LED lamp life

[Lsbcal]

Quote:

Originally Posted by GrayHare For the price of this one LED I could have bought a couple dozen incandescent bulbs, the total of which would have lasted much longer than 15000 hours.

Have you added in your savings from reduced power consumption?

I just bought a few LED's to replace CFL's as they burn out. The 60W incandescent equivalents (10W actual, Philips) at Home Depot were $5 each for a pack of 2.

[RobbieB]

Yeah the above 60 vs 10 watts over 15,000 hours is 750 KWH. At 10 cents per KWH it's seventy five bucks.

[Beldar]

For the OP...

Our home is nearly totally LED. We have one lamp that has been ON continuously for over 3 years, no failures.

The only downer for me, as a SWLer and Ham Radio operator, is the RF noise generated by the lamps (in close proximity). So, no LED lighting near the radios. I can't control the noise pollution from the solar arrays in the neighborhood thought.

_B

[GrayHare]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lsbcal Have you added in your savings from reduced power consumption?

This particular old LED lamp replaced a quasi-nightlight where I'd previously used a 15 or 25 watt incandescent. I bought this LED during the 2000-aughts in part to learn about the technology. It was sold as equivalent light output to a 40-watt incandescent, but to my eye it turned out to be more like 20, hence its relegation to quasi-nightlight duty. The color was very blue too. As we know, subsequent to the 'aughts LED price has come down, brightness increased, and traditional color (temperature) is available.

[JoeWras]

I think ERD50, ArtTinkerer and I have had a bit of experience in product engineering, and we have all experienced a bit of the old "lies .. and statistics" issue.

I take these numbers with a grain of salt. They may be quoting the light output numbers, but those are useless if the device fails. Somewhere in this mix I'm not sure if MTBF is being calculated. (Mean Time Between Failures).

There is a whole procedure for this measurement, which I doubt the cheap manufacturers are honoring.

In any case, MTBF calculation involves dealing with "bathtub curves" and normalizing things based on that. Devices need to be put into ovens to artificially stress the circuitry by running it at high temperature. You cannot just turn it on and see what happens because you can't wait 15,000 hours to do the test.

As ERD50 points out, the other circuitry is the problem, and it will fail. Many of us have boat-anchor LCD TVs due to a 10 cent capacitor failure. LED bulbs will have the same issue.

[JoeWras]

And when we get tired by our early life failure LEDs, we can always pull up the webcam of the 115 year running light bulb.

Over 1,000,000 hours and counting. "On" most of the time, but there have been a few glitches when a UPS failed them...

Livermore's Centennial Light Bulb

[braumeister]

And when you get tired of watching the light bulb, you can switch to the pitch drop.
Pitch drop experiment

[ArkTinkerer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by GrayHare This particular old LED lamp replaced a quasi-nightlight where I'd previously used a 15 or 25 watt incandescent. I bought this LED during the 2000-aughts in part to learn about the technology. It was sold as equivalent light output to a 40-watt incandescent, but to my eye it turned out to be more like 20, hence its relegation to quasi-nightlight duty. The color was very blue too. As we know, subsequent to the 'aughts LED price has come down, brightness increased, and traditional color (temperature) is available.

One thing about the LED higher efficiency is that you can put a higher "equivalent" in an old fixture with lower rating. I upped a number of my bulbs to 75W equivalents. It does make up for the spectrum deficiencies of LED bulbs.

That said, the other comment about life testing being done at elevated temps is true. High temperatures do shorten the life of electronic products and certainly LED bulbs. The improvement of thermal design (and the increased efficiency on LEDs which reduces heat output) has made some of the newer bulbs more reliable than the early models.

[JoeWras]

Quote:

Originally Posted by braumeister And when you get tired of watching the light bulb, you can switch to the pitch drop. Pitch drop experiment

Nice! It is on my list!

[target2019]

Have been looking for LED fan bulbs for awhile.
In HomeDepot I purchased two similar bulbs, but slightly different as to shape and watts. Bulb on left is rounder, and 7W. Bulb on right is 5.5W and A15 shape.

I found that the 7W was much brighter than 5.5W. Both are clear, so the light is not soft. But the cast light has a warm yellow shade to it.

Cost is $2.97 ber bulb.

[travelover]

I was a Costco recently and they had a 10 pack of 60 watt equivalent non-dimmable LED bulbs for $8 due to a local utility rebate deal. At that price, I was willing to take a chance.

[GrayHare]

Another of my old LED lamps blew this week. It operated for about 15000 hours also.

[samclem]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ArkTinkerer The LED bulbs you buy have circuits that convert the AC to DC to drive the lamp. There are components in these circuits that will likely fail long before the LEDs. Lastly, I hate to disparage my profession but seldom are LEDs driven at reasonable levels (you get more light driving them hard). Seldom are the power circuits designed well with lifespan in mind. Many just don't know how to do it and the parts that will last longer cost more. These bulbs are designed for higher output at lower cost and built in countries known for substituting the cheapest part they can find--especially if it is not visible to the customer.

So, is there a manufacturer which is the "Honda" of LED bulbs? A company that has engineered a good product, works collaboratively with suppliers to continuously improve the build quality of their stuff, etc? I don't mind paying double the price for an LED bulb that is engineered and built (in its entirety) to last 20K hours in normal use (i.e. in an enclosed surface-mount bathroom fixture).
Without good testing by impartial, reputable organizations, we're all just buying the cheapest bulbs (rewarding the corner-cutters) or the brands we are familiar with (rewarding the marketing departments). That's no way to improve the breed.

[Sunset]

Quote:

Originally Posted by travelover I was a Costco recently and they had a 10 pack of 60 watt equivalent non-dimmable LED bulbs for $8 due to a local utility rebate deal. At that price, I was willing to take a chance.

That's like the time I took a chance and picked up a $50 bill off the ground in the parking lot...

[Sunset]

Quote:

Originally Posted by GrayHare Another of my old LED lamps blew this week. It operated for about 15000 hours also.

So about 10 - 15 incandescent bulb lifetimes, without the labor of changing them.

[JoeWras]

Quote:

Originally Posted by samclem So, is there a manufacturer which is the "Honda" of LED bulbs? A company that has engineered a good product, works collaboratively with suppliers to continuously improve the build quality of their stuff, etc? I don't mind paying double the price for an LED bulb that is engineered and built (in its entirety) to last 20K hours in normal use (i.e. in an enclosed surface-mount bathroom fixture). Without good testing by impartial, reputable organizations, we're all just buying the cheapest bulbs (rewarding the corner-cutters) or the brands we are familiar with (rewarding the marketing departments). That's no way to improve the breed.

Not really. Did you retire in the 80s or something?

That train of thought is long gone for low end products.

[target2019]

LEDs are a conspiracy.
😁

[frank]

I bought a 6 pack of 9w led bulbs at sam's club for 2.81 don't know the reason for the low price, but they were general electric bulbs and for the price I thought I would check out the light output compared to cfl bulbs and the longevity of the bulbs. strange though that they can sell led's for that price and still see a profit. I remember incandescant bulbs at a price of 4 for a dollar, now where they are available they are 1.25 apiece.

[REWahoo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by frank I bought a 6 pack of 9w led bulbs at sam's club for 2.81 don't know the reason for the low price...

They were a close-out. GE replaced the 9W with a 10W (60W equivalent) LED that is identical in appearance. Our Sam's sells the replacement 6 pack for $15.98.

I bought three of the close-outs a couple of months ago and installed them in several locations. So far, so good.

[manerac]

Quote:

Originally Posted by JoeWras And when we get tired by our early life failure LEDs, we can always pull up the webcam of the 115 year running light bulb. Over 1,000,000 hours and counting. "On" most of the time, but there have been a few glitches when a UPS failed them... Livermore's Centennial Light Bulb

The bulb cam is cool, but the drop cam has more action.

The Ninth Watch for the ninth Pitch Drop.