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>LED bulbs have very long lives. Then why am I constantly replacing them? Wait, I know why; because I buy the cheaper ones, which have inadequate thermal solut

>LED bulbs have very long lives. Then why am I constantly replacing them? Wait, I know why; because I buy the cheaper ones, which have inadequate thermal solutions and God knows what quality of LED. You may say "well don't buy the cheap ones", but people will, and they'll always be available. Even more affluent people who hook their lights up to their network will still often chose the cheaper version. Even the high end versions will fail, and you end up with the same problem.

jfk13 8y ago
Yeah - my experience with LED bulbs has been quite variable. Some "name-brand" ones from a European manufacturer seem to be lasting well so far, but I've also had a batch of lower-cost ones (with, supposedly, a 5-year guarantee) where the failure rate within 6 months was something like 50%. "LED bulbs have very long lives" is an overly optimistic generalisation, in my experience.
- Ptlnd 8y ago
  "LED bulbs with very long lives" would be pretty useless. What they don't tell you about LEDs is that their efficiency goes down the drain over time, they become so dark as to become unusable. I have a few 3 to 5 years old bulbs, which I still haven't discarded but kept in the closest as a "emergency bulb if one of the bulbs I use break", I replaced them despite them being still fully operational because they became too dark. Way too dark. This is an issue with LCD TV and monitors too. After a while their LED backlights become really dark. Push your new monitor at max brightness and compare the old with its max brightness and even if they were rated at equal nits the newer one is much brighter. All those bulbs I have are the namebrand that do reliably work for years, but I would not want to use them for years. I feel like I might just buy the cheapest bulbs the next time, and not care if they die after 6 months. 6 months might be the maximum amount of time they can give you their brightest.
  - jfk13 8y ago
    But if they -- at least "quality" brand LEDs -- don't have really long (useful) lives, the cost premium over other types of light bulbs looks much less justifiable. (For reference, according to http://www.lighting.philips.com/main/support/support/faqs/life-and-light-output/why-is-the-life-of-leds-measured-as-lumen-depreciation http://www.lighting.philips.com/main/support/support/faqs/li..., "The normal convention is to measure the life from when the output has reduced by 30%, i.e. when there is 70% light output remaining.")
bryanlarsen 8y ago
It's usually not the LED that fails, it's usually either the control circuitry or drivers that fail. But even if you follow parent comment's suggestion of putting the smarts in the switch rather than the bulb you'll still have failure prone control circuitry and drivers in the bulbs. Switching to 12V might help.
- EpicEng 8y ago
  Agreed. I'd just as soon not use either and gasp turn the lights on and off manually.
  - bryanlarsen 8y ago
    The driver (aka power supply) and control circuitry are needed whether the light is smart or dumb.
    - EpicEng 8y ago
      I think you misunderstand me. I just don't want light bulbs on my network.
NeedMoreTea 8y ago
Even the brands don't do that much better. Brightness or colour temperature has degraded markedly by 3 or 4 years of most I've bought. Colour drift has been particularly bad with any daylight or cold white bulbs. We've gone through fewer of those so may have just been unlucky brand choices.
- dylan604 8y ago
  3 or 4 years is 4 or 5 years longer than a regular incandescent bulb. The can lights used throughout my house use recommend a particular type of bulb to be used, and these seem to burnout in less than 6 months. This is a remodeled/flipped house, so maybe there's something wonky with the wiring or some such, but the Phillips LEDs I've since replaced them with have been yet to burn out after 18 months. Can't vouch for if they are no longer the same brightness at 100% now, as I rarely turn them up higher than 80% in normal use.
  - dragonwriter 8y ago
    > 3 or 4 years is 4 or 5 years longer than a regular incandescent bulb. Regular incandescents have negative lifespans?
    - LyndsySimon 8y ago
      ... that seems right to me. I will have a bulb burn out yesterday that I bought a few years from now.
    - dylan604 8y ago
      sarcasm buzzes your head when you have no light bulbs to illuminate

jfk13 8y ago

Yeah - my experience with LED bulbs has been quite variable. Some "name-brand" ones from a European manufacturer seem to be lasting well so far, but I've also had a batch of lower-cost ones (with, supposedly, a 5-year guarantee) where the failure rate within 6 months was something like 50%. "LED bulbs have very long lives" is an overly optimistic generalisation, in my experience.

Ptlnd 8y ago
"LED bulbs with very long lives" would be pretty useless. What they don't tell you about LEDs is that their efficiency goes down the drain over time, they become so dark as to become unusable. I have a few 3 to 5 years old bulbs, which I still haven't discarded but kept in the closest as a "emergency bulb if one of the bulbs I use break", I replaced them despite them being still fully operational because they became too dark. Way too dark. This is an issue with LCD TV and monitors too. After a while their LED backlights become really dark. Push your new monitor at max brightness and compare the old with its max brightness and even if they were rated at equal nits the newer one is much brighter. All those bulbs I have are the namebrand that do reliably work for years, but I would not want to use them for years. I feel like I might just buy the cheapest bulbs the next time, and not care if they die after 6 months. 6 months might be the maximum amount of time they can give you their brightest.
- jfk13 8y ago
  But if they -- at least "quality" brand LEDs -- don't have really long (useful) lives, the cost premium over other types of light bulbs looks much less justifiable. (For reference, according to http://www.lighting.philips.com/main/support/support/faqs/life-and-light-output/why-is-the-life-of-leds-measured-as-lumen-depreciation http://www.lighting.philips.com/main/support/support/faqs/li..., "The normal convention is to measure the life from when the output has reduced by 30%, i.e. when there is 70% light output remaining.")

bryanlarsen 8y ago

It's usually not the LED that fails, it's usually either the control circuitry or drivers that fail. But even if you follow parent comment's suggestion of putting the smarts in the switch rather than the bulb you'll still have failure prone control circuitry and drivers in the bulbs. Switching to 12V might help.

EpicEng 8y ago
Agreed. I'd just as soon not use either and gasp turn the lights on and off manually.
- bryanlarsen 8y ago
  The driver (aka power supply) and control circuitry are needed whether the light is smart or dumb.
  - EpicEng 8y ago
    I think you misunderstand me. I just don't want light bulbs on my network.

NeedMoreTea 8y ago

Even the brands don't do that much better. Brightness or colour temperature has degraded markedly by 3 or 4 years of most I've bought. Colour drift has been particularly bad with any daylight or cold white bulbs. We've gone through fewer of those so may have just been unlucky brand choices.

dylan604 8y ago
3 or 4 years is 4 or 5 years longer than a regular incandescent bulb. The can lights used throughout my house use recommend a particular type of bulb to be used, and these seem to burnout in less than 6 months. This is a remodeled/flipped house, so maybe there's something wonky with the wiring or some such, but the Phillips LEDs I've since replaced them with have been yet to burn out after 18 months. Can't vouch for if they are no longer the same brightness at 100% now, as I rarely turn them up higher than 80% in normal use.
- dragonwriter 8y ago
  > 3 or 4 years is 4 or 5 years longer than a regular incandescent bulb. Regular incandescents have negative lifespans?
  - LyndsySimon 8y ago
    ... that seems right to me. I will have a bulb burn out yesterday that I bought a few years from now.
  - dylan604 8y ago
    sarcasm buzzes your head when you have no light bulbs to illuminate