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Explain to me the (de?)-evolution of LED lightbulb technology

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james_s:

--- Quote from: Zero999 on March 29, 2021, 12:21:39 pm ---I don't see the point in replacing CFLs with LEDs, unless it's in an application where it's going to be turned on and off lots, such as a toilet. The power saving is minimal and the quality of thelight isn't that much better. I only replace my CFLs with LEDs, when the lamp goes and it's easier to replace it with an LED. A friend to mine replaced all of his CFLs with LEDs around 8 years ago and gave the old lamps to me. One of them was a high powered one, around 30W I think, so I gave it to an elerly friend of my mum's, who's virtually blind and she's been using it ever since. It wouldn't surprise me if it outlasts her, as she's in her late 90s. If it goes before then, I might have to make her a replacement LED lamp, if I can't find a suitable replacement.

--- End quote ---

I certainly found it worthwhile, at first I was buying LED bulbs to replace CFLs as they failed, but then I got tired of waiting and changed out all the rest. CFLs take a few minutes to warm up to full brightness, and frequent on/off cycles kill them rapidly. Most of the lights in my house get used briefly, walk into a room and turn the light on, turn the light back off as I leave, this was terrible for CFL because they would just be getting warmed up when I would turn them off. I find the color of most LED bulbs to be much more pleasing than that of CFL too, and they are considerably higher efficiency. The typical curly CFL is about 55 lm/W, much better than incandescent but even cheap LED bulbs are over 100 lm/W. It's economical to replace CFLs for energy savings alone unless it's a rarely used light.

Zero999:
I use CFL in applications where they're left on lots, so the warm up time is a non-issue.

Yes, I've seen some go dim over time. Actually what normally happens is, as well as going dim, the colour shifts towards a bluish-pink, as the mercury is depleted. I've not had it happen to any of the lamps I've owned, but I've seen it before.

james_s:
I have outdoor lights that run dusk till dawn every night and those always achieved the longest lifespan I got anywhere, CFLs would regularly last 8k-10k hours, often exceeding the rated lifespan but even then I would only get about 2 years max out of one. Since putting LEDs in those I've only had one fail, others are 10 years old now, so even for heavily used lights LED bulbs are lasting me longer.

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