I’m in a nasty frame of mind right now, and this is what my 'tism brain decided to laser focus on for several hours. I’m mad that my light bulbs cost 10x more than they used to, and don’t last any longer, and my power bill is higher than ever.
Yeah yeah, I know, it’s probably just capitalism shitting it up on purpose for profit. And bulb science is probably solid, I guess. I’m just pissed off that I just barely managed to scrape through this pay period with $2.78 left in the bank before I default on my mortgage.
Anyway, any lightbulb science comrades got any info?
This is a really interesting article on lightbulbs, which have a pretty conspiratorial past: https://interestingengineering.com/science/everlasting-lightbulbs-exist-ed
Did you know that a secret meeting was held in Geneva in 1924 between lightbulb manufacturers that lead to the formation of the ‘Pheobus Cartel’?
"The main objective of this cartel was to agree to control the supply of light bulbs. Each understood that if any one of them managed to develop a long-lasting light bulb, the need for replacement bulbs would likely dry up.
Bulbs were lasting too long. Not ideal from their point of view.
So, to combat this, all members of the cartel agreed to reduce the lifespan of bulbs on purpose. Initially, this was set to no more than 1,000 hours!"
The longest-lasting lightbulb was first turned on it 1901 and is still shining.
EDIT: Seems this is a myth, see replies for more information!
Here is a really interesting video on lightbulbs which goes into how the light bulb cartel standard was more of a min-maxing of lifespan vs energy cost vs brightness than it was planned obsolescence.
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That’s a cop-out. Why else would the companies agree to a fine for every bulb that exceeded a certain lifespan?
Thank you for the correction!
Technology Connections largely debunks this myth.
Light bulb will run for a very long time if you don’t want it to be bright.
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Thank you for the correction
I swear i was going to link the same video
Correct. We’ve replaced all our incandescent bulbs except for two 60w contractor bulbs in the a hallway that were installed when the house was built 18 years ago. All of the original higher wattage incandescents died within the first couple of years.
I’ve heard that story, but it doesn’t fit the facts. Bulb life and efficiency is a compromise and no conspiracy is needed for manufactures to all settle on a similar optimal compromise. Long life bulbs existed back in the day, they were sometimes useful but mostly not worth it.
Technology Connections did a good video debunking the light bulb conspiracy myth: https://youtu.be/zb7Bs98KmnY?si=kuo40VBOPtMzokqZ
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Also, that lightbulb that still shines today is kept on such a low output that it would not be useful for anyone.
The only LED bulbs I’ve replaced had failed within a few months of purchase, the rest have lasted almost a decade now 👌
I also have a incandescent bulb on a smart switch for my bedroom, it’s seen A LOT of on/off cycles over the past 5/6 years but is still going strong. I dread replacing it when it fails, as the manufacturer is no longer in business…
I usually buy the ones from IKEA and they last at least a few years.
Can confirm. Mine have been going for 4 years so far. I have a mix of smart and dumb bulbs.
The first few generations of led bulbs last longer. I have tons that are still going and no noticable loss in brightness even though the packaging said to expect that in place of burning out. Now there are a lot of shit tier ones mixed in. As others have mentioned there are also a number of specific compatibility problems too.
You’re either buying really shit bulbs or you’ve got shit power. Probably the latter.
I have no idea what you’re doing wrong. All the led bulbs I’ve got are coming up on ten years old and working fine.
Either an electrical problem that’s burning them out or shitty bulbs.
If you have a dimmer switch, you have to get dimmer compatible bulbs.
shitty bulbs.
+1 on that as a potential issue. Don’t recall the brand, but I had bought a pack of light bulbs where the whole pack was having issues, to the point I called an electrician to check. When the electrician came and saw the brand he told me “those are garbage” and that he had seen plenty of people having issues with that brand.
I threw those away, bought some other brand. The exact same places where I was having to replace light bulbs often no longer had any issues.
What brand is it?
Don’t recall the brand. Threw the remaining ones out.
It’s either the wiring in your house or the light fixtures or both… If I remember right older light fixtures, like before the last 15 years, don’t have the right type of power regulation and it kills LEDs quick. Source: Not an expert just have the same problem in my place.
I think with an old light fixture it’s more likely a heat dissipation problem than it is the quality of the power. Incandescent light bulbs handled heat just fine (that was their whole point - they heated up until they were white-hot inside) but heat kills LED bulbs.
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I’ve had Philips hues for a few years now. And they’re still going strong.
Also. I will vouch for smart lights. Unlike some smart appliances, I can fully see the advantage to them. Laid in bed all comfy and can’t be arsed moving but need to turn them off? Have no bullets for your designated light turning off gun? Just open the app, and you can turn them off, or whatever colour that works for you. Or just tell Alexa to do it.
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Ahh, okay. I haven’t seen anything about cloud stuff, but I don’t really change the colour much myself, in the bedroom at least, and the times I have domne, it’s just through the app. But I do have an account for out of home use.
I use Corsair and the desktop app to control the ones in my other room, though. But the last time I set that up, it was just the push button.
Also, you need an account if you link it to alexa. But that’s the only ones I know of that need an account.
In my opinion, I find the use of the light strip to be really helpful, as I can just set it to either match my pc lights or what’s happening on my main monitor. In the bedroom, I like having the option to dim then, or change them to a softer? Or more subtle colour if I’m watching a movie and eating. I feel it makes it a bit cosier.
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They’re those things where it feels like you don’t need them until after you have them, and it’s all much easier.
I’m pretty sure you can set automations up as well so that they just do stuff. You can get them to get brighter as you’re waking up. You can set them to do stuff at certain times, such as sun rise and sunset, and to come on when you get home. And some others.
Bad design. These bulbs often run supper hot, resulting in premature failure from electromigration and similar. Some manufacturers are better about this then others, so try another one. Filament style bulbs also tend to run colder, and last a lot longer. (But they flicker and play badly with dimmers)
What is a filament style LED bulb?
There are a few reasons it could be happening so I’ll start with some the most common
If your switches are dimmer switches and you’re not using dimmer bulbs they burn out faster
If your light fixtures are sealed you need to get bulbs that are compatible with sealed fixtures
Make sure you’re getting quality bulbs as lower quality bulbs will die faster
If your area has less than stable power your bulbs will burn out faster, though higher quality dimmer compatible bulbs will handle the less stable power better (you don’t need a dimmer compatible light fixture to use dimmer bulbs)
I use GE Reveal HD+ bulbs in my fixtures (basic apartment sealed domes) and they just keep on keeping on and they’re really color accurate.
I started with store brand LED bulbs and they just kept burning out and the color accuracy would be best described as vague at best. Not to mention they’d burn out pretty much every year when the storms would roll in and my power would get flaky.
It’s wild how back in the day most of our appliances were good with AC current but now DC is starting to become more prevalent. It’d be wild if in 100 years you didn’t screw in a lightbulb but fixtures had a USB port to power the things.
I’ve heard of PoE bulbs, but not seen them anywhere. That would be awesome for smart home as well as the powering aspect.
I already have USB sockets.
Two factors, quality and heat. If you buy bad quality they will last a short time. If the fixture is not designed to dissipate heat it will last less time. I found out the last one for a couple of mine. The ceiling lights with a shade kinda of a bowl like. The LEDs ones lasted less than a year. Then one of them I didn’t find the nut for it and put some other one that didn’t fit quite well but let the air flow and that one outlasted the other ones. Yes heat will kill your LEDs.
This is why it is good to look out for bulbs that say not to use in enclosed fixtures. Those have the worst heat issues.
Anyone interested in learning more, BigClive on youtube (or alternate frontend) frequently shows off how badly cheap bulbs will cook their electronics if run at full voltage. They put in a dozen massive led chips to get the brightness up and then expect a tiny wafer of aluminum with no airflow to keep them cool.
for the same reason diablo canyon 2 can’t be more like diablo canyon 1
Bet would be a combo of cheapest you could buy and unstable power.
Brownouts, even ones so minor the human eye can’t see, are killers to electronics. Learned that decades ago when I got my first computer (C-64) and had to return a few before we figured out it was bad power. Building code ought to include protection within the main breaker box. Maybe in some places they have such a thing.
The C64 had a notoriously garbage power supply that would eventually cook the machine regardless of how clean your line power is.
I have heard that over the years, I think that may have been hit or miss (as with anything in production). Once I had something to fight the power swings I never had an issue with my power supply again. Perhaps the last one I got was from a “better” run.
