Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

There's something off about LED bulbs

nymag.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

821–830 of 966 posts

Re: There's something off about LED bulbs

#821

Post by jon889 »

rvba wrote: post #797
phoyd wrote: post #168

>If you’re lucky, the LED will have a CRI of 90 or higher EU has banned incandescent lights years ago and the situation for LED buyers is much different here. My local drug store chain (Rossmann in Germany) sells 1000lm E27 bulbs under their own Rubin brand with CRI>97 for 4.99€. No flickering and available as 2700K or 4000K. My Opple Light Master 3 even reads CRI 100. So for me right now, it's just going to the drug…

As much as I like EU, the new bulbs are flickery shit. I bought a stockpile of 150W incandescent bulbs marked as 'shock resistant' (they are definitely not) and they give decent light. The 100W LEDs give more like 50W and flicker too..

When the transition started the first LED bulbs were awful. They have come a long way since then.

Re: There's something off about LED bulbs

#822

Post by meatmanek »

mcguire wrote: post #746
aimor wrote: post #633

Some people seem to have different memories than I do of what it was like buying lightbulbs before LEDs came out. I remember incandescents also having a variety of color quality, lifespan, and decorative options. I remember having the choice between bargain bin bulbs and luxurious options, making sure to outfit a room with a single brand so everything looked the same, realizing it's more difficult to read with this o…

Can you get 3-way LEDs? I have some 3-way lamps and I've been casually looking for bulbs but haven't found any. (Yes, I know I could search online and order them. It's not that important.)

Philips has "SceneSwitch" bulbs which are NOT 3-way lamps, but sort of approximate the 3-way behavior: When you toggle the power off and back on again within I've made these my standard lightbulb for any non-dimmable lamp/fixture, so pretty much every light in my house can be dimmed now.

(Any fixture attached to a dimmer gets Philips "Warm Glow" bulbs, which also get warmer as you dim them, and which do a good job of filtering out flicker.)

Re: There's something off about LED bulbs

#823

Post by u7t677uh96 »

tomtheelder wrote: post #634
righttoolforjob wrote: post #568

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hi, also European here. Everything the article complains about is true. The light from LEDs is significantly worse, even in Europe.

US here. Light quality in my house went up noticeably when I switched to LEDs about a decade ago, probably due to having way more/better options for color temperature. Haven't had to replace a bulb since. I have zero clue what the author is talking about.

[dead]

Re: There's something off about LED bulbs

#824

Post by Danjoe4 »

bombcar wrote: post #389
SoftTalker wrote: post #133

LED bulbs suck. CFLs suck. The light is poor and though they cost an order of magnitude more than incandescents did, they are built so cheaply that they don't last any longer. And they qualify as hazardous waste when they need to be disposed of. At times I've seriously considered trying oil lamps. The only LED bulbs I buy now are the "filament" types. Their bulbs are filled with helium so heat transfer is good, and t…

LEDs really DO suck and they're not tremendously bothering to "unsuck" them. You do want to consider kerosine lamps - check out https://www.sevarg.net/2022/10/09/keropunk-part-1-kerosene-l... - browse around and he does some spectrum analysis of LED bulbs, too - https://www.sevarg.net/2023/02/26/feit-electric-wifi-rgb-bul...

You're trolling... Kerosene?

Re: There's something off about LED bulbs

#827

Post by phatfish »

jon889 wrote: post #820

Ok but in the UK (and Europe im guessing) we had the ban on the old bulbs ages ago and yeah it was weird at first and the early LED bulbs were awful blueish white. But the bulbs are the correct color, the packaging has what tint the bulb is. Some people have smart bulbs that can change color completely and dim from apps and voice assistants. The idea that the old bulbs shouldn’t be banned is ridiculous. You only have…

I'm not a fan of the dome shaped LED bulbs like the one in the picture, maybe i just tried the wrong colour temperature, or it is something about how the light is distributed.

Luckily there are LED fillament bulbs that are awfully similar to the old incandesant bulbs, except they last far, far longer and have the same energy savings as standard LED bulbs.

I buy those now.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LED_filament

Re: There's something off about LED bulbs

#828

Post by systems_glitch »

What are folks doing that are killing all these LED lights, causing flicker, etc.? We've got a mix of LED fixtures and Edison based replacements and don't have anything worth complaining about.

I think in the seven years we've owned this house I've replaced two of them that got cooked in the weird enclosed recessed light in the living room. I did have a (commercial, hardwired) strip light fail in the basement shop, and disassembled it to find a cold solder joint on the bulk filter capacitor -- easy fix for me, probably not for most homeowners.

We don't have any dimmer switches, I suspect that may have something to do with it.

Re: There's something off about LED bulbs

#829

Post by doubleg72 »

brianwawok wrote: post #789
amluto wrote: post #769

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I sure hope 12V doesn’t happen. 12V is absurdly low for lighting and needs extremely thick wires to get decent efficiency. 24V is okay. 48V would be nicer for indoor use.

Wiring up a house with 48V for lights and 120V for plugs would be such a pain. Pulling 2 different wires to every room. Weird circuit breakers. Yuck.

Maybe for you, but I have been considering just this. I would love to have dedicated 24v for lighting and charging of devices. My house already has various systems for lighting, such as xenox throughout kitchen under the cabinets and also the basement. Both are driven from separate transformers. Then I got the rest of the house with can lights utilizing br30 bulbs that are just a waste of 12 awg. The one place I was able to replace with dedicated LED fixture, I had to overpay for a decent product that wouldve been better off as a 24v basic LED light. When you consider most hvac systems operate at 24v, there is some real potential to create a decent standard serving multiple purposes.

And besides, idk if you have ever pulled 12ga wire, but it's a pita. Idk any electrician that would agree with you saying it would be a pain to cut back on heavy wire and pull half that with light 22 awg.

Re: There's something off about LED bulbs

#830

Post by dr_kretyn »

tablespoon wrote: post #436
formerly_proven wrote: post #24

There's a lot wrong with LEDs in general and retrofit (E27 bulbs) in particular. In no particular order - LED emitters driven hard for cost reasons, age and fail quickly - Power supplies driven hard for cost reasons, age and fail quickly - Poor CRI and SSRI - Flickering - Dim-to-warm is uncommon - Poorly designed power supplies that age and fail quickly - The same light quality is vastly more expensive to achieve wit…

> There's a lot wrong with LEDs in general and retrofit (E27 bulbs) in particular. In no particular order If all that's true, it explains my experience that LEDs have totally failed to live up to their promise. Sure, they use less power than incandescents, but they're far more expensive and also more finicky. They were supposed to last a decade, but I'm lucky if I get a year or two out of them. I wonder what the envi…

In Canada (BC), cheap Ikea LED bulbs cost 1 CAD [0]. I'm not sure what price you expect but to me that's pretty cheap.

[0] https://www.ikea.com/ca/en/p/solhetta-led-bulb-e26-450-lumen...

Post reply on HN