[Q] LED longevity -- there's hours, but what about on/off?

LED longevity is typically rated by hours of use (e.g. 10k, 20k, 50k). But I wonder… does the act of turning on an LED introduce some wear? It’s true for incandescent.

I’ve wondered this, too.

Considering that LEDs are often turned on and off hundreds or thousands of times per second for prolonged periods I wouldn’t think it has an effect. Unless you are stressing them thermally with constantly doing some momentary turbo action on a hotrod and dunking them in an ice bath or something.

So this means there is not difference between a led turning on and off via PWM, and switching a led on and off with let’s say a clicky switch?

Incandescent is pretty on/off resilient; fluorescent can be a @#$%.

Led-wise the only thing which may complain is the driver, whatever it is. Of course I am namely speaking of AC/DC led drivers; and in my experience AC/DC led drivers are reliable, affordable and easily replaceable.

I hadn’t really thought about PWM because the “off” phase is so incredibly brief that the LED doesn’t have a chance to begin cooling off. But perhaps this does alleviate any concern for the diode, and that if there’s any wear to be concerned about it would be in the driver components.