The false economy of in home LED lighting

[bob_ninja]

@leaftye

@dct73

@joe1512

LIFETIME: LEDs have about a 25000 to 50000 hour lifetime which is actually fairly likely to be accurate as they don’t poop out like Incans do. They are also pretty much indestructable and even when one of the LEDs goes out there is an array of many of them, so even really bad luck is mitigated. CFLs have much shorter lifetime and are way more likely to break. You will likely buy many CFLs for the lifetime equivalent of 1 LED. This is where the ‘green’ part comes in.

It’s not the LED that “poops out”. It’s the circuit. I’d be highly suspicious of anyone telling me to expect 50,000 hours out of ANY light bulb. I don’t know what cfl’s everybody that has trouble is buying, but I don’t recall one EVER burning out after several years. I’ve broken a few though.

Yes, for whatever reason, LED light bulbs just don’t last that long.

The thing some people miss is that they’re not buying an LED, or a few LED’s, they are buying a LED light bulb. That make the 50000 hour estimated life span somewhat dishonest. That’s the life of just the LED under ideal conditions. Will the rest of the light bulb allow the LED to operate that long? The reviews indicate that it won’t. If the manufacturers actually engineered and manufactured their LED light bulbs well, there would be virtually no downside in offering a great lifetime warranty, and plenty of upside.

As far as CFL’s, I had older ones fizz out. The newer bulbs dim over time, or part of the tube darkens significantly. Instead of waiting for these bulbs to go fully dead, I replace them.

Here is my solution