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Are you putting your LED bulbs in enclosed spaces? The cheaper ones tend to be very prone to overheat if they're not adequately ventilated, which really reduces

Are you putting your LED bulbs in enclosed spaces? The cheaper ones tend to be very prone to overheat if they're not adequately ventilated, which really reduces their life (and can change their color a bit too.) Make sure that if you're putting LED bulbs in enclosed spaces, that they're designed to handle that.

agumonkey 6y ago
I knew about LED heat dissipation issues but I'd be surprised if at equivalent light output the incandescent would heat less..
- downerending 6y ago
  As far as that goes, I suspect most incandescent bulbs can take a lot of heat. (The one in your oven, for example, which I suspect is a pretty vanilla bulb.)
- fennecfoxen 6y ago
  They put out much less heat, but they're also much more sensitive to heat. (Incandescent bulbs, meanwhile, are heat, and mostly don't mind.)
  - dv_dt 6y ago
    The leds are generally ok as components, but badly designed power electronics are the failing portion. However, strand LEDs designed for bulbs w/ no power electronics are on a completely different reliability basis.
    - fennecfoxen 6y ago
      Sometimes it's not even that; I've had bulbs where the glue holding the frosted glass part came off the base, because of the heat.
  - pwg 6y ago
    Combine this fact with the fact that most enclosed fixtures that were designed for incandescent bulbs are insulated (at least on the mounting side) to keep the heat from the bulb inside the fixture (fire prevention reasons) and even the low heat level output by an LED bulb can eventually warm the interior above the temperature that the driver electronics can tolerate.
downerending 6y ago
Some are, though I haven't tried to track the correlation. Also, I'm lumping in compact fluorescent bulbs, which perhaps account for most of the failures. An additional annoying detail is that one or two of my fixtures dim in one way or another. I put "dimmable" bulbs in them, but I'm somewhat dubious as to their actual capability in that application.
- volkl48 6y ago
  Have your replaced the actual dimmers, though? I'm sure there's someone who can explain it in more depth than I can, but even "dimmable" LED bulbs likely won't work correctly (flicker, not dimming as low as they should) and will die faster than expected if you don't replace the actual dimmer switch in your wall with one intended for LEDs.
  - downerending 6y ago
    No. Really? The packaging didn't mention it.
    - frosted-flakes 6y ago
      Old-style dimmers just lower the voltage, which works great for incandescents, but LEDs are made to operate at specific voltages. Modern dimmers cost more, but use PWM (pulse-width modulation) instead. Basically, they rapidly open and close the circuit to simulate lower voltages.
      - downerending 6y ago
        I feel like these two objects need different names (especially since the difference matters).

agumonkey 6y ago

I knew about LED heat dissipation issues but I'd be surprised if at equivalent light output the incandescent would heat less..

downerending 6y ago
As far as that goes, I suspect most incandescent bulbs can take a lot of heat. (The one in your oven, for example, which I suspect is a pretty vanilla bulb.)
fennecfoxen 6y ago
They put out much less heat, but they're also much more sensitive to heat. (Incandescent bulbs, meanwhile, are heat, and mostly don't mind.)
- dv_dt 6y ago
  The leds are generally ok as components, but badly designed power electronics are the failing portion. However, strand LEDs designed for bulbs w/ no power electronics are on a completely different reliability basis.
  - fennecfoxen 6y ago
    Sometimes it's not even that; I've had bulbs where the glue holding the frosted glass part came off the base, because of the heat.
- pwg 6y ago
  Combine this fact with the fact that most enclosed fixtures that were designed for incandescent bulbs are insulated (at least on the mounting side) to keep the heat from the bulb inside the fixture (fire prevention reasons) and even the low heat level output by an LED bulb can eventually warm the interior above the temperature that the driver electronics can tolerate.

downerending 6y ago

Some are, though I haven't tried to track the correlation. Also, I'm lumping in compact fluorescent bulbs, which perhaps account for most of the failures. An additional annoying detail is that one or two of my fixtures dim in one way or another. I put "dimmable" bulbs in them, but I'm somewhat dubious as to their actual capability in that application.

volkl48 6y ago
Have your replaced the actual dimmers, though? I'm sure there's someone who can explain it in more depth than I can, but even "dimmable" LED bulbs likely won't work correctly (flicker, not dimming as low as they should) and will die faster than expected if you don't replace the actual dimmer switch in your wall with one intended for LEDs.
- downerending 6y ago
  No. Really? The packaging didn't mention it.
  - frosted-flakes 6y ago
    Old-style dimmers just lower the voltage, which works great for incandescents, but LEDs are made to operate at specific voltages. Modern dimmers cost more, but use PWM (pulse-width modulation) instead. Basically, they rapidly open and close the circuit to simulate lower voltages.
    - downerending 6y ago
      I feel like these two objects need different names (especially since the difference matters).