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There's something off about LED bulbs

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Re: There's something off about LED bulbs

#871

Post by 6510 »

jghn wrote: post #526
chongli wrote: post #465

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The big problem for me is, as a consumer, how do I know that brand X is producing quality bulbs that'll last a long time? The issue is that LED bulbs aren’t simple devices like incandescent bulbs. LED bulbs have an electronic power supply inside which drives the LEDs at a constant current. Power supply design is a major subfield of electronics engineering and there are all kinds of tradeoffs you can make to optimize…

Yes, but this is exactly what I'm asking. How do I find the ones designed in a buy it for life way? Or at least ones designed to last longer than the crap on the Home Depot shelves.

I imagine light consumption could be regulated like food could be. As a smoker paying about 20 times more than 40 years ago I feel entitled to say that approach was a good idea.

Re: There's something off about LED bulbs

#872

Post by yencabulator »

midoridensha wrote: post #859
yencabulator wrote: post #447

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For example: the stairwell shin-height lights in this 90s house are 12 VDC. There's a transformer plugged into a wall outlet in the nearby storage closet.

That works OK because the transformer is relatively close to the lights. If it were a reasonably-large house, and the transformer were on the opposite side of the house, you'd have a problem with a noticeable voltage drop. All these ideas people are throwing out here involve a single whole-house power supply. If it were for 48VDC, it would probably be fine, but 12V would result in significant line losses.

We already see transformers for a run of e.g. track lights, low voltage lights on tension wires, and so on. That's been a thing ever since halogens came to market.

Having multiple transformers is perfectly doable and commercially viable -- though I would appreciate more product availability for something easy to stash in the hollow space of a ceiling, like recessed lighting is installed.

Re: There's something off about LED bulbs

#873

Post by mark-r »

amluto wrote: post #769
dredmorbius wrote: post #757

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are finned LED bulbs which can fit standard Edison Screw sockets, e.g.: https://www.designboom.com/technology/self-cooling-100-watt-... > https://i.pinimg.com/originals/b5/c2/c5/b5c2c5d69fb240a571ba... > It's also helpful to recognise that existing lighting fixtures and lamps were designed around the constraints of incandescent bulbs. The first generation of LED bulbs and lamps largely conform to these. As LEDs…

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.

Are there sockets for 24V or 48V bulbs that could be standardized on?

Re: There's something off about LED bulbs

#874

Post by heartbreak »

fsckboy wrote: post #652
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…

I do have different memories than you about buying lightbulbs. I remember thinking 60-watt bulbs are frustratingly dim, 75 watt bulbs are a minimum, but what I really wanted every time was a 100 watt bulb, it just improves visual acuity tremendously. And my frustration with LED and flourescents, etc is that I can't find the equivalent of my good old 100 watt bulb; whatever the new rating systems are, it's all an excu…

Buy your bulbs at Costco. Problem solved.

Re: There's something off about LED bulbs

#875

Post by mark-r »

I don't know why anybody's surprised by white LEDs not aging gracefully. They're generally made by using a combination of a blue LED and a yellow phosphor. The thing about phosphors is they don't age well - they get dimmer with age. So your white LED will gradually get bluer.

Re: There's something off about LED bulbs

#876

Post by bombcar »

dawnerd wrote: post #793
bombcar wrote: post #612

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've taken to just replacing fixtures instead of trying to make bulbs work with existing, though I'm --> <-- this close to just throwing them all away and going back to kerosene lanterns and some incandescents.

That's what I did and the flickering didn't go away. I don't like the idea of buying fully integrated led fixtures though. Although I might just cave.

The fixtures with separate voltage converters in their own box seem to not flicker - but test before but.

Re: There's something off about LED bulbs

#877

Post by bombcar »

lacrosse_tannin wrote: post #283
Arubis wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you told me you could make one room of my house consistently color-balanced with LED lighting that I would have no reason to hate, I would ball up a couple hundred dollar bills and throw them at you. (Edit: I’m also coming from buying Philips Hue bulbs for precisely this reason, so in fairness, it’s not as big a price jump.)

incandescent bulbs used to cost like $0.60 each

Ain’t nobody gonna get rich selling bulbs for $.60 that aren’t even filled with mercury and rare earths.

Re: There's something off about LED bulbs

#878

Post by cogman10 »

mark-r wrote: post #873
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.

Are there sockets for 24V or 48V bulbs that could be standardized on?

This is what I want. A standard 48VDC socket would be a game changer for lighting.

Heck, with such a standard you could have 120VAC -> 48VDC converters and you'd be in the same position we are today with Leds, only better because you'd just have to replace the converter and not the whole bulb.

Re: There's something off about LED bulbs

#879

Post by tra3 »

pixiemaster wrote: post #665
fsckboy wrote: post #652

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do have different memories than you about buying lightbulbs. I remember thinking 60-watt bulbs are frustratingly dim, 75 watt bulbs are a minimum, but what I really wanted every time was a 100 watt bulb, it just improves visual acuity tremendously. And my frustration with LED and flourescents, etc is that I can't find the equivalent of my good old 100 watt bulb; whatever the new rating systems are, it's all an excu…

i had a similar view, until i found COB LED stripes (with dimmers), with 20W per m (LED W, not equivalent, i have mounted a few of those 3-10m (!), and now can have dimmed 1% background lights and hospital style brightness as well.

What’s the cri? Would love a link as well.

Re: There's something off about LED bulbs

#880

Post by djbusby »

xpe wrote: post #854
Smoosh wrote: post #845

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Me too - standard 12V and 5V rails run throughout the house would be great. I even thought about a wallpaper with conductive strips so the power could be invisibly delivered to any part of any room and "tapped" with a push-into-the-wall socket.

The usual counterargument is: voltage drop can become a problem. Trying to use one big power supply and use DC as your only distribution mechanism probably isn't a good idea. But choosing a DC system for part of the house can make a lot of sense. For one residential new construction room, it can be practical to have one shared power supply rather than one per LED. Say you have a 12 V, 5 A DC power supply. Using a sta…

But how far can the power go before wire resistance causes too much Vdrop? Maybe one good transformer+rectifier per room? AC to the room and DC in the room. Those DC runs would be <5m each.
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