3 ms·

OTOH, if I could discover a way to make a lightbulb that lasts 1100 hours, for the same electricity and brightness, then consumers would buy that, and I would m

OTOH, if I could discover a way to make a lightbulb that lasts 1100 hours, for the same electricity and brightness, then consumers would buy that, and I would make money! But the cartel colluded to prevent such innovation. The British monopolies commission effectively colluded with them by first decided that there should be a single lifetime as a standard: with that decision already made, then of course they could easily claim to have reached a decision based on the facts provided by the companies they were investigating. And I would happily pay an extra $5 in electricity for a bulb that reduced my need to change them. Should we ban the iPhone because you could easily use a cheap Android instead?

Diggsey 6y ago
As mentioned there's an inverse trade-off between life and brightness, so if you found a way to make an 1100 hours lightbulb, you could equally make a brighter lightbulb than the competition.
- lowbloodsugar 6y ago
  Except you couldn't, because the cartel has educated customers that 60W = medium brightness, 100W = very bright. Brightness has been linked to electricity use. That also means that you couldn't make a bulb as bright as a 100W bulb that only uses 90 watts: if you advertised it as a 90W bulb, people would think it was less bright.
  - hilbert42 6y ago
    That's now solved by stating the actual light output in lumens as well as the power consumption in Watts (and it should have always been thus). Essentially, every compact fluorescent and LED light bulb I've bought in recent years states both the power consumed and light output (which means that if one bothered one could calculate the overall efficiency of the bulb). Also, for those who still have difficulty with the new specifications, manufacturers state the new bulb's light output to be equivalent to an incandescent of 'x' Watts (i.e.: the light output of say a 20 Watt compact fluorescent ≡ to a 100 Watt incandescent bulb). This is now rather irrelevant where I live as incandescent bulbs have been banned for so long that everyone has forgotten about them.
klondike_ 6y ago
>OTOH, if I could discover a way to make a lightbulb that lasts 1100 hours, for the same electricity and brightness, then consumers would buy that, and I would make money! This will never happen with incandescent bulbs because the lifespan vs efficiency trade off is fundamental to how they work. More power means more heat which causes it to fail faster. However, this did end up happening eventually with the invention of LED bulbs and now many big companies formerly in the cartel (including Phillips) are in the process of shutting down or selling off their lighting division because it's no longer profitable to sell light bulbs when LEDs last so long. >The British monopolies commission effectively colluded with them by first decided that there should be a single lifetime as a standard Just as companies today agree on standards like USB or WiFi, back then they also agreed to a standard bulb life and efficiency. This means that one company's bulbs are interoperable with another's and you don't end up with a house full of mismatched bulbs. >And I would happily pay an extra $5 in electricity for a bulb that reduced my need to change them. This doesn't account for the extra greenhouse emissions and environmental effects of running inefficient bulbs. Also, long life bulbs were never banned, even when the cartel was active. You've always been able to buy them if you wish, most people didn't because they had a poor lumens/watt
- andreareina 6y ago
  It could happen with a different filament.

Diggsey 6y ago

As mentioned there's an inverse trade-off between life and brightness, so if you found a way to make an 1100 hours lightbulb, you could equally make a brighter lightbulb than the competition.

lowbloodsugar 6y ago
Except you couldn't, because the cartel has educated customers that 60W = medium brightness, 100W = very bright. Brightness has been linked to electricity use. That also means that you couldn't make a bulb as bright as a 100W bulb that only uses 90 watts: if you advertised it as a 90W bulb, people would think it was less bright.
- hilbert42 6y ago
  That's now solved by stating the actual light output in lumens as well as the power consumption in Watts (and it should have always been thus). Essentially, every compact fluorescent and LED light bulb I've bought in recent years states both the power consumed and light output (which means that if one bothered one could calculate the overall efficiency of the bulb). Also, for those who still have difficulty with the new specifications, manufacturers state the new bulb's light output to be equivalent to an incandescent of 'x' Watts (i.e.: the light output of say a 20 Watt compact fluorescent ≡ to a 100 Watt incandescent bulb). This is now rather irrelevant where I live as incandescent bulbs have been banned for so long that everyone has forgotten about them.

klondike_ 6y ago

>OTOH, if I could discover a way to make a lightbulb that lasts 1100 hours, for the same electricity and brightness, then consumers would buy that, and I would make money! This will never happen with incandescent bulbs because the lifespan vs efficiency trade off is fundamental to how they work. More power means more heat which causes it to fail faster. However, this did end up happening eventually with the invention of LED bulbs and now many big companies formerly in the cartel (including Phillips) are in the process of shutting down or selling off their lighting division because it's no longer profitable to sell light bulbs when LEDs last so long. >The British monopolies commission effectively colluded with them by first decided that there should be a single lifetime as a standard Just as companies today agree on standards like USB or WiFi, back then they also agreed to a standard bulb life and efficiency. This means that one company's bulbs are interoperable with another's and you don't end up with a house full of mismatched bulbs. >And I would happily pay an extra $5 in electricity for a bulb that reduced my need to change them. This doesn't account for the extra greenhouse emissions and environmental effects of running inefficient bulbs. Also, long life bulbs were never banned, even when the cartel was active. You've always been able to buy them if you wish, most people didn't because they had a poor lumens/watt

andreareina 6y ago
It could happen with a different filament.