As usual the government is doing things the dumb way. Let the market set the pricing and the utility cost motivate the change over. Let the government make the rules about product brand identification so that all consumers can avoid the poor quality companies. And regulate the RFI generated by the ballast devices/ power modules. Those are the legitimate areas to be regulated. Avoid the "California Syndrome" of making decisions based on what feels good at the time.

 

Bit late to the game, but my experience with LED lamps is far more economical, not only usage but replacement wise.
I have some front yard light standards which are 12v supplied.
I would typically replace the old filament style lamps quite a few times every year.
Probably due to the extreme weather range here, -40°c - +40°c !
Since the change over to 12v LED 3 years ago, never had to replace one!

 

I think the 12 V drive, versus some form of offline buck regulator, is the main source of the longevity. Even if the LEDs have internal constant current regulators, that's still a lot fewer components and *way* less component stress than anything line powered and crammed into the bulb base.

Make / part number / brightness rating of your lights - ?

ak

 

I think the 12 V drive, versus some form of offline buck regulator, is the main source of the longevity. Even if the LEDs have internal constant current regulators, that's still a lot fewer components and *way* less component stress than anything line powered and crammed into the bulb base.

Make / part number / brightness rating of your lights - ?

ak

The LEDs in plain old Edison base or whatever standard bulbs are often the point of failure, but this is almost always attributable to the overdriving done to reduce LED part count.

Big Clive, who is among the preeminent practical experts on these bulbs has a hobby of swapping out the programming resistors on the buck regulator chips to reduce drive current and dramatically increase lifetime.

And then there’s the Philips Dubai bulb…

 

I think the 12 V drive, versus some form of offline buck regulator, is the main source of the longevity. Even if the LEDs have internal constant current regulators, that's still a lot fewer components and *way* less component stress than anything line powered and crammed into the bulb base.

Make / part number / brightness rating of your lights - ?

ak

Mine are LeMeng ES base, A19 12v 7W 6000K, 630Lm.

 

This is the first time I have ever heard the term LED filament. I finally found what out what it is from Wikipedia which is not my favorite source. Still interesting readings.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LED_filament

recently I had to buy an oven light, I don't think those ever been replaced with LED's yet.

 

This is the first time I have ever heard the term LED filament. I finally found what out what it is from Wikipedia which is not my favorite source. Still interesting readings.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LED_filament

recently I had to buy an oven light, I don't think those ever been replaced with LED's yet.

Certainly those very special application lights such as oven lights and traffic control lights were not even considered when the bans were created. Typical of short-sighted thinking. Are there LEDs that will work in a 450 degree oven?? I rather doubt it.

 

Certainly those very special application lights such as oven lights and traffic control lights were not even considered when the bans were created. Typical of short-sighted thinking. Are there LEDs that will work in a 450 degree oven?? I rather doubt it.

They were considered and exempted. Amazingly, the main purpose of the ban is to prevent scofflaw dollar stores from selling tungsten lamps to a captive audience in places where they are the only source of such things. It turns out that the DoE‘s plan to reduce demand for electricity by requiring more efficient lamps was being foiled by illegal sales.

Sadly, dollar stores are now the main place people living at or near the poverty line have available shop. Like the convenience stores for food (though the dollar stores are in that market as well). Like Walmart before them, the big dollar store chains rolled into towns and inner city neighborhoods and displaced the older locals by pricing them out of the market. They now have an effective monopoly with a captive audience.

If you are a person in that situation who needs a light bulb, one without a car, without a way to buy in bulk because you are living on a tiny cash flow, probably without credit or even a back account—you go to the dollar store and buy what they have. The margin on filament lamps is much higher than LEDs, so they sell the filament lamps, even though retail sales were banned a long time ago.

They figured out the DoE couldn’t enforce the ban, practically speaking, so they just kept selling. So, the DoE decided to cut off the source—manufacturing. It turns out that the overwhelming majority of people who aren’t in the captive audience of the dollar stores but LED lamps by choice anyway, and so would the captives, if they had the option.

 

Hi,

I use LED bulbs with everything i can these days. There are some issues that come up but most of the time they work out well. There are good ones and cheap ones though.

I replaced my headlights with LED headlights, the light is brighter and more white so i can see better at night.
I use LED bulbs exclusively for indoor lighting and have had very good luck with them as the life seems very good.
I don't use LED bulbs in car blinkers or anything like that yet though.

I have a huge collection of LED flashlights some i designed myself. I may have one or two incandescent flashlights around but never ever use them anymore. They basically suk except for use as a historical piece. I always hated incandescent flashlights even long ago. The ugly color and the nasty blast pattern with bright spots and dark spots and yuck.

I had one unusual experience with an LED star high power while LED. I had it installed as an undercounter light for some years powered by a simple 5v wall wart. It used very little power, about 1 watt, but was bright enough to see well under the top counter. I stopped using it at some point as i got other lights that worked ok. A few months ago i went to uninstall it and found the top clear epoxy covering was eroded and you could scrape it off with your fingernail very easily, which exposed the die. That was very strange and i don't have an explanation as to why it degraded so bad. It was not subject to anything unusual either. That didn't happen with any other LEDs i have or had.

BTW not sure if anyone knows this, but the Edison museum used to be in New Jersey in Menlo Park and i went there on a trip when i was very young. The stuff in there was pretty amazing. Strangely enough, there was more than electronic stuff including bottles with preserved dead fetuses inside. Not sure what he was doing with those.
I also saw the movie theater he had built, which was perched on a circular railroad track that allowed the whole theater to rotate to keep in position relative to the sun so the movies could be seen using sunlight (no light bulbs yet).

 

They were considered and exempted. Amazingly, the main purpose of the ban is to prevent scofflaw dollar stores from selling tungsten lamps to a captive audience in places where they are the only source of such things. It turns out that the DoE‘s plan to reduce demand for electricity by requiring more efficient lamps was being foiled by illegal sales.

Sadly, dollar stores are now the main place people living at or near the poverty line have available shop. Like the convenience stores for food (though the dollar stores are in that market as well). Like Walmart before them, the big dollar store chains rolled into towns and inner city neighborhoods and displaced the older locals by pricing them out of the market. They now have an effective monopoly with a captive audience.

If you are a person in that situation who needs a light bulb, one without a car, without a way to buy in bulk because you are living on a tiny cash flow, probably without credit or even a back account—you go to the dollar store and buy what they have. The margin on filament lamps is much higher than LEDs, so they sell the filament lamps, even though retail sales were banned a long time ago.

They figured out the DoE couldn’t enforce the ban, practically speaking, so they just kept selling. So, the DoE decided to cut off the source—manufacturing. It turns out that the overwhelming majority of people who aren’t in the captive audience of the dollar stores but LED lamps by choice anyway, and so would the captives, if they had the option.

Yes, there are exemptions you could drive a truck through.

If you still want or have a need (old school room lamps with dimmers, lamps used for heat sources, operating condition extremes, etc ...) for tungsten lamps. Just buy rough duty lamps like I do.

https://www.bulbs.com/learning/roughservice.aspx

 

Certainly those very special application lights such as oven lights and traffic control lights were not even considered when the bans were created.

Traffic light bulbs I'm familiar with were designed for 130VAC service. I don't know what voltage they are typically run at, but if 110, 115, 117 or 120VAC, the over-rating meant they would have longer life. They were specifically designed that way.

I replaced my headlights with LED headlights,

Replaced mine with HID. They don't have the instant on - off capability of LED but once they've fired up they cast a pretty consistent light. Also, LED headlamps need to be kept cool. I'd imagine in Arizona there are a lot of headlights struggling to survive. I don't think HID has that issue. As long as you place the ballast where they can be cooled by ambient air temperature and decent air flow. You certainly don't want to mount them close to exhaust manifolds or radiators.

 

I have noticed that there are now quite a few vehicles that deliver a whole lot of glare, much more than can be attributed to dirty headlights, or poorly adjusted aiming. That would seem to be the unintended result of some of these changes.

 

My preference is towards the higher Kelvin scale for lamp/light colour.
LEDs are available in warm colors (low k) intended to match the yellowish light of incandescent bulbs, but my preferences run into the 5000k to 7000k. towards whiter and bluer light

 

I have noticed that there are now quite a few vehicles that deliver a whole lot of glare, much more than can be attributed to dirty headlights, or poorly adjusted aiming. That would seem to be the unintended result of some of these changes.

These aftermarket kits are intended for projector style headlamps. Standard headlamp systems do not prevent glare from bouncing off the bottom of the reflector, thus, causing a lot of annoying blinding of oncoming traffic. There are kits you can add to prevent the annoying beam-up. Don't have time to look them up but I've seen them on the internet where everything you see and read is true. No?

 

If you've ever taken a projector headlight assembly apart you'll find the lens and lamp. Between the lens and lamp is a barrier that blocks the beam level and below the center line, causing the light from the top to be focused down toward the street. Some headlight assemblies have that barrier retractable to provide "High Beam" lighting, meaning the beam is not restricted to being directed down but allowed to be projected at all projective angles.

 

Long live Mr. Nakamura and the Nichie corporation for a very deserved Nobel prize !

 

Certainly LEDs are a total game changer, but not as big a change as the electric light was. No question there. Suddenly we no longer had to deal with poor lighting during the hours of darkness. The LED is a better way of providing that light.

 

Edison was the third in line to break the centuries-old dependence between light and fire. The LED took the next step, and broke the dependence between light and heat.

ak

It may surprise some, but I actually do know that LED lamps produce heat. What I'm saying is that LEDs now have about 15x the efficacy of incandescent lamps, and that is enough to qualify as a game-changer.

 

I have noticed that there are now quite a few vehicles that deliver a whole lot of glare, much more than can be attributed to dirty headlights, or poorly adjusted aiming. That would seem to be the unintended result of some of these changes.

And 10x worse if you have progressing cataracts.