£40 light bulb vs £2 light bulb
- Thread starter soundwave
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how do they know it will last 27 years? I bought 6 MiniSun bulbs for a light fitting about 5 years ago which are similar in that they are comprised of several small yellow imitters like your dice looking bulb.. As I recall they were new to the market, but if not new they hadnt been around long and so far two of the six have stopped working..
Point being .. no one has had these for 27 years, and extrapolating from running one 24 hours a day doesnt mean one will last over many on-off cycles..
Point being .. no one has had these for 27 years, and extrapolating from running one 24 hours a day doesnt mean one will last over many on-off cycles..
I bought a 19.95€ bulb when I moved in here. It came with a remote dimmer which can controll up to 10 bulbs.
The button battery in the remote lasted about a month, I think the remote was talking to the receiver for my keyboard all day...
The button battery in the remote lasted about a month, I think the remote was talking to the receiver for my keyboard all day...
I have been gradually replacing the incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescent and then these with a few generations of LED. I would have perhaps 45 in use.. eg my lounge has 14. I have replaced about 6 in nearly 10 years . Including the first one purchased about 3 months ago ,and it was on special offer at a trade show at 20 quid.I bought a 19.95€ bulb when I moved in here. It came with a remote dimmer which can controll up to 10 bulbs.
The button battery in the remote lasted about a month, I think the remote was talking to the receiver for my keyboard all day...
There is a major improvement in light power efficiency over that time scale and 650 lm has moves to 810 and to 1100 for marginal extra consumption
I have a light fixture in the bathroom (shower room actually...) thay has those horrible energy hungry hallogen bulbs. OK it keeps the place warm when you are standing there naked shaving after a shower. All other bulbs are either compact flourescent that haven't fried yet or LED.
Speaking of frying my Lidl induction hob just went AWOL after about three months use. I am not recommending buying one of those... Shame, it was pretty.
All other bulbs are either compact flourescent that haven't fried yet or LED. Speaking of frying my Lidl induction hob just went AWOL after about three months use. I am not recommending buying one of those... Shame, it was pretty.
My whole house is now led's. Couldn't wait to get rid of those bloody awful cfl's and their extended warm up period and their naff light quality.
Always use either 3000k or 2400k colour temperature to get that halogen like colour quality. Have 8 in my kitchen a grand total of 40watts, whole area lit well enough even for ageing eyesight.
Have had 1 or2 fail but overall lifespan seems to be holding up. However I suspect that, once nealy everyone has converted, the lifespan will start to come down by engineered agreement. That's what happened with incandescant bulbs.
Not paying huge amounts for them, generally under £5 per lamp.
Always use either 3000k or 2400k colour temperature to get that halogen like colour quality. Have 8 in my kitchen a grand total of 40watts, whole area lit well enough even for ageing eyesight.
Have had 1 or2 fail but overall lifespan seems to be holding up. However I suspect that, once nealy everyone has converted, the lifespan will start to come down by engineered agreement. That's what happened with incandescant bulbs.
Not paying huge amounts for them, generally under £5 per lamp.
I think you are being a bit unfair with the engineering of incandescents and by association with the probable lifetimes of LEDs. The incandescent is a design balance between light output and lifetime. A dull red orange bulb with thick filiment,as would have been used in a 1950s cargo ship,would have an extremely long life, but were feeble in the light department. The flood lamps used in the theatre, had lifetimes measured in hours,and were very bright. I would have come accross some equation once which had a lifetime brightness calculation, and it was something like power of 10!. The halogen version was an attempt to retain more of the tungsten in the filiment while at the higher operating temperature, hence the smaller quartz bulb.. the failure mode being evaporation of tungsten off the hot filiment and condensing on the cooler walls
I seem to remember seeing a TV programme about the early introduction of electric lighting in America. If memory serves, it was in the 30's that lamp munufacturers got together to discuss the fact that their lamps were lasting far too long and their profits were suffering. This resulted in a 2000 hour lifetime agreement. There was one company that rebelled but it was quickly taken over by the others. I believe it's called 'planned obsolescence'. It does make a kind of sense, a company must make enough profit to recoup R&D costs and fund new projects.
Perhaps I'm just a cynical old git who takes nothing at face value !
Perhaps I'm just a cynical old git who takes nothing at face value !
It's getting off topic,but as someone involved with the engineering in community,there is some truth in planned obsolescence.
The car industry designs and builds cars for the first owner. Not the second or third . They will build parts with sufficient longitivity to last beyond the warranty period. This was 1 to 3 year,and then the Koreans went and made a 6 year warranty a sales pitch
. The aircraft industry and other professional products designs and builds products for a 50 plus year lifetime . The differences being that it becomes much more expensive to build these products .. a car will have spot welds , glued and crimped fasteners and inaccessible voids,which can rust. A plane or a railway carriage will have almost everything demountable and replaceable. These industries then expect to have a lively after sales market in spare parts.
Getting back to incandescents, .. the most expensive element was the little bit of tungsten,so by making it thinner and in a triple helix, they could maximise luminance,while minimising electrical power and materials. The price of which is a highly predicable lifetime
The world's longest-lasting light bulb is the Centennial Light located at 4550 East Avenue, Livermore, California. It is maintained by the Livermore-Pleasanton Fire Department. The fire department claims that the bulb is at least 117 years old (installed 1901) and has only been turned off a handful of times.
See how yellow the light is?. That indicates that as a light emitter it is inefficient.
