I’m in a nasty frame of mind right now, and this is what my 'tism brain decided to laser focus on for several hours. I’m mad that my light bulbs cost 10x more than they used to, and don’t last any longer, and my power bill is higher than ever.

Yeah yeah, I know, it’s probably just capitalism shitting it up on purpose for profit. And bulb science is probably solid, I guess. I’m just pissed off that I just barely managed to scrape through this pay period with $2.78 left in the bank before I default on my mortgage.

Anyway, any lightbulb science comrades got any info?

  • huginn@feddit.it
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    1 year ago

    I’ve never replaced an led bulb and I’ve had them 10+ years.

    Dirty power can burn them out, as can bad heat dissipation

    • darth_helmet@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      It would probably cost like $1 of components to make most led bulbs resilient to all but spookiest of power delivery, but why sell something once when you can make them buy it over and over again

      • imPastaSyndrome@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        Let me copy and paste the top search result from Google:

        “Dirty power” is a term used to describe electricity that deviates from this standard due to spikes, surges, and dips. The term also applies to electricity that’s been tainted by an outside influence, such as a stray wireless signal. Feb 13, 2023

        • Ms. ArmoredThirteen@lemmy.ml
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          1 year ago

          If you were to lower the voltage would it still cause extra wear? Like is it the fluctuation itself that causes the wear or is the the ‘higher than expected voltage’ during peaks of the fluctuating?

          • MattsAlt [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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            1 year ago

            I haven’t explored LEDs too much, but have an education related to transistors. Because they are diodes, significant overvolting will degrade the diode itself and if it were to happen often enough could damage the junction to the point of no longer working. Fluctuating voltage could damage other parts of the device, but I’d guess overvolting is the bigger danger

    • M500@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      I can’t think of a time where I had to replace an LED bulb either.

      I mean, when I moved into a new condo, I replaced the bulbs with brighter ones, but the old ones worked and were covered in dust, so I’m guessing they were working for a long time.

    • ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de
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      1 year ago

      Or some fell off the back of the truck chinese knock off crap leds.

      As to electricity, even if you left all the non led lights on in your house all month, it’s still only a small portion of the usage compared to the water heater, hvac, dishwasher, and laundry stuff. Along with all them watts in your TV and coursing through a gaming desktop.

  • Gormadt@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    1 year ago

    There are a few reasons it could be happening so I’ll start with some the most common

    If your switches are dimmer switches and you’re not using dimmer bulbs they burn out faster

    If your light fixtures are sealed you need to get bulbs that are compatible with sealed fixtures

    Make sure you’re getting quality bulbs as lower quality bulbs will die faster

    If your area has less than stable power your bulbs will burn out faster, though higher quality dimmer compatible bulbs will handle the less stable power better (you don’t need a dimmer compatible light fixture to use dimmer bulbs)

    I use GE Reveal HD+ bulbs in my fixtures (basic apartment sealed domes) and they just keep on keeping on and they’re really color accurate.

    I started with store brand LED bulbs and they just kept burning out and the color accuracy would be best described as vague at best. Not to mention they’d burn out pretty much every year when the storms would roll in and my power would get flaky.

    • Tak@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      It’s wild how back in the day most of our appliances were good with AC current but now DC is starting to become more prevalent. It’d be wild if in 100 years you didn’t screw in a lightbulb but fixtures had a USB port to power the things.

  • hedgehog@ttrpg.network
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    1 year ago

    Heat is the main killer of LED bulbs. The Hook Up on YouTube did a comparison of several different bulbs and his investigation showed that filament style LED bulbs like the Phillips Ultra Definition ($3.50 per bulb) have a lower peak temp by like 80 degrees Fahrenheit than the standard style (12-24 LEDs in a ring). I recommend trying those out and seeing if you have better luck.

  • interdimensionalmeme@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    They get too hot and the 0.07$ capacitor they put in it dries out and dies. You want the 0.09$ capacitor which lasts 1000 times longer, but usually they only put those in the 45$ led bulbs.

    You can do like me, when they die, take them apart and replace the capacitor with a super deluxe 0.11$ one !

      • interdimensionalmeme@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        It’s an AC to DC step down voltage regulator and then a multi channel constant current regulator to drive the led and the current setting is changed by a microcontroller which usually has a Bluetooth or ZigBee or ism/315/433/915 MHz or infrared transceiver for communication with your phone / remote

  • FARTYSHARTBLAST@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    Either an electrical problem that’s burning them out or shitty bulbs.

    If you have a dimmer switch, you have to get dimmer compatible bulbs.

    • francisco_1844@discuss.online
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      1 year ago

      shitty bulbs.

      +1 on that as a potential issue. Don’t recall the brand, but I had bought a pack of light bulbs where the whole pack was having issues, to the point I called an electrician to check. When the electrician came and saw the brand he told me “those are garbage” and that he had seen plenty of people having issues with that brand.

      I threw those away, bought some other brand. The exact same places where I was having to replace light bulbs often no longer had any issues.

  • Ithorian [comrade/them, null/void]@hexbear.net
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    1 year ago

    It’s either the wiring in your house or the light fixtures or both… If I remember right older light fixtures, like before the last 15 years, don’t have the right type of power regulation and it kills LEDs quick. Source: Not an expert just have the same problem in my place.

    • FaceDeer@kbin.social
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      I think with an old light fixture it’s more likely a heat dissipation problem than it is the quality of the power. Incandescent light bulbs handled heat just fine (that was their whole point - they heated up until they were white-hot inside) but heat kills LED bulbs.

  • Blackmist@feddit.uk
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    1 year ago

    You’re either buying really shit bulbs or you’ve got shit power. Probably the latter.

  • Aylex@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    This is a really interesting article on lightbulbs, which have a pretty conspiratorial past: https://interestingengineering.com/science/everlasting-lightbulbs-exist-ed

    Did you know that a secret meeting was held in Geneva in 1924 between lightbulb manufacturers that lead to the formation of the ‘Pheobus Cartel’?

    "The main objective of this cartel was to agree to control the supply of light bulbs. Each understood that if any one of them managed to develop a long-lasting light bulb, the need for replacement bulbs would likely dry up.

    Bulbs were lasting too long. Not ideal from their point of view.

    So, to combat this, all members of the cartel agreed to reduce the lifespan of bulbs on purpose. Initially, this was set to no more than 1,000 hours!"

    The longest-lasting lightbulb was first turned on it 1901 and is still shining.

    EDIT: Seems this is a myth, see replies for more information!

  • TychoQuad@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    16 years ago, when I moved into a new apartment, I bought a 4 pack of colour changing led light globes. I liked them so much, I ended up replacing all of the remaining globes in the apartment with white only versions when they became available.

    About 7 years in, 2 of them started having problems, so I replaced them. The other 2, along with the others I bought along the way are still going strong. I took them with me when I moved out of that apartment and put back the globes that the apartment had when I first moved in.

    My current place has all the globes I bought, along with some my roommate had from the same timeframe. He never had any problem globes.

    Now, these globes weren’t cheap, but I think that’s the point. Light globes don’t burn out like they used to, but if you buy the cheapest piece of crap you can find, you’re gonna get… well, the cheapest piece of crap.

    As for your power usage, I suggest you look elsewhere. Even the crappiest led light will use less power than practically everything else.

  • Grass@sh.itjust.works
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    1 year ago

    The first few generations of led bulbs last longer. I have tons that are still going and no noticable loss in brightness even though the packaging said to expect that in place of burning out. Now there are a lot of shit tier ones mixed in. As others have mentioned there are also a number of specific compatibility problems too.

  • nothacking@discuss.tchncs.de
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    1 year ago

    Bad design. These bulbs often run supper hot, resulting in premature failure from electromigration and similar. Some manufacturers are better about this then others, so try another one. Filament style bulbs also tend to run colder, and last a lot longer. (But they flicker and play badly with dimmers)