3 ms·

The e-waste issues of having to replace entire LED units every two to three years are worse than replacing an old fashioned bulb every decade.

by VLM 4y ago

sparker72678 4y ago
Agreed the e-waste issues are real, but how did you get incandescents to last 10 years? I replaced every dang one after 12 months or less, every time.
- Majromax 4y ago
  > how did you get incandescents to last 10 years? As a general answer, dimming. Incandescent bulbs are fantastically sensitive to applied voltage; Wikipedia's article on the subject (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamp_rerating https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamp_rerating) notes that bulb lifespan is inversely proportional to the applied voltage to the fourteenth power or so. In an ordinary home you can't directly reduce the supply voltage, but dimming a higher-rated bulb will get you somewhere in the ballpark through a reduction in the duty cycle. However, this comes at the expense of luminous efficiency. Reducing the applied electrical power reduces the filament temperature, and the black-body spectrum of a lower-temperature filament has proportionally more output in the infrared region.
  - sparker72678 4y ago
    Gotcha, thanks!
  - formerly_proven 4y ago
    That page is also why the popular depiction of the Phoebus cartel (as in: they intentionally made 1000h bulbs, but could have made 3000h bulbs instead that were otherwise identical, like e.g. Veritasiums popular video) is wrong. For classic incandescent bulbs, color temperature and lifetime limit each other. It is not possible to make a 2500K incandescent bulb that lasts longer than about 1000 hours, and a 3000 hour bulb will always have a dim and warm output. Because that's how it gets to 3000 hours.
- golem14 4y ago
  Putting them on a dimmer and running at 90% hugely increases lifetime
- knodi123 4y ago
  my grandma's incandescent nightlight has lasted 35 years and counting. (it's a special bulb, and runs at a very low wattage- perhaps under-spec?)

The e-waste issues of having to replace entire LED units every two to three years are worse than replacing an old fashioned bulb every decade.

by VLM 4y ago

The e-waste issues of having to replace entire LED units every two to three years are worse than replacing an old fashioned bulb every decade.

sparker72678 4y ago

Agreed the e-waste issues are real, but how did you get incandescents to last 10 years? I replaced every dang one after 12 months or less, every time.

Majromax 4y ago
> how did you get incandescents to last 10 years? As a general answer, dimming. Incandescent bulbs are fantastically sensitive to applied voltage; Wikipedia's article on the subject (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamp_rerating https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamp_rerating) notes that bulb lifespan is inversely proportional to the applied voltage to the fourteenth power or so. In an ordinary home you can't directly reduce the supply voltage, but dimming a higher-rated bulb will get you somewhere in the ballpark through a reduction in the duty cycle. However, this comes at the expense of luminous efficiency. Reducing the applied electrical power reduces the filament temperature, and the black-body spectrum of a lower-temperature filament has proportionally more output in the infrared region.
- sparker72678 4y ago
  Gotcha, thanks!
- formerly_proven 4y ago
  That page is also why the popular depiction of the Phoebus cartel (as in: they intentionally made 1000h bulbs, but could have made 3000h bulbs instead that were otherwise identical, like e.g. Veritasiums popular video) is wrong. For classic incandescent bulbs, color temperature and lifetime limit each other. It is not possible to make a 2500K incandescent bulb that lasts longer than about 1000 hours, and a 3000 hour bulb will always have a dim and warm output. Because that's how it gets to 3000 hours.
golem14 4y ago
Putting them on a dimmer and running at 90% hugely increases lifetime
knodi123 4y ago
my grandma's incandescent nightlight has lasted 35 years and counting. (it's a special bulb, and runs at a very low wattage- perhaps under-spec?)