Electronics > Projects, Designs, and Technical Stuff
New LED lights reliability
james_s:
I upgraded all the bulbs in my house from CFL to LED starting in early 2011 extending over the next couple years. Initially I was replacing CFLs as they failed but the LEDs were so much nicer that I soon got tired of waiting. I used Philips, EcoSmart (Home Depot brand) and Cree bulbs. Later on I got a few inexpensive GE bulbs. Since then I've had two of the Ecosmart and one GE bulb fail, and the glass bulb fell off a Cree but it still worked. All of the ones I had problems with were in heavily used fully enclosed fixtures despite the bulbs saying not to use them fully enclosed so I consider that my fault. The Philips have been the best, I have yet to see a bad one anywhere.
james_s:
--- Quote from: Kjelt on February 06, 2019, 10:40:20 pm ---If you have designer fixtures or antiques I can understand and you should preferably continue using the original conventional bulbs since that is where they were designed for.
I must not think of the idea of a led bulb in an original Tiffanies.
But for the rest it is silly esp when you see how easily people buy and throw away their other electronic devices some costing many times more than all the fixtures in the house.
So I claim it is mostly not esthetics, it is lazyness for upgrading esp. when it needs extra work because it does not fit, which is ok but should be named as such.
--- End quote ---
Why does it even matter? It took some work to design a suitable retrofit LED bulb but now that has been accomplished, they are quite good, inexpensive and reliable. There are advantages too, if you want to change the color temperature or wattage or install something different like a colored bulb or blacklight for holidays/events/parties you simply unscrew one bulb and screw in another. You can't do that with fixtures that have built in LED modules.
Those of course have other advantages, they can be made in unique shapes and styles, it's good to have them available too. I like choices.
timelessbeing:
--- Quote from: james_s on February 07, 2019, 01:50:18 am ---the bulbs saying not to use them fully enclosed
--- End quote ---
ALL bulbs should work enclosed. If it doesn't it's farking useless.
djacobow:
--- Quote from: james_s on February 07, 2019, 01:54:44 am ---
Why does it even matter? It took some work to design a suitable retrofit LED bulb but now that has been accomplished, they are quite good, inexpensive and reliable.
--- End quote ---
Except that bulb has not yet been designed at all.
Ceiling fixtures are a common use case. There are zero bare bulbs or bulbs in table lamps in my home but there are many ceiling fixtures. And these bulbs fail in such fixtures. I have tried many and thrown away a lot of money in the process.
You can define away a problem if it makes you feel better, but if your question is why do people not run out and mass adopt these otherwise wonderful "retrofit" bulbs, the answer is staring right at you.
* PS - in the US, 37% of households are renters. Those folks are not in a position to "just replace the fixtures". They're stuck with what the landlord installed.
Psi:
--- Quote from: Kjelt on February 06, 2019, 01:10:54 pm ---apples and oranges.
Led light strips have a diffused light for coves and large area lighting.
Led spots have a focussed light beam to accentuate certain objects.
Besides the efficiency of led strips is low due to the resistors
--- End quote ---
i don't mean the OP should use strip lights, just that you need to make your own lights if you want them to still be working 20 years from now.
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