I have Christmas tree lights (LED's) that have several different settings.
ON - White
ON - Color
Fade ON White, fade OFF (repeat)
Fade ON Color, fade OFF (repeat)
Fade ON White, fade OFF, fade ON Color, fade OFF (repeat)

Currently they are set to color fade ON and OFF. Wondering which is better? Have them ON constantly or have them fading ON and OFF. What's your opinion and why?

[edit] From a "Longevity" standpoint. [end edit]

 

What does "better" mean????

What metric are you using by which one setting is to be considered "better" than another?

Energy consumption?

Longevity?

Ability to use the lights to read a book by?

Ability to instill a "Christmas mood"?

 

Longevity?

Longevity.

Sorry for lack of clarity.

 

I would think the longer an LED is "off" or "dimmed" the longer they would last.

But this is something I wouldn't bother being concerned about.

 

Generally, no, it's not of concern. However, this is a pre-lit Christmas tree. You don't just replace the lights, you replace the whole tree. At over $100 getting one more season out of it or more is worth pondering. This tree may last 10 years. But then again, if it's made of Chinesium - who knows when it will die.

 

Having worked for 25 years in "Professional audio and lighting" I've seen enough flashing lights to last a lifetime, so I'd prefer "steady". However, your question is about longevity not personal preference, so in my opinion, the part most likely to fail is the power supply, so minimise the load. But maybe the power supply can be replaced without replacing the entire tree.
Our Christmas tree is still growing in its field, I'm going to choose one on Saturday.

 

I recently did some thing for a member here, This was a series of LED series strings that took some seconds to come full on and after a while fade off, I used MF PWM which worked out fine.

 

From a simply Enjoyable perspective... I like fade on and off. LEDs Fail??? I have a "toy" on my desk that is a disk with 30+ RGB LEDs that change color and fade on and off on a Fibonacci algorithm driven by an Arduino NANO that has been running for years. 2 of the multicolor LEDs "sparkle" a bit as they transition but have not completely failed. That Arduino and its software would make a great tree lighting device! You could even add a randomized "Popcorn" blinking effect to the software as well. Fading and blinking, that would be interesting!

 

Generally, no, it's not of concern. However, this is a pre-lit Christmas tree. You don't just replace the lights, you replace the whole tree. At over $100 getting one more season out of it or more is worth pondering. This tree may last 10 years. But then again, if it's made of Chinesium - who knows when it will die.

Getting 11 years instead of 10 out of a $100 tree is only a savings of 91 cents a year.

To see this, consider a period of 110 years. If they last 10 years, you would buy 11 trees for a total cost of $1100 over 110 years, or $10/yr for your trees.

If they last 11 years, you buy 10 trees for a cost of $1000 over 110 years, or $9.09/yr for your trees, a savings of 91 cents a year.

Leaving the very valid Chinesium concern aside, my guess is that the tree will likely need to be replaced because of mechanical issues or perhaps electrical issues other than LED burnout (such as electrical connections between tree sections, assuming the tree comes apart) before the LEDs fail. If they do fail, you would still have the option of simply treating it as an unlit tree and putting traditional light strings on it.

 

If you are old as me, the tree will outlast you.

 

If you are old as me, the tree will outlast you.

This is something that, over the last few years, I have noticed a shift in my own thinking. I used to never even consider my own life expectancy in evaluating decisions, whether it be about buying something or doing something. Now it frequently enters my thinking. The most recent example is that I had to join a few organizations in order to start taking part in competitive shooting and most of them offer better per-year rates for longer membership terms as well as life-time memberships for a one-time fee. It was telling when I realized that taking out the lifetime membership in any of them was a really bad decision that would almost certainly end up costing me more than the most expensive year-by-year rate.

 

Age. Yeah, that comes to mind more often than not. When I was young I could not imagine myself being this old. And yet - here I am. Sometimes I sit and ponder where I am. At this exact moment I'm sitting in my basement in a house in Utah. It took ALL my life to arrive at this place and moment. To quote the Grateful Dead "What a long strange trip it's been."

Back when I was young LED's - red ones - barely glowed. To view them the room had to be dark. That was back in the very early 70's. Burned out quite a few before I learned how to light them successfully.

If you are old as me

Very likely. I may have you beat. Unless your avatar is some years old or more now. In short, "Class of 76". How does that compare? And no - I'm not asking for an answer.

 

No electricity is better. Remember, christmas trees go outside.

 

The whole reason for wondering about this is because an incandescent bulb will burn out quicker if it's ON then OFF repeatedly. Every time the filament heats up it expands. When it cools it contracts. And that's what more often leads to the early death of incandescent bulbs. Whereas if you leave it on - the only way it fails is if its materials sublime away and eventually becomes too weak to carry the current, and thus - burn out.

 

The whole reason for wondering about this is because an incandescent bulb will burn out quicker if it's ON then OFF repeatedly. Every time the filament heats up it expands. When it cools it contracts. And that's what more often leads to the early death of incandescent bulbs. Whereas if you leave it on - the only way it fails is if its materials sublime away and eventually becomes too weak to carry the current, and thus - burn out.

This is actually something that has been proven to be largely untrue. It certainly makes sense that thermal cycling should cause some kind of embrittlement that will cause it to fail sooner, but several experiments have shown that this effect is small, if not negligible. The killer is how much fraction of rated power they are run at. Just a little time at higher than max power will shorten the life expectancy significantly. This is because the lifetime is driven primarily by the evaporation of the filament, which is a strong function of the temperature it is at, which is dictated by the power it is run at. Whereas switching it on and off repeatedly but at a modest margin below rated power will result in it lasting indefinitely. Where the notion that switching is what is important is that it is very common for bulbs to fail as they are switched on -- we've all seen it lots of times. But while it's true that the inrush current into a cold filament stresses it, it fails not because of the accumulated damage of many such stresses, but because the filament has been weakened by evaporation to the point where it is ready to fail and so it will naturally tend to fail at the moment of most stress, which is at turn on. But, because that's when we see it fail, we naturally look for explanations that link the straw the broke the camels back to the reason that the camel's back was ready to break.

 

Always wondered why traffic light bulbs were rated at 135VAC. Makes sense. You don't want those burning out often because of the cost of replacing them and the inconvenience to traffic; not to mention the danger an OUT light could cause.

 

30 years ago I put 230V - 100W light bulbs in half a dozen light fixtures at my mother's backyard instead of the typical 60W 115V ones. They are still working nightly.
When I was in charge of a radio repeater tower replaced the bulb on top with a 230V 150W one instead of its 115V 100W. Still on. Often replacement labor was expensive !
One of these...

 

For LEDs , the cycling circuit would be the reliability issue. If the tree is INSIDE, then rain will not be a problem. OUTSIDE, rain and water getting into poorly molded LEDs is the problem. Flash, brighten and then dim-out, or constant on, the normal failure is the driver portion. Unless water penetrates.