Problem with LED bulbs

[Perd Hapley]

People steal them right out of the fixture.   

[Tallpine]

Well, you just need a lock on them just like the toliet paper 

[Monkeyleg]

It's mercury junkies, looking for a high.

[Perd Hapley]

.

[AJ Dual]

What kind of LED bulbs, and where?

[Harold Tuttle]

15 dollar bulbs are seen as valuable tech

[Tallpine]

Did I tell you guys that story? Hopefully, this was just our chief engineer up to his usual hijinks. Also, my phone "corrects" hijinks to bikinis.

Pulling off hijinks
Pulling off bikinis

 

I like your phone 

[CNYCacher]

The problem with LED bulbs is simply that they are bulbs.  They are ridiculously designed as replacements to an inferior tech.  What should be happening is people should be making LED fixtures.  Put the LED where you want light to come out and the power supply built into the fixture somewhere.

It's as is Ford had created a mechanical horse to pull your carriage.

[Monkeyleg]

The problem with LED bulbs is simply that they are bulbs.  They are ridiculously designed as replacements to an inferior tech.  What should be happening is people should be making LED fixtures.  Put the LED where you want light to come out and the power supply built into the fixture somewhere.

It's as is Ford had created a mechanical horse to pull your carriage.

Interesting idea. How would you handle turning off the light on one fixture while leaving others on? Also, what would you do with portable fixtures such as table lamps? Just use regular LED bulbs?

[zahc]

Plus, different LEDs have different max currents, and different forward voltage drops and different temperatures, and often are composed of many different dice that may be wired in series, parallel, or a combination. I don't think "power supply in the fixture" makes sense.

What would be a really good system is if you could design a bulb that looked like a simple resistive load, and you could hook it directly up to residential AC wiring.

[lee n. field]

Interesting idea. How would you handle turning off the light on one fixture while leaving others on? Also, what would you do with portable fixtures such as table lamps? Just use regular LED bulbs?

A year or ten down the line, the base is a smart device on a household LAN, controlled by something somewhere else.  Could be wired, could be wireless.

[AJ Dual]

A year or ten down the line, the base is a smart device on a household LAN, controlled by something somewhere else.  Could be wired, could be wireless.

Not as far fetched as it sounds.

With the address space in IPv6, disposable ballpoint pens could be emailing you that they're out of ink, and offering you coupons from the manufacturer. And your toilet paper roll will count out x number of revolutions which will tell it that the paper is almost all used up. Lord only knows what the kids cereal boxes will do.

(Sorry, the three seashells won't be common until the 2030's at least...)

So something semi-durable like a lamp having WiFi and some intelligence is not at all unreasonable.

Actually, I noticed that the home-improvement mega-center (Menards, semi-local upper Midwest chain) now carries all-in-one integrated LED wireless wall sconces. Presumably for people unable, or unwilling to pay for electrical service to be run.

I can't imagine they offer much light, or if they do, battery life is abysmal, but it's already a start.

IMO, the next big public health problem/scare will be headaches, and possible neurological concerns from cheaper LED light sources that use PWM for "dimming" rather than actual resistance and current limiting.

[Perd Hapley]

What kind of LED bulbs, and where?

 Philips AmbientLED NR63 (R20) Flood
40,000 hrs Long life
Energy saving

They were in the ceiling of an elevator car. I'm 5'10" and I can reach them easily.

Or did you want an address, so you could get some yourself?

[Tallpine]

Philips AmbientLED NR63 (R20) Flood
40,000 hrs Long life
Energy saving

They were in the ceiling of an elevator car. I'm 5'10" and I can reach them easily.

Or did you want an address, so you could get some yourself?

Or you could just mail them to us 

[Perd Hapley]

The problem with LED bulbs is simply that they are bulbs.  They are ridiculously designed as replacements to an inferior tech.  What should be happening is people should be making LED fixtures.  Put the LED where you want light to come out and the power supply built into the fixture somewhere.

It's as is Ford had created a mechanical horse to pull your carriage.

It's not so ridiculous when they ARE replacements, in pre-existing fixtures, especially if you have hundreds or thousands of those fixtures to consider.

[AJ Dual]

Philips AmbientLED NR63 (R20) Flood
40,000 hrs Long life
Energy saving

They were in the ceiling of an elevator car. I'm 5'10" and I can reach them easily.

Or did you want an address, so you could get some yourself?

Nah.

I'll just scout out my local mall for some. 

And I can see why they get stolen. Halogen incandescent R20 bulbs are expensive enough, and not counting a no-name chicom LED bulb with a lousy color temp, that'll last a week, a decent name-brand LED version is about $28 bucks.

[Perd Hapley]

And I can see why they get stolen...a decent name-brand LED version is about $28 bucks.

Yup. That's definitely something that favors the no-bulb fixture CNYcacher was talking about.

[Lee]

So something semi-durable like a lamp having WiFi and some intelligence is not at all unreasonable.

Stuff like that scares me. I yearn to be tech free before I die. Some day I will throw away everything electronic and move to a cabin in the woods. When my pot bellied stove emits less heat- I will be prompted "wirelessly" to add wood.   

[never_retreat]

I used to work for an electrical contractor. Out in the warehouse we had cases of left handed 100 watt a lamps.
I had to ask one of the old timers about them.
He said they used to use them in the temporary light stringers on the job sites to keep people from stealing the bulbs. I never thought about steeling 25 cent light bulbs. I guess it was in a bad neighborhood.
Also after a quick googling, they were common in the subway cars and stations. Also to keep people from steeling them.

[Perd Hapley]

So something semi-durable like a lamp having WiFi and some intelligence is not at all unreasonable.

Stuff like that scares me. I yearn to be tech free before I die. Some day I will throw away everything electronic and move to a cabin in the woods. When my pot bellied stove emits less heat- I will be prompted "wirelessly" to add wood.   

I think I said this in a thread once before, but I half-expect a time to come when I enter my house, flip the light switch, and then have to wait for it to load the operating system and perform a virus scan, before the light comes on.

[CNYCacher]

I think I said this in a thread once before, but I half-expect a time to come when I enter my house, flip the light switch, and then have to wait for it to load the operating system and perform a virus scan, before the light comes on.

Don't be silly.  The light switches of the future will run linux.

[GigaBuist]

It's mercury junkies, looking for a high.

It's the CFLs that are "high" in mercury.  The LED bulbs don't require any.  There might be some in some solder in there, but that's avoidable.

[zahc]

Don't be silly.  The light switches of the future will run linux.

At least until 2038.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_2038_problem

[CNYCacher]

At least until 2038.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_2038_problem

I plan on having all my linux light switches running 64-bit before 2030, just in case I want to schedule lights event 8 years in the future

[Tallpine]

keep people from steeling them.

See, things have a way of getting ironed out