Incandescent light bulbs are officially banned in the U.S.
Incandescent light bulbs are officially banned in the U.S.
Incandescent light bulbs are officially banned in the U.S.::America’s ban on incandescent light bulbs, 16 years in the making, is finally a reality. Well, mostly.
The U.S. is pretty late with this, compared to the European Union. Only a few special bulbs are still sold here. Apart from that, the only allowed lighting technology is LED.
Tell that to the bar I was at last night in Palermo. They had a string of festoon lights going down the laneway and every one of them was incandescent. I noticed the same in Taormina. In fact, Italy seems pretty far behind the rest of the EU when it comes to environmental concerns.....but that's for another thread.
Are you sure they were incandescent bulbs and not just LED bulbs copying the incandescent style? They make a lot of decorative LED bulbs now with straight sections of LEDs to imitate the glowing wire of an incandescent.
They are not sold anymore, but whatever is left and working can still be used. Many people also bought a ton of incandescents before the selling stopped (tHe lIgHt is sO mUcH bEtTeR!!!)
Maybe they still run on "new old stock" bulbs until they are used up. But even if they do, they clearly didn't do the math. I've upgraded all my lighting to LED and binned all my incandescent stock.
I think to update the string of lights you’d need to change transformer. Household bulbs have a driver in the bulb that converts the 230V to the ~12V the bulb uses. But for that string of lights, they’d need to get an electrician (or someone who knows what they’re doing)
Specialty lights are still being sold. Plenty of British pubs have special incandescent lights. They are usually quite dim.
This applies to all the things, unfortunately. It must be nice to have a functional union. Even though I'm sure it's not perfect, progress is made at a decent pace. Our country is hijacked by a cruel/angry/illiterate cult every 1-2 elections, it's not ideal.
Well... only 11 yrs after EU... That's not so bad.
https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/IP_08_1909
for real though.. as an American I would love if we were 11 years behind the EU in lots of other areas
Yep. Even Canada banned most common incandescent bulbs in 2014 and 2015.
You're 11 years behind us in energy prices as well, so make the most of it.
I've been in the industry for over a decade and I find it fascinating how much lighting has changed in that time. When LEDs were first available, they were $60+ per bulb. Now you can get multipacks for under $10. Also, CFL bulbs were almost universally hated by everyone (and for good reason) now we no longer sell them. We strictly sell LEDs for regular lighting and we still sell incandescent specialty bulbs. Also, when LEDs first arrived there was a lot of distain for them, especially by the elderly. They wanted their energy wasting incandescent bulbs dammit! It seems the majority of them have come around because they've learned that LEDs are better.
I think the main issue with initial Led bulbs was their color was wrong. Incandescent bulbs emit light at 2700K, a nice warm white. Early LEDs emitted light at more like 5000K or there abouts, which is a really white light. Same with CFLs. Elderly people didn't like that at all. Honestly it wasn't just them, lots of people hated them for their too white of light.
Today you can get LEDs that are 2700K and/or are adjustable to what ever color you want.
Any recommendations? I've struggle with LED light color temp off and on over the years. I haven't looked into it in a while though. It always seems like if you want a low color temp it has to be an edison bulb which is really dim.
On a separate note I've also had reliability issues with LED bulbs where they will blow out and emit smoke.
Also it became a political issue as all things should be somehow
The most amazing thing to me - I’ve been using leds for 10+ years, and I think I’ve had to replace one or two of them. It is a wonder that prices can come down with demand dwindling so much.
Man, I remember as a kid we had a box of bulbs for when inevitably one burnt out each month or so. Now, I have a drawer with a bunch of led bulbs I'll never use because they don't burn out!
I remember when I was a kid, it seemed like we had to change the light bulbs every other month. Now I'm annoyed because these things last so long I don't keep any spares and I have to leave my house to buy one when it expires!
I had to replace an LED bulb a few months ago and I remember being annoyed because they did only lasted five years.
As energy and maintenance go down, the popularity of lighting goes up—so maybe the decrease in sales of replacement bulbs has been offset by an increase in the total number of bulbs in use.
Is there a brand that's better for LED? I get migraines and the stroking effect of LED bulbs can be a trigger.
LED christmas bulbs particularly bad. It felt like walking into a rave at the Christmas store.
Regular brand LED bulbs don't strobe at all, only the very cheap ones from AliExpress and the resellers of Chinese crapware (like Walmart) do. IKEA has some nice and cheap bulbs, for example.
Yeah, many of those christmas lights use pulse width modulation to control brightness and it is very noticeable. I hope that gets changed over for an analog voltage dimmer soon.
I’ve never been disappointed with Philips. However, I have no doubt there are tons of exceptionally good quality products out there from various brands.
There are LEDs with CCD power converter. I got one 10 years ago and tested it with a 240 fps camera, no flicker at all. I will not recommend a brand because it's been years,but search for "ccd led bulb".
Also there's a number called CRI, indicating how well it represents colors. This also may contribute to your headaches. 85 or higher is good, 90 is great. Just don't trust these numbers on Amazon, the cheapest of cheap crap is marketed as " cri 90+" there.
Or scratch what I just said and find a small store that specializes in lighting and ask the clerk (or email them).
I honestly couldn't tell you. Its been so long since I purchased LEDs and the ones I bought were from the company I work for. They have worked well for me but I don't know if any brand is better than another.
I wonder if multi-element bulbs offset the phase of each element so the flickering cancels out.
That, but also change happens one funeral at a time.
It seems the majority of them have come around because they’ve
learned that LEDs are better.
died
they died
I'm sure some of them have
Now you can go into pretty much any thrift store and get a whole box of them for like $5-10.
One problem is that CFL bulbs is that they contain small amounts of mercury (about 4mg per bulb). Because of that, disposing of them responsibly requires going through big hassles rather than just throwing them in the trash. Also, because of that mercury, accidentally breaking one means contamination of the environment around the break.
Flickering - always was a big problem for these things.
Longevity: They were very sensitive to heat, which meant that they loved to burn themselves up in a lot of applications.
Dimming: CFLs were NEVER good at being dimmable.
CFL was just a very poor technology detour on the way to the vastly superior LED lights.
The 3 biggest issues CFLs had were their warm up time, especially in cold weather, the flicker some people are sensitive too, and they contain murcury as all florescent bulbs do. That means it is absolutely necessary to properly dispose of them so mercury doesn't get into the ground water.
This is why I don't support overreach in regulation.
Put a tax on it or something, but a full ban seems excessive. Now that most people understand that LEDs are superior, they are cheaper, and there are more options, most people will make the switch.
No really. A lot of people, even when shown proof, out of simple spite just double down on their position.
When energy saving and early LED bulbs started to be deployed in my country, while the fade out of incandescent bulbs was put in place, we had runs for buying every single incandescent bulb available. The change was not welcome. Even if changing meant real, objective, tangible savings.
People would put in large orders for bulbs, arguing they wanted to "have proper lighting as long has they lived". Luckily, the stocks quickly ran out and some distributors simply refused to pass the stocks to the market.
A government cutting off a product is not overreach: it's forcing change that otherwise would not happen, for the better.
No really. A lot of people, even when shown proof, out of simple spite just double down on their position.
When energy saving and early LED bulbs started to be deployed in my country, while the fade out of incandescent bulbs was put in place, we had runs for buying every single incandescent bulb available. The change was not welcome. Even if changing meant real, objective, tangible savings.
People would put in large orders for bulbs, arguing they wanted to "have proper lighting as long has they lived". Luckily, the stocks quickly ran out and some distributors simply refused to pass the stocks to the market.
A government cutting off a product is not overreach: it's forcing change that otherwise would not happen, for the better.
Wondering if incandescents can still be sold as heat bulbs because that's what they are
Yes they can. Also your fridge and oven will still have incandescent bulbs because more efficient lights aren't great at operating in extreme temperatures.
manufacturers can still build and stores can continue selling:
Appliance lamps, including fridge and oven lights Black lights Bug lamps Colored lamps Infrared lamps Left-handed thread lamps Plant lights Floodlights Reflector lamps Showcase lamps Traffic signals Some other specialty lights, including marine lamps and some odd-sized bulbs
We call them "space heaters"...
What is not banned?
Surprisingly, there is a whole slew of exempt special-purpose bulbs that will continue to be manufactured, according to the Energy Department. Here’s what manufacturers can still build and stores can continue selling:
- Appliance lamps, including fridge and oven lights
- Black lights
- Bug lamps
- Colored lamps
- Infrared lamps
- Left-handed thread lamps
- Plant lights
- Floodlights
- Reflector lamps
- Showcase lamps
- Traffic signals
- Some other specialty lights, including marine lamps and some odd-sized bulbs
I mean, good for the effort, but that's still a lot of exceptions.
If you still have a fridge or oven that takes incandescent bulbs, isn't it better to replace the bulb than the fridge? If the point is minimal environmental impact then I think that makes sense.
This article is dogshit, and those are not the current exemptions. DOE revised the definition of a general service lamp on 2022 to include the majority of reflectors. The rest have miniscule sales and have technical limitations that make LED replacements difficult. It's not a lot of exemptions. When was the last time you bought a left hand thread or a colored incandescent lamp?
Some of these bulbs might be difficult to find in LED and there might be other considerations like shape, heat, dimmer compatibility, etc.. Replacing fixtures could represent a significant burden in these cases and thought there are many exceptions listed they likely represent a small percentage of overall usage.
I've seen dimmer compatible LEDs and, even better, LED bulbs that have built in control of light intensity and even color. I've even seen bulbs capable of playing music through bluetooth!
Shape I don't really see as a concern, as any shape an incandescent bulb can be produced in, a LED bulb can also be. And then some, as the LEDs can be set up, twisted and bent into some very imaginative shapes and angles.
And heat is not ready a concern. You can touch most LED bulbs with your bare hands with no risk of severe burn. Unless very high wattage is in play, at most, a LED bulb will be warm to the touch.
Several of these exceptions are unexpected. Oven light, sure: LEDs can’t survive the heat. That makes sense. Plant lights because you probably need full spectrum. And traffic signals because they’re odd shape and fixtures probably last decades, but the rest?
Bug lights? A regular LED attracts fewer bugs than an incandescent bug light …. Unless they mean an attractant like fora bug zapper
Flood lights? Reflector lights? Fridge lights? Colored lights? Why aren’t these all LED?
OPs list is wrong, that's why. DOE revised the definition of a general service lamp in 2022 to include the vast majority of reflector lamps. Bug/appliance/left hand thread/etc are all sold im tiny numbers and therefore exempt.
Plants don't need much, if any, green light (they reflect it). LEDs can be made to be full spectrum. I can think of no reason why anyone would want incandescent lights for plants. Even before cheap high power LEDs were a thing, people usually used high pressure sodium lights.
Black lights
Nice.
They're lights that emit in the ultraviolet part of the spectrum for the purpose of making fluorescent materials light up. To the human eye they don't look quite black, but more like a darkish purple.
But yeah, I too always found the name deliciously ironic.
can we ban standard time and permanently switch to DST now too?
DST is the best thing ever. Who doesn't want more daylight after work?
Oh yay it's bright at 4am in the morning when I'm asleep.
What about 4am in the evening?
Just pick a time and stick with it
i thought we did?
oh fuck me we didn't
I took a look at the article and I came out with two points:
Light bulb stealing whores
Never crossed my mind to look for such kind of bulb but I'd risk I won't be able to find it in the local market.
If safety/security is a concern, lights are simply placed at hard to reach locations or are bought with safety housings, which are fairly cheap. In extremis, instead of common voltage bulbs, high voltage are used, thus incompatible with household voltage.
And specific purpose lamps... I may be the odd one but there are other sockets available in the market. Why opt for the basis threaded one?
Wrap it up boys, we've solved climate change.
Is your point we should not be taking steps to decrease electricity usage because this step by itself doesn't fix the entire problem?
People will complain about climate change than complain about LITERALLY EVERY SINGLE ATTEMPT to improve it. Isnt this what people are always saying needs to happen?? That individual action isnt the way but we need legislature to fix everything? What did people think would happen if governments try to fight climate change? That our lives would in no way shape or form be affected?
It's just a joke, we need to do much more
The EU introduced a limitation to how much power electric devices can consume in off or standby mode.
0.5 watt normally, 1 watt if they have a status display and 2-8 watts if they're connected to a network.
On a yearly basis this saves as much electricity as one of the member states (Romania) used in a year.
My point is that small things add up to huge numbers.
LED bulbs aren't really even a small thing.
going from a 100W bulb to a 15W bulb, or a 60W bulb to a 2.5W bulb (that's the actual conversion for the bulbs i've actually bought on amazon and am currently using, not hypothetical guesses) across 20-30 bulbs in a single house is a real actual big difference in energy savings.
Exactly. From this particular article/policy:
Similarly, it projects that the rules could cut carbon emissions by 222 million metric tons over the next 30 years.
So don't buy non-replaceable fixtures?
How is removing incandescent bulbs from the marketplace going to increase the installation of fixtures with non-replaceable components, when such fixtures never used incandescent bulbs in the first place?
For what it's worth I've had one of those integrated overhead fixtures in my kitchen for about 6 years. It hasn't failed yet. The overall shape of the fixture which we like also wouldn't be possible if the bulbs were replaceable.
This has everything to do with implementation and complications from late-stage capitalism and not the actual technology
Im going to replace a two year old light because of this non replaceable light crap.
how long until there's a right wing black market for incandescent bulbs like gas stoves prob..
My right wing dad already stocked up
"F*ck efficiency!"
Actually very on brand. hmm..
Cure rage in certain circles
Can’t wait for this to be the hot button issue in certain presidential campaigns this cycle.
There are other uses of incandescent bulb beyond lighting. We use them to heat small enclosures in the winter and we have light to work in the space if that needss to happen. To use heat tape or space heaters is far more likely to catch fire.
And for those uses they aren't getting phased out:
Surprisingly, there is a whole slew of exempt special-purpose bulbs that will continue to be manufactured, according to the Energy Department. Here’s what manufacturers can still build and stores can continue selling:
Appliance lamps, including fridge and oven lights
Black lights
Bug lamps
Colored lamps
Infrared lamps
Left-handed thread lamps
Plant lights
Floodlights
Reflector lamps
Showcase lamps
Traffic signals
Some other specialty lights, including marine lamps and some odd-sized bulbs
And my lava lamps require the heat they put off.
You can't be groovy with LEDs
Makes sense. Nonetheless, reminds me of modern washing machines. Yeah they make sense and save water but it stinks that it's a compromise and it takes twice as long to wash. With Led bulbs it's always a say a prayer situation to see if a particular bulb works with a particular dimmer and isn't a flickering mess.
Typically that’s only a problem if you buy non-dimmable bulbs. There are LEDs made specifically for dimmer switches.
Disagree. Many allegedly dimmable bulbs still have flicker issues, lifespan issues, and in my experience even some dimmers that claim to work with Led dimmable bulbs have different success rates with different dimmable leds.
The other thing I think worth mentioning is that for non standard bulb shapes and sizes it is difficult to find high quality name brand LED replacements. You end up with low quality Chinese small brands in these cases. I have had higher costs and more difficulty with these types of bulbs than convential incandescent options. I'm not being luddite here, all for the change, but currently it's not without some sacrifice. I currently don't believe I own any remaining incandescent bulbs. Outlawing incandescent options seems premature IMO.
Led bulbs won't even work with my garage door opener for some reason. I have to use incandescent or halogen bulbs.
I wonder if this will have any effect on the film industry...
I had always used incandescent bulbs in practicals but now there are LED bulbs made specifically for film sets. Household LED bulbs are usually a mess on camera with ugly color spikes and/or flickering.
I've been lighting almost exclusively with LED these days aside from some HMI's, but even those are starting to get LED competition, at least for smaller ones.
Thanks for your response! If you light events with broadcast cameras, I am the annoying video engineer behind the camera controls asking about flicker and color balance. I hope they keep making y'all's specialty bulbs. Looks like there's a big list of exceptions!
Look at the Power Factor (PF) and Colot Reproduction Index (CRI) of the LED light bulb.
If the former is something like 50% then it means it has a cheap power rectifier inside (little more than a bunch of diodes) which doesn't at all filter the power fluctuating nature of AC (basically all it does is make the negative side of the sinusoidal wave that's AC become positve and leaves the whole voltage variance from 0 to max and back untouched) hence the flickering.
The latter quite literally tells you how good the colors look under that lighting. You want at least 90%, with more being better.
Mind you, nowadays CRI is usually not a problem, but the whole cheap power rectification inside the bulb generally is (because a basic power rectifier can cut 10% or more of the manufacturing price of a lightbulb).
I would think they'll be mostly over to LED by now.
electric companies started subsidizing LEDs 10 years ago at box stores. electricity use went down and the bills went up as usual. all the while still burning coal. 🤔 incentives? probably part of the same mandates taxes get spent on
Why are Republicans mad about it?!
Because they're driven entirely by emotion, not rationality. They were told to be angry about it, so they are. Plus, Biden or something.
When are they aren't mad? LOL they can die mad for all I care.
Something about limiting consumer choice, but everyone purchased LED bulbs to begin with anyways...
I bet they were equally pissed off when Kmart went out of business.
Tradition
Because they were born.
because they think we should be burning whale oil
Because imagining that someone might have a legitimate reason to want a product or service that a regulator might not have thought of is currently a "Republican" trait in the US.
Does anybody use incandescent light bulbs as radiators? Because it's the only alternative use I can think of.
In the European Union we banned them 10 years ago and people just continued their lives. I wish people were as mad when books get banned, but sadly it's not the case
And what is that legitimate reason here?
Once they got the white light spectrum figured out I was fine with switching to leds. Less power, don't get hot, last longer.
I wish the LEDs weren't such crap. They don't even last as long as a 60W incandescent a lot of times. The old CFLs last years, I have a few over ten years old.
I'm curious about what fixtures your led light bulbs were in.
Old incandescent lights worked great at high heat levels, so a typical boob light fixture that kept the heat in would be fine for an incandescent. Put an LED light in there, and it can still heat up beyond design capacity and might not get enough ventilation and age prematurely.
The only leds that failed for me were inside a fixture meant for incandescent lights. All our open bulbs or specially designed for led fixtures have been going strong for half a decade or more.
Planned obsolescence is a thing here. The LEDs don't fail, it's the power circuitry. Unfortunately the fixture theory doesn't pan out, as fixtures meant for incandescent bulbs need to be able to dissipate much more heat (about 6 times as much). I've been using LED bulbs for 7 years in all sorts of different fixtures and have never had even one burn out on me. Why? I don't really know. Maybe I turn the lights on less often than other people?
Stoned me read boob light and was like, 'oh ya'. But I gotta make sure, we mean like
(image of a dome light cover with a protruding "nipple" at it's highest point-- making it breast-like in appearance.)
My apartment has one of those light fixtures in the living room and it uses a dimmer dial. I once tried to replace the incandescent bulbs with what seemed to be the LED equivalent that could be used with a dimmer, but it just didn't work right. Lots of flickering. I hope this will convince my landlord to replace the fixture so I can finish changing everything to LED.
This hasn't been my experience at all, I replaced most of the bulbs in my house with LEDs a couple years ago and I don't think I've had to replace a single one since. When they were all incandescent, I was regularly replacing burned out bulbs. Check which brand you're buying, you're probably buying crap which is why you're getting crap. I've found Phillips bulbs work great and are long lasting, I have some that've been in a fixture for 5 years now with no issue
I don't know what kind of crap LED light bulbs you get in the US but here in Europe to to get a CE mark (required to be able to import them into the EU) a model has to have less than 5% failure rate within (if I remember it correctly) the first year, last 10,000h at least (and have been tested for it, which is quite funny because the test requires having the thing always on for months), turn on within a second, lose (due to burn-in) less than a few percent (forgot the number) brightness within the first 6 months and a bunch of other requirements including stuff like color fidelity.
About a decade ago I actually looked into starting a business importing those things from China and still tody have several samples from back then still working fine (and that's also why I know the CE mark requirements for LED light bulbs).
More in general I've been using LED lamps for even longer and even back in the day when they were more expensive those things paid for themselves in lower power costs, and often do so quite fast (a couple of months) when used to replace incandescents, plus the rate of failures is now pretty low.
(When I first replaced all my lightbulbs with LEDs, way back when they weren't even as efficient as now, the fall in the electricity bill was very noticeable)
Oh, and the price of those things at the factory has been less than $1 for ages, so stores trying to sell those for more than $2 have huge markups and you're better of avoiding those places and getting them from hardware stores and similar (or just buy online).
I haven't had a filament LED fail on me yet. The cheapest LEDs you can find aren't worth it; best to get a name brand.
Name brand like Philips don't die quickly (mostly) but they lose its brightness pretty fast. I have few 12w MyCare™, it's going strong for like 3 years but it's now only as bright as my new 6w LED.
I've been running pure led for 10 years. The only failures I've had were in heat prone fixtures not designed for leds
We need more systems where we can just replace the power supplies on these bulbs.
Mostly capacitor plague or heat. I've only lost 2 / 50 in Open fixtures with good airflow over the last three years.
I have one outdoor that pops every spring the fixture is damn near sealed and in direct sunlight, but the HOA demands the fixture.
I had CFLs burn out all the time.
My LEDs have all been rock solid. Even the cheap ones.
This sucks. I’m gonna have to compete with boomers for dim bulb tester refills.
Thought LEDs can do this too
No/it depends on the board design.
Even if it’ll give you different brightness the behavior in weird conditions is different and it’s not diagnostic or protective and you can’t drop in lower wattage bulbs for testing and tv work.
people started hoarding them, lol
Yeaaaaars ago there was the talk of a ban, and I think something got passed but ultimately never materialized (until now). My dad hoarded them. He also bought Gold when the thought Hillary was going to win because he thought she would crash the economy.
Right up there with the people who started buying guns like mad because they were told (gun industry?) that Obama was going to somehow take all their guns.
Doors anyone have a recommendation for LEDs that don't constantly flicker and can dim without going out whenever my AC kicks on?
Yikes. Put a brand new LED bulb in my basement on Sunday. It was dead on Wednesday. Incandescent seems to be the only bulbs that last down there. I better stock up before the stores run dry...
That sounds like an electrical issue with your basement's light fixture, not the bulbs. You might wanna get that looked at.
It’s right next to the AC unit and gets a lot of EMF radiation every time the blower motor kicks on. Incandescent survives all of this for a year or so. You are probably right, though. I need to get a tester and see the voltage and amperage coming out of that on a timeline.
Have you ruled out shitty wiring?
No. For sure it's shitty wiring. It's also next to the AC unit, so had a lot of EMF radiation every time the motor kicks on. But incandescent survives all of this for a year or so, while, apparently, LED only survives 3 days.
Let's be real here, people have switched to LEDs a long time before this ban happened. But that's a good thing, and kind of the whole point of the timeline of this ban.
You want the market to decide on its own that LEDs are superior and then give it time to slowly switch over. Setting a ban and then forcing people to switch in 3 months to some new lighting technology is only going to build resentment from certain groups. Setting a ban that is 5, 10, 15 years out is the smart way of doing it. The thinking is that by then, the superior product will have already taken over the older tech and people won't be up-in-arms over the big bag gob'ment telling them what to do.
Every chunk of positive social progress has "built resentment from certain groups." Those people eventually either get over themselves and join modern society in doing the thing properly, or die mad. The rest of us are fine either way.
ban isn't needed or good
Found the fuck who thinks others will blindly believe statements made by random strangers on the internet with 0 credible sources or proof just like they do lmfao
I'm not sure what you're trying to say here, I just think that if the technology is good enough, people will adopt it anyway so it's not needed, and bans can be bad like idk if you support banning drugs but it can create unintended harms (maybe there is a legit use for the old bulbs in some places, and by no means have people used up the supply we already have)
Where do we get light bulbs now for our ovens and other specialty locations that require the old incandescent light bulb?
RTFA. There are a whole list of exceptions, and appliance bulbs are the first bullet point.
I live in the UK where they've been banned as part of the EU directive since 2016. What I can tell you is that you can still get incandescent light bulbs for an oven. I bought one probably a year ago for mine.
There is likely an exception in the law for this.
Incandescent bulbs were banned in the eu loooong time ago, I simply go to store and buy a new oven bulb when it pops. Yes they are still incandescent, because there are exceptions in the law.
Specialty bulbs are still produced but even those are shrinking.
I recently bought a very low power/low lumen LED light bulb and it was rated for refrigerator and other low temperature use.
Hoven lamps will eventually suffer the same fate.
Incandescent oven bulbs will probably not be replaced, simply because there is no reason for it. The "wasted" energy from an incandescent bulb is expelled as heat, and extra heat in an oven is not a problem. You can describe the bulb in an oven as a tiny heater that just happens to give off a bit of light.
There are exceptions, like in the European Union.
You mean appliance bulbs? They're a different thing all together
...please don't tell me you've been putting regular incandescent bulbs in places that need appliance bulbs
Specialty bulbs are still produced but even those are shrinking.
I recently bought a very low power/low lumen LED light bulb and it was rated for refrigerator and other low temperature use.
Hoven lamps will eventually suffer the same fate.
LED bulbs for refrigerators and freezers are pretty easy to design since the lower temperatures will let the LEDs run more efficiently. Oven lamps might never get LEDs because normal solder starts to melt around 350F and will soften around 200F so unless they start making the bulbs with exotic and expensive solder we will never see LEDs in the oven.
This was my first thought.
Nobody's talking about the real casualty of this shift. What's going to happen to all the jokes about "how many (insert category of person here) does it take to change a light bulb?" now that people don't have to regularly change light bulbs anymore?
No single LED lightbulb I've ever purchased lasts as long as they claim. infact, many have been outlasted by existing incandescent bulbs in my house. your joke fodder is safe.
I don’t know what kind of shit LEDs you’ve been buying but I’ve yet to ever have to replace one. Been using them for many years already.
I've had one or two LED bulbs die, which is why I switched to buying "energy star" rated bulbs. As part of the accreditation process, they need to certify the lifespan
I started switching to LEDs 8 years ago. Every single one of them is still working. It used to be that bulbs should be changed every year or two.
Don't just buy cheap shit. And get your wire/vakuum/kitchen appliance checked for spikes.
My mom buys these cheap LED bulbs from Amazon and about half burn out quickly (probably 10% are DOA).
We have 100% LEDs throughout our fifth wheel (about 30 of them), and they are all still going strong (all installed in 2015, and used daily since then).
I think there's a serious difference in quality available and it certainly shows.
I've been using LED bulbs for a good number of years, I've only had one or two die on me. The longevity alone makes them much better than incandescent, but then they use a tenth the power.
My favorite is the A15 Edison style. That's the appliance size, smaller than the standard A19. The A15 fits in everything so I only need to stock one size.
That's really dependent on local regulation, and wether or not you bought products licensed to be sold where you live or random imports from AliExpress.
My smart LED lights were bought in 2017, they are still working perfectly and have zero signs of issues - same brightness, same connection strength, same white point. The only exception was precisely the cheapo desk lamp one I bought from an online reseller, that one lasted a year and the control board fried itself.
I still have some I bought 15 years ago at Ikea, still working. Most I exchanged because of the rapid technical development in the one and a half decade not because they stopped working.
Just fucking yesterday out of 12 Nisko high CRI bulbs around the house one just stopped working. All of them are mere one year old.
And those high cri ones are the most expensive ones. Lets see how much time the others survive… ill keep you posted.
My LED bulbs have hilariously short lives. I suspect the wiring in my apartment is just not that great because lights do flicker from time to time. But that didn't seem to hurt incandescent bulbs. I'm lucky if my LEDs last even one year, never mind the 10 or 20 some of them claim.
What am I supposed to do, but my overhead light fixtures on a UPS?!
I don't remember the last time I changed a light bulb at home
I have a bunch I bought in 2016 that are still going strong. Only stopped using them because we wanted cooler lighting and they're all pretty warm. We've had like 4 or 5 out of the original 50 or so that stopped working though.
I’ve also had very different results, depending on brand. Definitely avoid the cheap stuff
Now I have the opposite problem: brands and styles change too much. What do you do when one bulb of a multi-bulb fixture burns out, but they’ve all outlasted the brand or style? I do already have a drawer full of LED bulbs that I replaced so the fixture would match, and can’t always find a fixture with fewer bulbs
The only LED bulbs I've bought that haven't blown within a year are my Philips hue bulbs. They are expensive but they are all I'll buy now, and my girlfriend and I love setting them to relaxing colors in the evening while we relax together on the couch
Don't worry, many have shitty drivers that will fail and poor cooling that will kill the diodes.
There's a tradeoff with CFL bulbs between longevity and instant action. The normal expectation for a light bulb is to have it at full brightness the moment you flip the switch, but the first CFL bulbs to market often took minutes to reach peak output. Longer if they were cold.
So to meet consumer expectations, manufacturers began designing bulbs that would, on ignition, damage themselves in order to reach peak output faster.
It's no wonder the CFL bulb failed as a product, you would either get a bulb that would never be bright enough when you needed it, or you got a bulb that would burn itself out just as quickly as any incandescent for twice the price.
As someone living in the EU where incandescent bulbs have been banned for over a decade, I can assure you that changing lightbulbs is still a thing. Not as frequently, but it happens, especially if you buy cheaper brands LED bulbs. They definitely does not have the longevity that they advertise.
Or the old riddle of having to match 3 lights to 3 switches with only one guess, since the solution relied on the bulb getting hot and LEDs barely get warm.
Wait what is this riddle