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Increasing the lifespan of a bulb makes it worse in every other way

maurycyz.com

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Re: Increasing the lifespan of a bulb makes it worse in every other way

#51

Post by piguin »

wolfgangK wrote: post #36

BTW, I don't understand why having the driver converting AC to DC inside the LED spots is the default. For a new house, it seems to make sense to me to have at least one external driver for a ceiling of spots, if not one per floor (not one for the whole house because pf the drop in voltage). But 24V led spots seem much less common and I cannot find many reviews. Any idea why it's not more common ? It seems efficiency…

I expected the -48VDC telco standard to become popular as people had more solar, batteries, etc. I guess we will get there the most complicated way possible with usb-c.

Re: Increasing the lifespan of a bulb makes it worse in every other way

#53

Post by lelandbatey »

krackers wrote: post #35
Hilliard_Ohiooo wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I bought all new Philip hue bulbs going on 7 or 8 years ago now and not a single one has gone bad. Maybe you're just buying cheap poor quality bulbs? A 100 out of 100 success rate after 8 years.

They have become cheaper and cut costs over time. LED bulbs bought around the l-prize time when the technology was new are heavy, you can feel their metal heatsink. New LEDs from the same reputable brand are comparatively cheap.

Yep, I have a 15 year old LED lightbulb that's a "60 watt equivalent" and it works great. It was one of the first LED bulbs I bought, and I only bought one because I remember it costing individually about $25, maybe more. It's got a very heavy metal heatsink where nowadays you have just a plastic "neck" of the bulb. It chugs along wonderfully (though the color is noticable a little bit greener than later cheaper bulbs that have better color accuracy).

Re: Increasing the lifespan of a bulb makes it worse in every other way

#54

Post by bob1029 »

wolfgangK wrote: post #36

BTW, I don't understand why having the driver converting AC to DC inside the LED spots is the default. For a new house, it seems to make sense to me to have at least one external driver for a ceiling of spots, if not one per floor (not one for the whole house because pf the drop in voltage). But 24V led spots seem much less common and I cannot find many reviews. Any idea why it's not more common ? It seems efficiency…

This is also a good solution to the flicker problem. Centralizing the conversion means you can afford better power filtering capacitors and circuit designs.

I notice most BR30/40 bulbs start to flicker after about a year in my fixtures. It's not a happy environment for an electrolytic capacitor. In the summer I guarantee we are out of the operational range of what is in those bulbs.

Re: Increasing the lifespan of a bulb makes it worse in every other way

#55

Post by Marsymars »

Hilliard_Ohiooo wrote: post #11
ValentineC wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Randomly, my Philips Hue E27 bulbs last far longer than any of the China Zigbee clones I've bought, but like all mass produced goods, there are outliers that fail. The cheap China stuff tend to fail in a few months , while I've only had two Hue bulbs in my collection fail ever , so Philips seems to be doing something right.

I agree, my Philips hue bulbs have been going strong for about 7 to 8 years now I'm not a single issue. I think people are just buying cheap bulbs then getting upset that they bought cheap bulbs.

It's a bit tricky to determine what exactly is "cheap" though. I've got various Philips Hue bulbs/strips with no failures at 20k+ hours. OTOH I've got a few Philips Ultra Definition bulbs over my kitchen island which seem to fail at an average of 10k or so hours.

None of the other bulbs in my house are really on long enough to say much about failures... like I've got dozens of recessed LEDs without any failures over 5 years, but I doubt any of them are over 1-2k hours.

Re: Increasing the lifespan of a bulb makes it worse in every other way

#56

Post by longitudinal93 »

Hilliard_Ohiooo wrote: post #9
freediddy wrote: post #4

I've never had LED lights last anywhere near the purported 5-7 year timeframe. The worst ones are the small decorative ones with the tinier screw part that my house seems to have an inordinate number of. Those last maybe 6 months and then they start getting dimmer and then all the lights in the circuit get worse at once. I like LED lights immensely but the idea they last even 2 years is a lie in my opinion.

I bought all new Philip hue bulbs going on 7 or 8 years ago now and not a single one has gone bad. Maybe you're just buying cheap poor quality bulbs? A 100 out of 100 success rate after 8 years.

Can second this. Did my whole house in Hue and have only had one failure (early on) in 5 years.

Re: Increasing the lifespan of a bulb makes it worse in every other way

#57

Post by Marsymars »

foobarchu wrote: post #48
pigpop wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's called a dimmer switch.

Brightness and color temperature are orthogonal. The dimmer switch only controls brightness.

There are, however, some dumb LED bulbs that have built-in circuitry to warm as they dim. Some of them even adjust the temperature based on the dimmer switch setting without adjusting the brightness for part of the range of the switch. They're quite nice, I use them in various places.

Re: Increasing the lifespan of a bulb makes it worse in every other way

#59

Post by quickthrowman »

freediddy wrote: post #4

I've never had LED lights last anywhere near the purported 5-7 year timeframe. The worst ones are the small decorative ones with the tinier screw part that my house seems to have an inordinate number of. Those last maybe 6 months and then they start getting dimmer and then all the lights in the circuit get worse at once. I like LED lights immensely but the idea they last even 2 years is a lie in my opinion.

If you are installing LED lamps into enclosed fixtures you need to use LED lamps rated for enclosed fixtures or they will die an early death. A globe around a lamp with an open bottom and a recessed can are both enclosed, even though you can see the lamp. Heat rises.

Similarly, you can’t install recessed cans into a ceiling that is insulated without them being IC rated or they will die an early death.

Spend a few dollars more per lamps for quality ones. Philips makes decent LED lamps, I’m fond of their 2200-2700K dimmable lamps that lower the color temp as they dim. Philips makes an E12 base BA11 shape (candelabra) lamp that should fit your needs.

I buy Keystone lamps LED T8 lamps almost exclusively, but those are pretty uncommon in homes.

Commercial LED fixtures are rated for 50,000 hours typically but they have a separate LED driver and massive heatsinks to provide that sort of lifespan.

Re: Increasing the lifespan of a bulb makes it worse in every other way

#60

Post by m463 » 

  Tyrell: The light that burns twice as bright burns half as long,
          and you have burned so very very brightly, Roy
- Bladerunner (1982)

also, I enjoyed the last lines of the article:

Also, to preempt the orange site, I'm not saying that planned obsolescence doesn't exist.

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