re: Old man rant - the new “low watt” light bulbs suck

There is huge range of quality among LED lamps. Most of them sold at home centers and department stores will only last about as long as a comparable incandescent lamp despite their claims otherwise...the data is sufficiently established to support that. These low quality lamps will outlast an incandescent bulb in a laboratory and when maintained properly. Thats right, the manufacturers have recommended preventative maintenance for their LED lamps. As anyone who can remember using them there is no PM for an incandescent lamp. LED Lamps need to be kept clean of dust and moisture....which is nearly impossible in most homes. They are also HIGHLY susceptible to voltage fluctuations and that is why they do not last in the real world like they do in a laboratory. Every time your AC comes on or some other load kicks in the LED lamps in your home which are on at the time are overdriven because of lower voltage. The electronics that drive the lamp are intentionally designed to be less tolerant to voltage fluctuations. They claim it is done to reduce costs but it also means you have to buy more lamps over time. There are a multitude of ways your LED lamps are being over driven in a AC circuit...and there ain't shite you can do about those conditions. Incandescent lamps do not do this...they will operate within a range of 5% by design but it is actually more like 40%.

LED lamp light quality also degrades FAR faster than incandescents do. A 75 watt equivalent LED lamp will only be equivalent to a 75 watt incandescent for about an hour...and by a couple of hundred hours most LED lamps sold in places most people would buy them will see the quality of light degraded by about 50%. Incandescents only experience light degradation in the last few hours of their operation.

The amount of energy "saved" by LEDs is more than offset by the amount taken to produce the lamp, the amount taken to dispose of the lamp, the loss of light quality over time and the publics thinking they last longer and are cheaper to operate so they leave them on longer. They also do not add to heat in spaces in winter thus furnaces must run longer.

The actual operating cost of a lamp includes ALL energy cost to produce the lamp, use the lamp and dispose of the lamp. The only area where LEDs beat Incandescents is in the use and they only do that for a short period of time. The savings in energy is more than made up for in the initial cost of the lamp. They have their place but they should have never been mandated because they simply do not do what incandescents do.