torch over a block of lime (or a cinder-block I guess) and it will become extremely bright.

Could only find one video of the effect: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wheumkzDslA

Re: What Happened to the 100000 Hour LED Bulbs?

#433

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My friend's bathroom light that is now a strobe light and the landlord has yet to replace because it requires an electrician to replace the whole fixture would like a word with you.

>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…

I have experience in this (US Midwest) Most licensing regulation for these things are for professional commerce, and the more general the more they about demonstrating financial means to cover liability and/or a means of taxation, education or demonstration of work is of minimal to no importance. Aquiring general contractor licenses I often found myself using a web 2 fax service to submit pdf documents to a fax number... over T38/VoIP to the building department who could print the fax from their email as they required physical copies to be filed.

It's rarely criminal for homeowners to DIY within building code regulations, permits be damned. When the bank owns part, appraisal or home sales happen, insurance policies are involved non disclosure can be fraud.

My 2¢ on DIY from general contracting experience,

Water: Undetected water leaks can be fucking expensive, consider location and worst case scenario when making decisions. Don't use shit like AS SEEN ON TV toilet tank gaskets or tool free water valves in a production environment.

Gas: Thread seal tape is a lubricant that helps seat solid metal (usually) connections to create a seal, not a sealant. (can be welding agent for polymers)

Water, dish soap, spray bottle helps test connections.

Gases have different smells or lack there of, different densities (sink, rise, displace oxygen), can combust in different concentration ranges, etc so understand this.

Electric: Changing the load or adding potential for increased load on a circuit (new fixtures, receptacles, breaker, fuse, conductor, etc) could cause arcing and lead to fire in unexpected ways. Sections of copper wire get replaced with smaller gauge at some point over a properties history and then get sealed back up in a wall, among all kinds of other wacky shit. Understand the physics and dangers.

Connections are important, and common points of failure. They should be appropriately terminated and enclosed. Use the proper size wire nuts.

All: Valves, switches, and people are flaky so plan accordingly. Test shut-off or failsafe mechanisms and have a plan for the worst case scenario.

Re: What Happened to the 100000 Hour LED Bulbs?

#434

Earlier quoted context omitted.

as with many such articles, the title is rhetorical and not intended to be answered.

Is it in this case. I presume that at one time there were actual bulbs which said 100,000 hours on the physical box. What specifically happened here? Do we have the same bulbs today and the marketing was wrong, or are bulbs today de-engineered?

I'm not positive on this one, but out seemed the article alluded to the idea that the 100,000hr life was measuring to LED failure and ignoring the possibility of driver failure, whereas now there are stricter standards both for measuring the potential of a driver to fail and measuring the lifetime of an LED as the point at which out drops by 30% rather than the point of total failure.

Re: What Happened to the 100000 Hour LED Bulbs?

#435
post #235

Lifetime isn't even my #1 concern with LED bulbs. It's strobing/flickering. I film all the LED bulbs I buy in slow motion at 240 fps with an Android phone, and play the movie back on a PC with mplayer using the dot(".") key to move frame by frame. Here is a shot I made comparing 2 brands of LED bulbs: https://youtu.be/QbenId_F2RQ (Edit: yeah you don't have to transfer to a PC, just playing back in slow motion on the…

My Philips Hue bulbs visibly flicker when they are dimmed, but not when they are at full brightness. I never had that problem with the old style bulbs. I wonder if that could be fixed with a firmware update?

Re: What Happened to the 100000 Hour LED Bulbs?

#436
post #403

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nobody? That is a high bar. Mechanics tend to be pretty cluey, but for the effort of getting proper lighting why nobody should be taking that sort of risk. Sight is one of those fundamental lets-feed-in-useful-information sensors for keeping situations safe.

Most people spec'ing out machine shops are not experts in lighting other than more = better. This is a really, really low risk we're talking about. Like basically the stars have to align for someone to get hurt.

No, it simply isn't that rare. You haven't been around wood shops and machinery much if you think that.

Re: What Happened to the 100000 Hour LED Bulbs?

#437
post #303

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's your take on why so many dimmable LED bulbs have flicker/buzz issues? I've tried through 5 different MR type LED bulbs and every one of them had an extreme flickering issue. All of them were labeled as dimmable. I've had better luck with the standard A type bulbs. But only because there were more thorough reviews available.

There's a myriad reasons why flicker and buzz occur, because there are a number of ways to achieve dimming. But all of this comes down to cost. If dimming is important to you, there are a number of architectural grade bulbs that offer deep dimming to 5% or 1%. Personally, for this application, I've had good luck with Cree bulbs of this type at home (on Leviton dimmers). And in the house of worship environment with Cr…

Second that Doug Fleenor recommendation. They make some fantastic lighting kit.

I'd also like to add that looking for lamps with the CEC Title 20 & Title 24 certifications should be helpful in finding bulbs that dim well, as California has much stricter regulations on dimming flicker and buzz than the rest of the country.

Re: What Happened to the 100000 Hour LED Bulbs?

#438
post #349

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People who do handyman work for a living can and should carry liability coverage. example: https://www.progressivecommercial.com/business-insurance/han...

The majority of people doing handyman work without a contractor license are effectively judgment proof so liability coverage is kind of pointless.

Judgement proof typically means you have no money/assets to come after, so even if someone wins a judgement against you they aren't getting paid. That's why you ensure you hire a handyman with liability insurance, so that there's something (the insurance payout) to collect in the event of a problem. Do you mean something else by judgement proof?

Re: What Happened to the 100000 Hour LED Bulbs?

#439
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do not buy "bulbs," they are hopeless. Just buy a whole fixture with a big aluminium PCB and directly bonded chips.

My friend's bathroom light that is now a strobe light and the landlord has yet to replace because it requires an electrician to replace the whole fixture would like a word with you.

[deleted]

Re: What Happened to the 100000 Hour LED Bulbs?

#440

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just how likely is this to happen though, it would have to be the only light source and be flickering with exactly the same frequency as the machinery is traveling at (which i assume for most devices varies a lot). Not saying it can't happen but it does seem stupidly hard to achieve.

Pretty common, about as common as the wagon wheel effect in 24fps film movies. In just the same way, the item can appear to stop, run slow, or run backwards, just as with film. No it does not have to be the only light source, just the nearest one to the machinery. Fluorescent tubes are most noticeable, LEDs a little less. Tungsten or Halogen are the only sensible option for workpiece illumination.

I believe halogen is also tungsten.
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