Difference between light bulbs; incandescent vs LED.

[John Galt]

I’ve seen B/O ones illuminating either the freeway or a billboard on the 4:30am drive to work. 30Hz full-on to full-off. I strongly prefer how other bulbs fail!

Well if I was living under a freeway billboard I’d have to agree. but I live in a house and it’s nice to get a bit of a warning when that garage overhead light is about to go out.

But it is really a silly point, The LED bulbs I have bought have expected lifetimes of 22 years on the box assuming 3 hours use per day. I’m not worrying about them failing. Actually I’d love to see that 22 years from now…

 

[double vanos]

It’s easy to tell; heat level (the conventional will be zowee hot) and, energy consumption ( lots less for the LED bulb).

 

[Jetronic]

Well if I was living under a freeway billboard I’d have to agree. but I live in a house and it’s nice to get a bit of a warning when that garage overhead light is about to go out.

But it is really a silly point, The LED bulbs I have bought have expected lifetimes of 22 years on the box assuming 3 hours use per day. I’m not worrying about them failing. Actually I’d love to see that 22 years from now…

Not a chance.... I haven't had much luck at all with Led bulbs, CFL lasts though, and even incandescent last longer than Led.

 

[Skippy722]

High CRI LED’s are a must. Otherwise you get funky looking washed out colors. My wife is a pro at killing the LED’s though. My bathroom lights are 2 years old, (I put them in when we moved in), I’ve replaced her bathroom lights 3x now. Same exact fixtures in both so idk how she does it.

 

[brianl703]

I’ve seen B/O ones illuminating either the freeway or a billboard on the 4:30am drive to work. 30Hz full-on to full-off. I strongly prefer how other bulbs fail!

Another failure mode of LEDs is that white ones start emitting bluish or purplish light. There's a bunch of them that have started to fail that way in streetlights.

 

[ecotourist]

LED's are said to be BAD for eye health ...

Do tell. Source please.

 

[Cujet]

In much of the country, the 98% efficient heat produced by incandescent bulbs is welcome. Here in South Florida, it is not.

One thing I really like about LED's is that they don't glow orange when dimmed. My large master bath is all LED and on one dimmer. The color temperature is the same at any brightness level. That's nice because a 2AM shower at lower light levels feels the same as a 2PM shower.

 

[eljefino]

I’ve seen B/O ones illuminating either the freeway or a billboard on the 4:30am drive to work. 30Hz full-on to full-off. I strongly prefer how other bulbs fail!

Yeah you can catch it better out of your peripheral vision. Cheezy Xmas lights are bad for this.

 

[PimTac]

LED's are said to be BAD for eye health but save power. so you might need the $$$ save for your eye health as supplements as well as foods containing critical nutrients can keep eyes healthier. i take a LOT of supplements + except for close work mt 74 YO eyes work great + am amazed what i can read even without glasses!! i shy away from LED's BUT incandescent are harder to find, but i DO!!

What??


LEDs are fine for the eyes. Much better than the CFL bulbs which do have a flicker.

 

[gathermewool]

The one that starts flickering is the LED.

Jokes on you, the incandescent are from a strobotach and the room is actually spinning, but looks still.

 

[gathermewool]

I would guess the one with the printed text is a glass incandescent.

Led will be a plastic bulb with a white base. They can also flicker when a heavy load like the ac or drier turns on.

The Philips bulb, the one with visible text, is the LED - it’s glass! Inside looks like this (don’t ask me how I know the exposed conductor is 110…)

Maybe the bulb is glass for this reason?

 

[gathermewool]

I have had several of those filament led bulbs crap out on me. Most of my CFLs lasted longer than the filament led. I still haven’t replaced all the CFLs in my house yet. They keep going.

The new led bulbs are nice since they got rid of the shadow that the base made. They have come a long way from the corn cobs and even the L prize design.

I have clear candelabra LEDs with the filaments visible. I think they look cool. I repurposed the original LEDs that had the fat base, a single LED and reflector. Not only is the light pattern better, I’ve got to imagine the new ones are more efficient.

Of these Philips, I’ve only had one crap out. I believe the warranty just expired, of course!

 

[gathermewool]

LED's are said to be BAD for eye health but save power. so you might need the $$$ save for your eye health as supplements as well as foods containing critical nutrients can keep eyes healthier. i take a LOT of supplements + except for close work mt 74 YO eyes work great + am amazed what i can read even without glasses!! i shy away from LED's BUT incandescent are harder to find, but i DO!!

Can’t be worse than the fluorescent bulbs we still use at work!

I’ve never heard of LEDs affecting eye health. How would additional supplements mitigate this?

 

[gathermewool]

I am guessing I couldn't tell, but your taking a photo of a LED on a CMOS digital cam with likely a liquid lense and posting a lower resolution on the internet, which I now view on my LCD screen. Isn't technology grand.

Correct; however, the color is nearly identical and if I didn’t know I wouldn’t be able to tell the difference in person…until I tried to remove one that has been on for more than 0.5 seconds!

 

[gathermewool]

I could in person.

I MIGHT be able to if the incandescent bulbs were mixed in with the LEDs, but with them grouped in threes it’s too close.

 

[gathermewool]

bottom photos are incandescent

The bottom of the first picture or the top of the bottom picture?

 

[gathermewool]

The one that starts flickering is the LED.

I haven’t seen one of the new filament types flicker - only the ones with the drive circuit in the fat base have done that to me.

 

[gathermewool]

I’ve seen B/O ones illuminating either the freeway or a billboard on the 4:30am drive to work. 30Hz full-on to full-off. I strongly prefer how other bulbs fail!

Interesting

As an aside, there’s a highway patrol (station?) on a major interstate near me that installed the awful light purple/blue (not blue blue, just an unusual, high color temp) lights that I’m assuming are LED. I‘m not sure if that was on purpose or a mistake. There are half a dozen of them on very tall posts and they all look this way. I will say that they’re so obviously different than the other highway lights that I recognize the light before I see the building and cruisers.

 

[gathermewool]

Well if I was living under a freeway billboard I’d have to agree. but I live in a house and it’s nice to get a bit of a warning when that garage overhead light is about to go out.

But it is really a silly point, The LED bulbs I have bought have expected lifetimes of 22 years on the box assuming 3 hours use per day. I’m not worrying about them failing. Actually I’d love to see that 22 years from now…

I have higher hopes for the newer ones, since each filament seems to be powered individually. In the older ones that I took apart ALL of the LEDs were off, meaning they were likely 100% fine, but that doesn’t matter because the drive circuit that powers all of them is kaput.

Also, to be fair, there are very few places in my house that have only one light. If one them went out instantly, there would be others still lit. For my garage I even use 2-socket adapters to get more light in there. Two 100W equivalent bulbs works really well and isn’t too bright where they are.

 

[gathermewool]

It’s easy to tell; heat level (the conventional will be zowee hot) and, energy consumption ( lots less for the LED bulb).

Which one looks hotter to you?