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

951–960 of 966 posts

Re: There's something off about LED bulbs

#951

Post by novok »

consp wrote: post #891
novok wrote: post #889

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A bunch of this is driven by power efficiency requirements, creating a flickering low quality mess. Like no-flicker LED lights usually have a worse power factor.

Most flickering mess is caused by throwing away half of the sine wave due to cheaping out on components and has nothing to do with efficiency.

Waveform lighting sells flicker free LED lighting that they can't ship to california due to a lower power factor, and their 15W bulbs cost $29, so it's not a cheap component issue: https://www.waveformlighting.com/home-residential/why-cant-t...

Otherwise why exclude the california market in this case.

Re: There's something off about LED bulbs

#952

Post by [deleted] »

llbeansandrice wrote: post #424
jchw wrote: post #305

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some bulbs will give you information on their CRI which ideally should be required to be labeled on the bulbs packaging the way calorie information is required on food packaging (but I don't think it is.) That will tell you roughly how good the quality of the light is by proxy of the spectrum of light it covers. On the other hand, there is no equivalent afaik for knowing how well the power supply is designed or how h…

Can't wait to become a mini-expert in fucking LED lightbulbs just to have decent lighting in my house. I hate that the vast information of the internet has basically required us mere mortals to try and become experts in literally anything and everything just to be able to buy something that isn't awful. Computer? Better keep up to date on all of the CPU, GPU, etc. info. That doesn't even include the insanity of monit…

[deleted]

Re: There's something off about LED bulbs

#953

Post by Tsiklon »

azernik wrote: post #852
zaroth wrote: post #358

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cars are starting to move to 48V DC. My under cabinet lighting in the kitchen are powered by DC from a power supply in the basement. I could definitely see this becoming more common. Powering the ~100 watts of fixed lighting spread across my whole house on ten different 15A 120v circuits, each with their own arcfault breaker and 12 gauge copper electrical lines running back to the panel is fabulously expensive for wh…

If you're introducing electrical incompatibility, why on Earth would you try to preserve mechanical compatibility?

This is a fair point, breaking mechanical compatibility will at least stop any electrically exciting goofs from occurring from plugging a low voltage DC lamp into a (comparatively) high voltage AC socket.

Re: There's something off about LED bulbs

#954

Post by [deleted] »

twawaaay wrote: post #622
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…

As an amateur EE, I have analysed some of LEDs when I wanted to light up my kitchen counters. I wanted flicker-free LEDs with high CRI and temperature matching the rest of my apartment. I ordered samples of a lot of LEDs and found that almost all of them are using their parts, especially capacitors, well above the specs. Driving caps at well above their specs, at high temperature, basically ensures speedy failure. No…

[deleted]

Re: There's something off about LED bulbs

#957

Post by xpe »

tremon wrote: post #919
xpe wrote: post #864

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Until I see someone defining a representative example and running the numbers, I'm skeptical of their DC vs AC commentary. I say this, because I was guilty of this exact shortcut thinking (in another comment). But I paused and thought to myself "I should run the numbers before just repeating the usual voltage drop criticism". So I compared scenarios and it depends a lot on the topology, lengths, costs, and situation…

I'm skeptical of their DC vs AC commentary It's not about DC vs AC, it's high-voltage vs low-voltage. The power dissipation by wire resistance scales with the square of the current ($P=RI^2$), and low line voltage means that you need large currents to transmit the same amount of power.

Yes. Thanks for catching that.

Also, DC and AC have differences in power transmission independent of resistance, some due to first principles (reactivity), and others related to devices for stepping voltage up or down (eg transformers).

Re: There's something off about LED bulbs

#959

Post by karolist »

thrashh wrote: post #865
tshaddox wrote: post #838

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean there’s gotta be some reasonable price limit where you stop blaming the consumer. If each supposedly higher-quality LED bulb is $50,000 are you still blaming the consumer? Especially when the consumer has can’t realistically even know if they’re going to get a higher quality bulb or just a $5 bulb resold for $50,000.

It’s only a few $ more. And it says on the box. I usually stick to the same brand too. All Phillips bulbs are 90+ CRI and some are 95+ so I just buy Phillips. Problem solved.

I have a few Hue Iris that I love for mood lightning, surprisingly the CRI is supposedly very bad according to https://www.archyde.com/philips-hue-iris-test-a-designer-and...

Re: There's something off about LED bulbs

#960

Post by karolist »

roflyear wrote: post #4

Incandescent bulbs are used for other things than light. Like heating sometimes. Specific applications but I wonder if you'll still be able to get them?

ISKRA [1] in Ukraine still makes incandescent lights and there are places in EU that import them, but they have to be labeled as for non-home use only (factories, manufacturing etc.), but you can still buy them. 100w E27 light is around 50c. EU banned incandescent lights like a decade ago, but I still have some spot halogens in the kitchen and corridor and remember my small desk lamp with a 40w bulb that I've read so many books with. Something really feels off with LEDs and I can't put my finger on it, maybe it's the CRI, maybe the shadows, maybe the lack of heat that is cozy in the winter. Philips Hue are passable and convenient but very expensive in comparison and I still miss the feeling of making some tea and flicking on my incandescent desk lamp to read a book after school.

1. http://iskra.com.ua/index.php?option=com_content&view=ar...

Post reply on HN