The Biggest Thing Since the Light Bulb • Hacker News Board

Re: The Biggest Thing Since the Light Bulb

#101

Post by dutchbrit » Wed, Mar 06, 2013, 10:21 AM UTC

I'm not a huge fan of Cree's heat sink design - I prefer the Pharox bulb personally when it comes to esthetics, http://www.solarengineeringltd.com/renewableenergy/images/Br...

However, we aren't buying a car here. Nice that Cree's 60 watt replacement which actually produces 800 lumens, compared to other bulbs that claim to replace 60 watt lightbulbs that actually produce 400 lumens. Amazing that they managed to produce that amount of lumens with such little amount of energy - has anyone tested this bulb here? Also, very affordable compared to most manufacturers!!

Disclaimer - I use to work for Pharox. They were leading for a while but seem to have been overtaken.

Re: The Biggest Thing Since the Light Bulb

#102

Post by iSnow » Wed, Mar 06, 2013, 10:23 AM UTC

com2kid wrote: post #31

Am I the only one not impressed by these 60 watt bulb replacements? 60 watt bulbs leave my entire place looking dim and depressing, sure good colors are nice, but if I can't see anything, what does it matter? My light fixtures were designed for a few 100 watts, replacing them with these 60 watt LEDs may save me power, but at the cost of my eyesight! I am more interested in true 100, or even better, 150 watt, replacem…

You are not the only one.

I actually threw out all my flourescent bulbs and bought a truckload of incandescents while they were still available because the flourescent light was too dim and "hollow" to feel comfortable.

I am not sure LEDs are any better, I believe the cheaper ones have huge spectrum gaps.

Re: The Biggest Thing Since the Light Bulb

#103

Post by thisone » Wed, Mar 06, 2013, 10:24 AM UTC

dangrossman wrote: post #55

ck2 wrote: post #3

This is huge if only because a LED bulb company finally put its warranty where its mouth is. Every other bulb, ie. the expensive Phillips bulb, only gives a 3-4 year warranty I'd definitely give this a try @ $10 It's also dimmer compatible which is a big plus for me with X10 control, CFL cannot dim. If this bulb does not operate for 10 years (based on 6 hours per day / 7 days per week of normal consumer use) from dat…

All LED bulbs I've seen say dimmer compatible, but most really aren't. I have comparably-priced LED bulbs from Home Depot already, and any less than 90% power they buzz loudly.

Heh, that's completely the opposite of my experience.

I've seen extremely few LED bulbs that say they are "dimmable" and I've been looking around a fair bit as I'm transferring all the lights in the house over to LED if on-time matters and CFL if it doesn't.

(in UK I should note)

Re: The Biggest Thing Since the Light Bulb

#104

Post by svantana » Wed, Mar 06, 2013, 10:25 AM UTC

jwr wrote: post #77

We are still in the dark ages, though. Just consider: this "bulb" has to plug into the standard 110/230V AC electrical sockets. Powering an LED is nothing like powering an incandescent bulb: you need a constant current driver delivering a precisely measured DC current that, depending on the LED, is between 300mA and (say) 1.5A. The voltage you need depends on the number of LEDs in series, but assume 3.2V per LED. If…

> if you throw out an incandescent bulb, it's really just some glass and a little metal

Actually, one of those metals is lead (Pb), which is highly toxic, so be sure to recycle your incandescents! If nothing else, to lower crime rates...

http://www.economist.com/blogs/theworldin2013/2013/01/lead-a...

Re: The Biggest Thing Since the Light Bulb

#105

Post by thisone » Wed, Mar 06, 2013, 10:28 AM UTC

lusr wrote: post #91

msutherl wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a deal-breaker. Don't buy this bulb. It will make everything look awful.

"CRI is not a good indicator for use in visual assessment, especially for sources below 5000 kelvin (K)." Bulbs in question are 2700K and 5000K. Does your conclusion still hold? [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_rendering_index

2700k isn't bad, but 5000k? That's grow light spectrum. I've seen people complain over the "too whiteness" of 3000k bulbs never mind 5000k.

Re: The Biggest Thing Since the Light Bulb

#106

Post by ars » Wed, Mar 06, 2013, 10:32 AM UTC

svantana wrote: post #104

jwr wrote: post #77

We are still in the dark ages, though. Just consider: this "bulb" has to plug into the standard 110/230V AC electrical sockets. Powering an LED is nothing like powering an incandescent bulb: you need a constant current driver delivering a precisely measured DC current that, depending on the LED, is between 300mA and (say) 1.5A. The voltage you need depends on the number of LEDs in series, but assume 3.2V per LED. If…

> if you throw out an incandescent bulb, it's really just some glass and a little metal Actually, one of those metals is lead (Pb), which is highly toxic, so be sure to recycle your incandescents! If nothing else, to lower crime rates... http://www.economist.com/blogs/theworldin2013/2013/01/lead-a...

The amount of lead in an incandescent light bulb is absolutely minuscule - if there is any there at all.

I doubt there are any facilities at all that try to separate out the lead. All the metal is just melted together and the lead (if any) is diluted among it.

Re: The Biggest Thing Since the Light Bulb

#107

Post by egeozcan » Wed, Mar 06, 2013, 10:34 AM UTC

bnegreve wrote: post #78

ars wrote: post #9

This page has GOT to stop moving!! GRRRR. Who decided this was a good idea?

Yes, this is going to far. And I am not blaming the web designer for this, I am blaming the html standard that still hasn't decided whether web pages are documents or applications . Why does it even have a scroll bar if the behavior can be redefined at will.

You can redefine the scrolling behavior in other applications as well. The same thing as this page exists on an excel sheet scroll which adjusts to rows. Conclusion: I still blame the designer.

Re: The Biggest Thing Since the Light Bulb

#108

Post by davidkatz » Wed, Mar 06, 2013, 10:38 AM UTC

"the biggest thing since the light bulb". Keep reading their marketing, and you get "it's a bulb that lasts longer than a normal light bulb, and consumes less energy".

So let me get this straight — the light bulb took us from expensive, unreliable, dangerous light (candles) to instant, cheap, reliable, safe light. The light bulb is one of the greatest inventions of humanity. You made it a little more efficient, and you invented the biggest thing since the light bulb? Gotcha.

Re: The Biggest Thing Since the Light Bulb

#109

Post by joshuaheard » Wed, Mar 06, 2013, 10:50 AM UTC

ptaipale wrote: post #62

joshuaheard wrote: post #34

A light bulb is the biggest thing since the light bulb? The light bulb was the greatest invention of the 20th century, but the story is about to an energy saving light bulb sold at Home Depot?

The light bulb was invented in the 19th century. A patent was granted for an incandescent lamp in England in 1841 but the first commercially viable design was by Edison in 1879. I think the story itself, however, is a demonstration of an extremely annoying web site design.

The light bulb was invented in the 19th century, but did not become important until a massive electricity infrastructure was built in the 20th century.

If the joke was about the horrific web design (and it was horrific), I didn't get it.

Re: The Biggest Thing Since the Light Bulb

#110

Post by kijin » Wed, Mar 06, 2013, 11:08 AM UTC

jswanson wrote: post #39

com2kid wrote: post #31

Am I the only one not impressed by these 60 watt bulb replacements? 60 watt bulbs leave my entire place looking dim and depressing, sure good colors are nice, but if I can't see anything, what does it matter? My light fixtures were designed for a few 100 watts, replacing them with these 60 watt LEDs may save me power, but at the cost of my eyesight! I am more interested in true 100, or even better, 150 watt, replacem…

It's amazing how widely people vary on light. It's observable across major cultures, or even different families. A Japanese IKEA I went through recently had a display which would allow you to switch between 'Japanese' style lighting' and 'Western' style, with western style being dimmer, and with warmer color temperature. I immediately found the Western one more comforting, relaxing, while my wife (Japanese) prefers t…

I grew up in Korea and moved to the West (USA & Canada) in my late teens. I found the lighting very annoying almost as soon as I stepped foot in my first dorm room. Even when I rented my own place later on, I could never make my living room look "proper", since none of the apartments I've lived in had any lighting fixtures in the living room. No amount of indirect lighting can compensate for the lack of several thousand lumens, daylight color, right in the middle of the ceiling. I can see why other people find 2700K 60W "relaxing", but to me it feels like perpetual twilight, some sort of reenactment of Rembrandt's paintings.

Ditto for "desk lamps" that can't evenly illuminate two Letter-sized sheets of paper side by side (the typical dimensions of an open textbook), let alone the whole desk. To this day I still don't understand why students buy those. Maybe they just put them on their bedside tables in case they need to find their way to the bathroom at night.

On the other hand, everyone's computer screen is too bright for me. My screens are usually set to 25%-40% brightness unless I'm using it outside on a sunny day. So I suppose people do have varying tastes about illumination.