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?
I’ve heard the explanation that they don’t dissipate heat well and their lives are shortened because of the fixture they’re placed in. With incandescent bulbs, heat wasn’t the issue it is with LEDs.
This is most of it. If they’re facing up (typical lamp), they’ll last for years. If they’re facing down (ceiling fixture), especially with a shroud around the bulb, they won’t last much longer than an incandescent. The control chip burns up if they get too hot.
So just put cheap ones in the fixtures that’ll kill them. You can get decent bulbs for less than $1/per.
Cheaper bulbs, definitely. I had a corner display cabinet I tried to switch over to using an LED bulb; the compartment for the bulb was nearly sealed and also lined with reflective materials, so the exterior got hotter to the touch than it ever did with an incandescent bulb. Damn thing started flickering and malfunctioning a few months in. Tried another LED bulb and the same thing happened only on a slightly longer time frame. Finally just gave up and went back to an incandescent bulb.
I’ve never replaced an led bulb and I’ve had them 10+ years.
Dirty power can burn them out, as can bad heat dissipation
Let me copy and paste the top search result from Google:
“Dirty power” is a term used to describe electricity that deviates from this standard due to spikes, surges, and dips. The term also applies to electricity that’s been tainted by an outside influence, such as a stray wireless signal. Feb 13, 2023
Some older wiring and devices can interact poorly and cause fluctuating voltages. The more stable the voltage, the less wear on the components and vice versa.
If you were to lower the voltage would it still cause extra wear? Like is it the fluctuation itself that causes the wear or is the the ‘higher than expected voltage’ during peaks of the fluctuating?
Or some fell off the back of the truck chinese knock off crap leds.
As to electricity, even if you left all the non led lights on in your house all month, it’s still only a small portion of the usage compared to the water heater, hvac, dishwasher, and laundry stuff. Along with all them watts in your TV and coursing through a gaming desktop.
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.
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.
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.
The bulbs generally contain around 10 LEDs arranged in series, so if any one of them fails, the bulb no longer works. Also they are generally not cooled well, and the heat leads to faster failures.
If you have a dead one around, pry it open and you’ll likely see some slightly charred or discolored plastic and also one LED with a tiny charred spot.
Seems like it would be easy enough to mitigate both of those problems with basic design improvements, but cheap design causing early failure is sort of a win/win from the mfg perspective.
