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Its a bit of a myth for ever lasting bulbs, its more complicated than that. The life time was a trade off of colour and brightness. If you made them very red sh

Its a bit of a myth for ever lasting bulbs, its more complicated than that. The life time was a trade off of colour and brightness. If you made them very red shifted and quite dim then there are bulbs that are very old still around, but they don't produce much light and never did. The harder you drive the filament the better the light properties but the quicker it died. The industry choose a point for trade offs as a standard. You can watch about the history of it on Technology connections. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zb7Bs98KmnY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zb7Bs98KmnY Saying that the Dubai Philips LED bulbs really do last a lot longer since they have twice the filaments and run the filaments a lot less hard as a result (as well as being more efficient). It is possible nowadays to make an LED that wont fail anytime soon although LEDs are already much better than incandescents in that regard but there are ones that will likely survive your lifetime available at a higher price but only in Dubai. Most LED bulbs are designed to fail sooner, but they are also cheaper. Those 10k recharge batteries are absolutely coming and we will have them in a few years time, li-ion as it stands today will simply be obsolete.

SoftTalker 3y ago
I'd be happy with an LED bulb that lasted a year. I haven't yet found one that can do that reliably. Remember that 60W incandescent bulbs costing $0.25 used to be available that met that goal. We've taken huge steps backwards on interior household lighting.
- Reason077 3y ago
  > "I'd be happy with an LED bulb that lasted a year. I haven't yet found one that can do that reliably." I do remember in the early days of LED bulbs, many were quite unreliable, especially dimmable ones. It was probably more the electronics in them failing more than the LEDs themselves? But now days LED bulbs seem much more reliable and I very rarely have to replace them. In fact the only bulbs I can recall replacing in the past 18 months living in my current house were some old CFL bulbs that hadn't actually completely failed, but had gradually become a bit too dim. Certainly, now days, I need to replace bulbs far, far less often than in the old incandescent days where it was a regular chore in any house. (Also, now days I avoid using old-style dimmer switches, and even removed some in one house I lived in. Better to get a smart bulb with it's own built-in dimming if you want it.)
  - SoftTalker 3y ago
    What brand of LED bulb do you buy? I'm consistently replacing one or two bulbs a month around the house. I don't know if it's the electronics or the LEDs; I don't really care either.
    - artimaeis 3y ago
      Jumping in to recommend Cree if they're still around. Used to be able to get them at Home Depot here in the US. I started going Cree when I was renting 10 years ago, I've yet to have a single failure of the bulbs that I've drug with me to the place I live now. Have at least 25 bulbs currently in the house that are Cree LEDs. Their reliability actually has me frustrated at the current trend of lighting fixtures with integrated LEDs that I have 0 trust in.
      - andrewjf 3y ago
        I’m replacing all the ecosmart bulbs with crees. The normal 60w/100w equivalents have been fine so far, but I have some 7500 lumen Cree ED37s that are trash, replaced 3 already out of ~7. Not sure what the deal is. Maybe my power at my house is bad or something. We blow through LEDs like crazy. They just start flickering.
        com2kid 3y ago
        At that point it is the wiring in your house. LEDs are super sensitive to crappy wiring. I have a couple receptacles in my house that just chew up LEDs, one a year, while the LEDs next to them have lasted for 5+.
    - xnyan 3y ago
      Ikea and generic home depot LEDs have lasted 13 years of daily use with zero failures. Also, I've never seen that high a rate of LED failure. You may want to have your house checked out by an electrician for peace of mind.
      - 3y ago
- foobiekr 3y ago
  Felt, GE, Philips. I have ~20 bulbs, including several on dimmers, in the house and have never had to replace a failed LED bulb in ten years. Are you sure your power isn't bad in some way?
  - csomar 3y ago
    I am guessing you are about to find out once you replace these old light bulbs?
    - foobiekr 3y ago
      Not having replaced a bulb due to failure for ten years (and to be clear not having replaced an LED bulb ever) is not the same as not having bulbs that are under 10 years old. We have a variety of LED bulbs from 2013 and then others I’ve incrementally replaced either as they annoyed me (heat, in almost all cases) or because I just got around to it (our external security bulbs most recently). If LED bulbs are inherently prone to failure I’m not seeing it. I do agree they’re more expensive, even if you adjust for inflation, but as far as I can tell they last forever.
- mathieuh 3y ago
  That’s crazy to me, I couldn’t tell you the last time I had to change an LED bulb, certainly it’s at least five years. And I work from home in a part of the world where it’s very dark for half the year so they get a lot of use. They’re Philips Hue bulbs, a mix between LWB010 and LTW001, but even the cheap supermarket bulbs have lasted so long I also couldn’t tell you when I last changed them. Some of them have been in the house longer than I have.
- ruggeri 3y ago
  Just joining in with others who report that I haven't had any problems with LED bulb failures. I've used exclusively LED bulbs for at least 5 years now (maybe about 15 bulbs across my home), and none has ever failed on me. They do sometimes flicker when they're in a traditional dimmer set at an intermediate level, even though the ones I've bought claim to work with a dimmer. That's frustrating. But I haven't had any outright failures. If it helps: I bought mostly SANSI bulbs off Amazon.
  - wingworks 3y ago
    Dimming is complicated. Some switches do it differently to others. Your dimmable bulbs probably have fineprint somewhere saying which it supports.
- usefulcat 3y ago
  Most of the LED bulbs I've gotten have lasted quite a while (multiple years). I just recently replaced a front porch light that was about 10 years old. Granted it was controlled by a motion/light sensor so it wasn't on all night, but OTOH it was outside in the heat and the cold for 10 years. IME the worst are the ones that get really hot. I've had multiple (rather expensive) LED spotlights like that in my kitchen which never lasted more than a year or so.
- postexitus 3y ago
  You likely have an issue with your wiring. LED bulbs last much longer on average on a a good circuit - but they are less tolerant of spikes and drops in voltages, thus circuit, switch, wiring quality comes into play. Would be much easier instead of embedding an AC/DC converter inside each bulb that we now get standard 12V DC for lighting throughout homes - That would centralize the voltage sensitivity and allow larger circuits / capacitors to regulate this.
com2kid 3y ago
> It is possible nowadays to make an LED that wont fail anytime soon That was possible back in 2002. LEDs weren't yet "super bright" and an LED from back then had a lifespan measured in, well, human lifespans.

SoftTalker 3y ago

I'd be happy with an LED bulb that lasted a year. I haven't yet found one that can do that reliably. Remember that 60W incandescent bulbs costing $0.25 used to be available that met that goal. We've taken huge steps backwards on interior household lighting.

Reason077 3y ago
> "I'd be happy with an LED bulb that lasted a year. I haven't yet found one that can do that reliably." I do remember in the early days of LED bulbs, many were quite unreliable, especially dimmable ones. It was probably more the electronics in them failing more than the LEDs themselves? But now days LED bulbs seem much more reliable and I very rarely have to replace them. In fact the only bulbs I can recall replacing in the past 18 months living in my current house were some old CFL bulbs that hadn't actually completely failed, but had gradually become a bit too dim. Certainly, now days, I need to replace bulbs far, far less often than in the old incandescent days where it was a regular chore in any house. (Also, now days I avoid using old-style dimmer switches, and even removed some in one house I lived in. Better to get a smart bulb with it's own built-in dimming if you want it.)
- SoftTalker 3y ago
  What brand of LED bulb do you buy? I'm consistently replacing one or two bulbs a month around the house. I don't know if it's the electronics or the LEDs; I don't really care either.
  - artimaeis 3y ago
    Jumping in to recommend Cree if they're still around. Used to be able to get them at Home Depot here in the US. I started going Cree when I was renting 10 years ago, I've yet to have a single failure of the bulbs that I've drug with me to the place I live now. Have at least 25 bulbs currently in the house that are Cree LEDs. Their reliability actually has me frustrated at the current trend of lighting fixtures with integrated LEDs that I have 0 trust in.
    - andrewjf 3y ago
      I’m replacing all the ecosmart bulbs with crees. The normal 60w/100w equivalents have been fine so far, but I have some 7500 lumen Cree ED37s that are trash, replaced 3 already out of ~7. Not sure what the deal is. Maybe my power at my house is bad or something. We blow through LEDs like crazy. They just start flickering.
      - com2kid 3y ago
        At that point it is the wiring in your house. LEDs are super sensitive to crappy wiring. I have a couple receptacles in my house that just chew up LEDs, one a year, while the LEDs next to them have lasted for 5+.
  - xnyan 3y ago
    Ikea and generic home depot LEDs have lasted 13 years of daily use with zero failures. Also, I've never seen that high a rate of LED failure. You may want to have your house checked out by an electrician for peace of mind.
    - 3y ago
foobiekr 3y ago
Felt, GE, Philips. I have ~20 bulbs, including several on dimmers, in the house and have never had to replace a failed LED bulb in ten years. Are you sure your power isn't bad in some way?
- csomar 3y ago
  I am guessing you are about to find out once you replace these old light bulbs?
  - foobiekr 3y ago
    Not having replaced a bulb due to failure for ten years (and to be clear not having replaced an LED bulb ever) is not the same as not having bulbs that are under 10 years old. We have a variety of LED bulbs from 2013 and then others I’ve incrementally replaced either as they annoyed me (heat, in almost all cases) or because I just got around to it (our external security bulbs most recently). If LED bulbs are inherently prone to failure I’m not seeing it. I do agree they’re more expensive, even if you adjust for inflation, but as far as I can tell they last forever.
mathieuh 3y ago
That’s crazy to me, I couldn’t tell you the last time I had to change an LED bulb, certainly it’s at least five years. And I work from home in a part of the world where it’s very dark for half the year so they get a lot of use. They’re Philips Hue bulbs, a mix between LWB010 and LTW001, but even the cheap supermarket bulbs have lasted so long I also couldn’t tell you when I last changed them. Some of them have been in the house longer than I have.
ruggeri 3y ago
Just joining in with others who report that I haven't had any problems with LED bulb failures. I've used exclusively LED bulbs for at least 5 years now (maybe about 15 bulbs across my home), and none has ever failed on me. They do sometimes flicker when they're in a traditional dimmer set at an intermediate level, even though the ones I've bought claim to work with a dimmer. That's frustrating. But I haven't had any outright failures. If it helps: I bought mostly SANSI bulbs off Amazon.
- wingworks 3y ago
  Dimming is complicated. Some switches do it differently to others. Your dimmable bulbs probably have fineprint somewhere saying which it supports.
usefulcat 3y ago
Most of the LED bulbs I've gotten have lasted quite a while (multiple years). I just recently replaced a front porch light that was about 10 years old. Granted it was controlled by a motion/light sensor so it wasn't on all night, but OTOH it was outside in the heat and the cold for 10 years. IME the worst are the ones that get really hot. I've had multiple (rather expensive) LED spotlights like that in my kitchen which never lasted more than a year or so.
postexitus 3y ago
You likely have an issue with your wiring. LED bulbs last much longer on average on a a good circuit - but they are less tolerant of spikes and drops in voltages, thus circuit, switch, wiring quality comes into play. Would be much easier instead of embedding an AC/DC converter inside each bulb that we now get standard 12V DC for lighting throughout homes - That would centralize the voltage sensitivity and allow larger circuits / capacitors to regulate this.

com2kid 3y ago

> It is possible nowadays to make an LED that wont fail anytime soon That was possible back in 2002. LEDs weren't yet "super bright" and an LED from back then had a lifespan measured in, well, human lifespans.