This might be true if everyone everywhere had good clean wall power. But since they don't, light bulbs, even LED bulbs, continue to be be a consumable object. The early claims of 50,000 hours never happened. They're down to claiming 10,000 hours and even this is only if you have perfect power. LED bulbs, at least in my apartment, actually last a shorter amount of time than halogen bulbs.<p>At least halogens and incandescents were just a bit of glass and some wire. LED bulbs all have a circuit board with many components. If they're taking the place of incandescent and still being a consumable item it might be worse for the environment in the long run. At least incandescents using lots of power puts all the CO2 production in centralized locations that can be mitigated. LEDs environmental footprint is much more distributed.<p>I'm not against LEDs light bulbs. I replaced almost all of mine with LEDs (though I have a stockpile of halogens for some uses). But they're certainly not going to change the world. Light bulbs remain consumable items.
> LEDs are inherently dimmable.<p>What? This isn't true. LEDs function using DC current, and are either on or off. "Dimmable" LEDs have chips in the bulbs that use pulse-width modulation (PWM) to turn the diodes on/off at a different rate to create the dimming effect.<p>All incandescent bulbs are dimmable (on AC power) with no additional hardware other than the dimmer, which adjusts the input voltage to the bulb. Try to do this with a non-dimmable LED and you'll damage the bulb.
> An LED bulb provides the same amount of light as an incandescent while using 90 percent less electricity<p>It’s a nice idea, pretty cool to light the entire house for pennies an hour.<p>> and lasting 25 times longer<p>I refuse to believe it. It may be possible but in practice even “quality” LED bulbs have either awful QC, intentionally engineered obsolescence, or both.<p>About a year ago I replaced every bulb in my house with upper end Phillips LED bulbs, probably 50 or more of them.<p>20% of them have already failed.
The only complaint I have with LEDs is fixtures that don't allow adequate airflow. Heat buildup shortens their lifespan.<p>On the plus side, they work much better outdoors than CFLs do.
So when are you going to get rid of the concept of a “bulb”, which is particularly poorly suited to LEDs? I live in Japan and here it’s more common to install circular, flat LED fixtures in the ceiling[0], so they have a nice big metal heatsink. Never seen one fail (I’m sure they but nothing like the complaints I read about LED bulbs)
[0] <a href="https://www.nitori-net.jp/ecstatic/image/product/8380185/838018501.jpg?ccp=1692086400&imwidth=415&imdensity=1&ts=20230810070908235" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.nitori-net.jp/ecstatic/image/product/8380185/838...</a>
Does anyone else get whiplash when it comes to stories like this?
Like you'll see headlines like Incandescent lightbulbs are officially banned from being Manafactured in America, and a week later when there's backlash to the ban you get headlines saying "no Democrats are not actually banning light bulbs and here's the source of that conspiracy theory"
I saw this happen with the championing then claiming conspiracy on Gas powered stove bans.
I saw this happen with championing then claiming conspiracy theory with banning gas powered cars by 2035<p>It's either a conspiracy theory that isn't happening, or it is happening and here's why it's a good thing
I have LEDs everywhere.<p>But the blue light fears some game seem at least worth looking into.<p>I can’t help but thinking in 50 years people will be replacing phrases like “they used LEAD pipes” and “they sprayed loose asbestos into the attic” with something akin to “they used unfiltered LEDs”
While I understand their popularity and appreciate the far lower energy consumption, a part of me still wants incandescent bulbs back. They had a warm, inviting glow that’s entirely missing from LEDs
Wow, crazy that people are still using incandescent bulbs in other parts of the world.<p>Their sale was outlawed in the Netherlands years ago, everyone has switched to LED by now.
Is it only me or is it the same for others that it's harder to read from paper (book or magazine or newspaper) under LED comparing to incandescent or halogen?
Does this mean we have to go back to candles and lamps to get the same ambiance? Will YouTube ban videos for DIY homemade lightbulbs? So many questions.