That’s why I use candles, as Santa Claus intended!
14 Likes
Banana, I find it generally true in ALL types of fixtures that I am not getting anywhere near the quoted lifespan of these bulbs, but for this example these 2 bulbs are:
- in a bathroom over the sink fixture screwed into a glass fixture with space on all sides of the bulb
- bulb screwed up into the fixture, ie bulb facing down
- I was quoting the article claiming 40 year life of LED bulbs but a quick check of the box finds “22 year lifespan at 3 hours per day”. Still far greater than the few months I’ve gotten.
3 Likes
I’m already convinced—on no basis whatsoever—that the tradition of cutting down and putting a live, goddamn tree in the living room was started by someone who was totally blitzed. So it absolutely makes sense that this same person would decorate it with lit, goddamn candles.
Christmas: brought to you by brandy.
24 Likes
It is a heatsink and I am always careful to ensure LED bulbs have good air circulation. So far no failures and the oldest are over three years.
3 Likes
The main issue is in the electronics converting the 120V signal down to the 12 or 24V required for the diodes. Usually I find people burning these with the base up, where all the sensitive electronics are, which then destroys them after a few months and prevents the lamps from turning on.
Most large scale manufacturers of LEDs don’t make their own drivers, they rely on others to do so. These drivers have a two year warranty, which means half of them are going to fail in two years. The diodes themselves have a theoretical lifespan of 25,000 hours, but only if you can find a way to crack open the lamp and swap electronics.
As you’ve noted, 22 years at three hours a day. So that’s how they expect it to be used. Three hours a day. Any more and you’re out of spec. Who knows what could happen! Turn it off before Ragnarok, for gods and godesses sake!
I realized a number of years ago while working as an architectural lighting designer that LED was never going to give me the color rendering I want, the dimming I preferred and the kind of light I preferred. So I moved back to halogen and have been delighted ever since that my lighting just works. I have to climb up every other year to swap out lamps and I take the time to dust while I’m up there.
7 Likes
That warm orange glow always looked like being in the Twilight Zone to me. Nothing at all like real sunlight.
4 Likes
When I was kid I remember we had some vintage candle holders – and candles! – handed down from previous generations. We were not allowed to use them as intended, but even unlit they looked neat on the tree. That said, I agree with @Snowlark that the tradition is kind of crazy when you think about it. As a wise man once said, “Just because you’ve always done it that way doesn’t mean it isn’t incredibly stupid.”
6 Likes
It’s the low color rendering. Sodium vapor, while efficient, provides about 20% of the color spectrum to be visible. If you’re in that 80% of color, it’s going to look grey or black (or white). So, that’s a real issue for police who are tasked with finding a suspect in a green jacket when all jackets suddenly look black.
Sunlight still renders 100% of the color spectrum, it’s just warmer at sunset and sunrise.
3 Likes
From the way I read most boxes they say the LED will last 20k hours, but they never say the light will last that long. LEDs share the same issue that CFLs do with cheapest, lowest cost components. You can make an inverter that lasts 10 years but then your light bulb doesn’t cost $5 anymore, it cost $15.
2 Likes
I get the Phoebus Cartel issue, but I’ve seen regular incandescent bulbs rated at 10k hours. At the same time they do not produce the same lumens as your 1000 to 2500 hour bulbs, but that is the trade off.
Hell you want to talk about rip offs, my wife’s Subaru uses H7 bulbs for the low beams. The factory set lasted a few years and I recently put a new set in about 6 months ago and it’s time to replace another one. The Sylvania SilverStar H7’s are rated at less than 100 hours, and even their XtraVision series is less than 160. I’d give serious money to have a really nice LED replacement, just based on how much of a PITA it is to change them.
2 Likes
I always felt that the old Alec Guinness film about a man who invents a fabric that never gets dirty or wrinkled, “The Man in the White Suit,” was more of a documentary than a comedy. Now planned obsolescence has been amplified by digital rights management. Oh joy.
3 Likes
So all the LED bulbs I’ve had to replace less than a year after purchase were not intentionally giving out, they were just crap? Terrific.
4 Likes
Consider halogens, they’re cheaper and without heavy metals, better for the environment.
3 Likes
There are worse ways to bring about traditions…hic…
1 Like
We have one of the old style halogen torchieres, which we call ‘The BugZapper 6000’ because it attracts and incinerates most flying insects in our house. Given its habit of sacrificing to the insect gawds, I am hesitant about putting a halogen bulb in any of our other fixtures; they may have been vastly improved, but we still have a graphic example of how hot they can get.
3 Likes
Can you explain why you think that’s an IPv6 problem? TCPIP is a carrier protocol, and most stuff lies on top of it. I don’t understand how the concerns you’re raising could or should be implemented at that layer.
2 Likes
So the mercury-vapor lights pre-sodium, with the weird blue-violet glow, was better?
2 Likes
Also in general to respond to the article, this may affect the big manufacturers and prevent bulbs from being cheap AND long lasting, but I don’t see any reason why we won’t continue to have higher-cost specialty bulbs that people can purchase. It’s going to be a bit of a niche as people won’t always want to pay, but a mid-size company like Cree could probably comfortably exist in that niche for basically forever even if Philips or GE don’t want to.
“Less bad?” OTOH, getting rid of the mercury and using less electricity were pluses.
1 Like
I guess you could fall back to IPX/SPX, or maybe NetBEUI-- but then you’d need a license I suppose. But you’d avoid getting IPver6 cooties all over your appliances…
1 Like
