First day of vacation

[plonq]

I did virtually nothing yesterday. I had a few half considered plans for the day, but I decided that my brain needed one solid day of inactivity.



I did some very minor cleaning, and changed a light bulb in the bathroom.

RANT ALERT

The bathroom light fixture has three globes, each with a different style of bulb. One has a 60W incandescent bulb, one has a 13W white florescent bulb, and the last has a 60W-equivalent LED bulb. The bulb makers have been pushing the florescent and LED bulbs as low-power, long-lasting replacements for the incandescent bulbs. The last four bulbs I have changed out in there have either been florescent, or (today) LED. The remaining incandescent bulb has outlasted three florescent ones and an LED bulb.

I am more than a little miffed about the LED bulb though. These things are expensive, and they are supposed to have a lifespan that lasts well into the heat death of the universe. That said, this bulb was the one I had changed out the most recently in there. I put this bulb in there last fall with the intention of eventually replacing all of the bulbs in there with LED ones. I would be surprised if we got more than 400 hours of use out of it before it died.

Not happy.

Comments

[neowolf2.livejournal.com]

Was the failed LED bulb inside an enclosed fixture? Sounds like it was (a glass globe). If so, I suspect it got too hot. Your recent high temperatures would have contributed to this failure mode.

[dronon.livejournal.com]

When there was a big push of CFL bulbs, I bought a bunch and a lot of them died within a few months. Finally though the ones I currently have seem to be lasting quite a while. At the time when I bought them, though, I didn't understand bulb temperature so I wish I had bought the hotter, whiter ones. I'm waiting for some of the old ones to die so I can replace their yellowish hue.

[dalesql.livejournal.com]

The same problem is happening to the CFL bulbs and now the LED bulbs. Basically the costs of making a good long lasting led bulb means you have to use quality components, robust construction and good design that can cope with the amazingly abusive environment for electronics that is the common bathroom. High heat, humidity, corrosive cleaning chemicals are not good things for them. Further complicating things is that there is incredible competition in the field to get the unit cost down as low as possible. This pressure leads to compromises in the bulb manufacturing that make it more susceptible to certain forms of damage.

The recent downswing in energy (mostly oil) prices have taken the economic pressure off of the power generation companies to do things like subsidize the cost of CFL or LED replacement bulbs available for sale in the retail outlets in their area. There is still some pressure, but that is mostly in the form of cost savings by the utility in not having to build new power plants and transmission infrastructure. And that is, to a certian extent, being offset by the booming market of grid-tied home solar installations, which nicely insert their power during peak usage times, so the utilities don't have to have as much peaking power generation capacity available. Peaking power generators are typically the least efficient and most expensive. Commonly they are gas turbines burning natural gas.

So, it's complicated. There is also that customers are now getting more picky about their LED bulbs. They want them to have better CRIs, more pleasing color temperatures, be dimmable, and able to turn into a disco party color changer upon command. Added capabilities cost more, and customers want to pay less. It's a puzzlement.

[aurifer.livejournal.com]

If it's that one socket, I wonder if it might be damaged. I've had regular bulbs burn out constantly in specific sockets, but that was in a home-done barn installation. Still, if your wires are old enough, it might not have been done to code properly.

LEDs are electronics, so I assume they'd be even more susceptible than incandescents to weird voltage fluctuations. They might have a warranty on them, too, so check that.

[plonq.livejournal.com]

This is a very distinct possibility - not for the socket, but for the fixture itself. The fixtures in the kitchen and bathroom have been voracious in the way they chew through light bulbs - especially fluorescent ones - but I have always attributed it to the temperature and humidity.

The wiring in this house is ... unusual. It is high on our list of things to replace once we are done with the yard. The only good thing about the wiring is that the knob and tube wires running through the basement are not in use.

[plonq.livejournal.com]

As aurifer pointed out, it could be an issue with the wiring than with the bulbs themselves. I've known for some time that the wiring in this house is a bit suspect. There are way too many things on some circuits, and odd choices on others.

I bought one of those network setups that is supposed to route files via your power lines, but the lines in this house are so noisy that I could not get any signal unless the outlets were both in the same room.