Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/01/15/filament-led-bulbs-that-mimic.html
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Ive had one of these for a couple of years.
Mine also has a coating of phosphor on the LED strips which gives off an even light and removed the flickering of the LEDs. Its definitely a nicer light and looking bulb.
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We switched to CFL bulbs for every fixture in the house over a decade ago. I cannot understand the people who are still using incandescent bulbs – do they love their electric utility so much they want to send all their money to it, or something?
The real issue preventing me from switching completely to LED lighting is that far too many of the bulbs are marked “not for use in a completely enclosed fixture,” which is exactly the kind of fixture we have in every room. It’s especially vexing to not be able to find 1600 lumen bulbs that are rated for enclosed fixtures - my spouse has crappy vision, and so 800 lumen bulbs are woefully inadequate.
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These are indeed very cool and I’m glad to see LEDs taking so many new and different forms, evolving beyond the chunky, ugly, extremely expensive bulbs of just a few years ago. Now if they can just solve the other issues: the need for them to be vented and the flicker/strobing effect they can have.
And of course it wouldn’t be BB if there wasn’t a cynical conspiracy theory involved.
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I want to register a complaint. As a person who is old-timey, it is offensive to be lumped in with hipsters. I have a couple of these bulbs, and I use them in light fixtures that are proper antiques, and old-timey as hell.
An illustrative example follows: There are both hipster and old-timey barber shops in our town. The hipster shop absolutely requires an appointment, and is decorated with animal trophies ( including a buffalo head ) purchased at auctions. The old-timey shop also has animal trophies, but they were collected by the barber with a percussion rifle. And you don’t need an appointment. You just sit down on the couch and flip through magazines until it is your turn.
Hipsters might dabble in steampunk styles. Old-timey people dabble in steam powered machinery.
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I hope these lights turn out to work and last as good as they look. I have had my eye on them for a year or so now but just have no place to put one where I can enjoy the cool look.
Are they artisanal?
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I got one from Ikea recently. It looks amazingly “real.”
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What sped up my switch was when led bulbs went from $40 each to 2 each. I’ve been all led for about 3 years. The wierd sized bulbs for ceiling fan lights were a bitch to find.
I’ve got these filament LEDs in a 60’s era lamp (it’s exactly like the lamp next to the telephone in “whatever happened to baby Jane”) and they are pretty awesome.
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It was only, what, five or six years ago that I dropped $20 apiece for three chandelier-size bulbs in my eagerness to switch. Now I can get them for a buck or two at Ikea or get these Victorian-looking hand-blown-mimicking filament bulbs for about $6.
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Yes. Even Walmart is in the biz
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I’ve bought filament style LED bulbs from 3 vendors now. They all noticeably lost brightness within the first 6 month and none have worked for much more than a year. A similarly priced incandescent Edison bulb should easily outlast the ones I’ve bought.
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These can be also disassembled (after the bulb fails, most leds are still fine) and used for a cool looking display or other art project:
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Bulb tweaker here. Always buying new ones, swapping them around. Got these LED filaments in the antique hall lamps, color control LED strips various places, super bright T5 tubes in the workshop, halogens aimed at the chopping block, basic curly CFs sprayed amber for down the driveway, OG incandescents in the reading lamps, etc.
It really is the golden age of lighting. Soon it will all be built into the wall panels.
The only ones I really like are the Edisons over the breakfast bar. Sometimes they are the only lights on in the whole house.
And the “Fake TV” — genius.
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i bought a whole load of these when i moved house. Don’t be cheap like me though and buy discount ones from ebay. They noticably flickered and gave me headaches. I retured them and bought Philips ones instead that are great, although about 3 times the price.
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I put a bunch of these in a chandelier, but they flickered noticeably until I replaced one with an incandescent bulb. They still flicker, just not as noticeably, so I may need to replace all of them. Can anyone share a link to an online store that sells the half-chrome style LED bulbs, but not the one from Amazon?
Was the fixture on a dimmer switch? A new dimmer might fix the problem.
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It’s on a dimmer switch, but it was supposed to be compatible with LED and incandescent lights, so what gives?
And should last more than 3 times as long because they aren’t made from completely shit components in a Chinese sweatshop.
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I was in HOME DEPOT and bought a 2 pack of “COB” based L E D bulbs that are as close to a “NORMAL” incandescent bulb and even has “glass” all the way to the screw base
IMHO they are the first TRUE REPLACEMENT for Incandescent bulbs
