3 ms·

I noticed this early on when I noticed how often I changed the light bulb in the bathroom compared to the hallway where it was always on. Once I thought about i

I noticed this early on when I noticed how often I changed the light bulb in the bathroom compared to the hallway where it was always on. Once I thought about it, I assumed it was due to thermal stress.

ekaryotic 3y ago
I'm sure it would be possible to extend bulb life by ramping up the voltage slowly to reduce the thermal stress. not worth it in most environments, but in a bathroom, why not. I understand there are soft start mechanisms used in certain electric motors, i know of an anglegrinder that used one. maybe i could do a transplant some day.
- rocqua 3y ago
  I recently retro-fitted my portable table-saw with a soft-start. The process is quite easy, though the soft-starter you use has to be picked for a certain power-draw. And they might be specific to the type of load (i.e. specific to a universal AC motor) I got my soft-starter from amazon for €10.
- deepspace 3y ago
  A few years ago, I retrofitted my entire house with Lutron Caseta switches, for home automation purposes. The Casetas allow me to soft-start each bulb, and to run lights at less than full brightness most of the time. It would have been interesting to see the effect on incandescent bulb life, but I also took the opportunity to replace all light bulbs with dimmable LCD, so the question is moot.
Ekaros 3y ago
What type of bulbs are we talking about? I could see leds and CFL being affected by moisture in bathroom. Also bathroom could be slightly hotter and worse ventilated than hallway.
- magicalhippo 3y ago
  This was incandescent bulbs. For LEDs the issue is the driver boards, they get crammed into the tiny socket and live a very, very hot life. Doesn't matter that the LED has 100000 hour lifespan or whatever they write on the box when the driver dies after 5000 hours.

3 ms·

I noticed this early on when I noticed how often I changed the light bulb in the bathroom compared to the hallway where it was always on. Once I thought about i

by magicalhippo 3y ago

ekaryotic 3y ago
I'm sure it would be possible to extend bulb life by ramping up the voltage slowly to reduce the thermal stress. not worth it in most environments, but in a bathroom, why not. I understand there are soft start mechanisms used in certain electric motors, i know of an anglegrinder that used one. maybe i could do a transplant some day.
- rocqua 3y ago
  I recently retro-fitted my portable table-saw with a soft-start. The process is quite easy, though the soft-starter you use has to be picked for a certain power-draw. And they might be specific to the type of load (i.e. specific to a universal AC motor) I got my soft-starter from amazon for €10.
- deepspace 3y ago
  A few years ago, I retrofitted my entire house with Lutron Caseta switches, for home automation purposes. The Casetas allow me to soft-start each bulb, and to run lights at less than full brightness most of the time. It would have been interesting to see the effect on incandescent bulb life, but I also took the opportunity to replace all light bulbs with dimmable LCD, so the question is moot.
Ekaros 3y ago
What type of bulbs are we talking about? I could see leds and CFL being affected by moisture in bathroom. Also bathroom could be slightly hotter and worse ventilated than hallway.
- magicalhippo 3y ago
  This was incandescent bulbs. For LEDs the issue is the driver boards, they get crammed into the tiny socket and live a very, very hot life. Doesn't matter that the LED has 100000 hour lifespan or whatever they write on the box when the driver dies after 5000 hours.