Low-life bulbs

[kwackers]

How do they rate led bulbs (house type) we brought a 12 w gls.............

It's all in the lumens.
After a bit you get used to how bright x lumens is and ime they're fairly consistent (possibly not if they're cheap Chinese ones)

25 Years.................pah.............you ever owned a led anything which lasted more than a few years, ok so I got some 20 + year old rear red cycle leds, I mean the white cycle front ones to see where you are going.
The leds might be ok for a flasher beacon on the moon for 100 years but the driver circuit always goes puff.

I think the MTBF for LED's is probably quite high, if you buy the filament types then the driver is very simple and will probably last forever - but then it has more LED's so who knows.
My first LED bulbs are probably ten years old now and still going strong. I have around 100 bulbs in total and the few failures I've had have been in the first week or so of life so well at the start of the 'bathtub curve'.
I'm quietly confident that most will outlast me.

[roubaixtuesday]

The leds might be ok for a flasher beacon on the moon for 100 years but the driver circuit always goes puff.

In my experience (and I've got a couple of dozen at least) they never fail, except in dimmer circuits, which are much more problematic. I've had some for > 10 years.

Now they've sorted the colour they are miles better than incandescent, totally reliable and 10x more efficient. I think they pay for themselves in a year or two with the leccy savings, usage dependent.

https://www.lightrabbit.co.uk/calculate-saving

[mjr]

The leds might be ok for a flasher beacon on the moon for 100 years but the driver circuit always goes puff.

In my experience (and I've got a couple of dozen at least) they never fail, except in dimmer circuits, which are much more problematic. I've had some for > 10 years.

The first lot of G9s didn't make it to 5 years, but the second batch haven't had a failure yet. Even with replacing all six, they still paid for themselves easily. According to that calculator, they barely need to survive a year to be worth it.

[NATURAL ANKLING]

Hi,
Phillips invented the florescent plug in gls in early eighties, £15 and garenteed 5 years IIRC.
Directed at maintenance in industrial applications, changing a bulb up a ladder required two people, factories would emplyoy people just to change bulbs....often.

But my latest Phillips florescent don't last even a year sometimes

Any way have yet to see how long before I need to replace these led type.

[cycleruk]

Obviously LED lights use less power than halogen or incandescent lamps but the knock on effect is that less power has to be generated. So power stations are blasting out less greenhouse gases. I recently installed a 6ft florescent in the kitchen in place of 4 incandescent spotlights. A much better spread of light and a lot less watts. If previous fluorescents are anything to go by then life span will be a lot better.
Most of my working life was on large chemical plants and fluorescents were the norm probably going into thousands of them across some of the bigger factory complexes. The drawback, so I was told, is the effect on "power factor" and the action needed to correct this by the power producer. I never really understood "power factor" but wondered at the effect if every home across the land installed CFLs does power factor still need correcting?
I have changed a lot of our lights to LED and basically pleased with them but our main rooms have "dimmer switches" and therefore ordinary LEDs are not viable.

[NATURAL ANKLING]

Hi,
I have never understood power factor either though someone once tried to explain in a very power hungry factory with heaters and motors.

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

"Because high voltage alternating current distribution systems are essentially quasi-linear circuit systems subject to continuous daily variation, there is a continuous "ebb and flow" of nonproductive power. Non productive power increases the current in the line, potentially to the point of failure. "

"Electrical circuits containing dominantly resistive loads (incandescent lamps, heating elements) have a power factor of almost 1.0, but circuits containing inductive or capacitive loads (electric motors, solenoid valves, transformers, fluorescent lamp ballasts, and others) can have a power factor well below 1. "

Old bulbs = factor one good, cfls are florescent type and thus you will see some devices say that you have to derate power handling for cfls..........like pirs outside security lights. 3kw incandescent 2kw cfls.............

[kwackers]

In an AC circuit that has inductance or capacitance the current lags the voltage.

So if you draw a voltage curve of the mains you get a sine wave, if you overlay the current you get another - but not on top of each other as you'd expect.
That difference is what determines the power factor.

In a domestic dwelling most of the high energy stuff was restive so the power factor is near 1.0 - which is handy because domestic power meters assume that.
If you fit a load of complex electronics with capacitive or inductive devices then the power factor drops and you essentially get under charged for your lecky because the meter can't measure it that well.

Industrial users have more 'savy' measuring devices...

[squeaker]

I have changed a lot of our lights to LED and basically pleased with them but our main rooms have "dimmer switches" and therefore ordinary LEDs are not viable.

As in 'financially not viable'? Dimming led bulbs are available, but generally need led specific dimmer switches to work.

[mjr]

I'm looking at a TCP LDA10B22COA27KV3. There is a metal ring between bayonet and glass. It gets hot. I don't think it's faulty, you winker.

I think the early led bulbs had a metal casing which did get hot. Newer bulbs are now almost all plastic and are very cool to the touch. Time to get some newer bulbs. cheap enough from pound shops.

OK, I recently bought a Status 5.5W 16K ST3 470lm 2700K warm white LED 40W equivalent SES bulb. While it's not as painfully hot as the TCP or even as hot as the 4W Philips bulb in my desk lamp, the section between the "glass" (possibly plastic) and the SES fitting still gets pretty hot - uncomfortable to touch for a moment and definitely not "very cool to the touch".