Trump Scraps Obama-Era Rules For Energy Efficient Bulbs

a reply to: MisterSpock
We , the Germans, got those bulbs 10 years ago already and they are not working like promised. I still have on old wire bulb in the cellar and I bet it is older than me.

a reply to: Phage

I have two LED spot that takes up 2.5W (!!) each one and they flood my staircase with light so bright you can see the wood structures throwing shadows. The ceiling height is 3,5m at that place..

I thought about hiring someone closing the two holes and get it changed to one spot but the costs would be so high, I could buy hundreds of these.

They are like 2-3€ per LED spot, the ones with the yellow panel, not the single normal LED bulbs or many tiny LEDs, it seems to be one big led the size of a fingernail.

originally posted by: TheRedneck
a reply to: BrianFlanders

LEDs were one of the earlier inventions in semiconductors, coming along just after diodes and transistors. Essentially, they are just a diode with a clear place for light to escape.

The heat issue is the main problem. LEDs can't take excessive internal heat; no diode can. External heat is a different animal... it takes time for external heat to get to the junction where the damage can occur. A diode junction is essentially opaque glass (in the case of a silicon diode, and the LED is very similar in that respect), and you should know how well glass insulates.

We've come a long long way in handling heat. Another poster pointed out that the LED bulb is more than just LEDs... it contains a power supply in a tightly controlled fixture which is why there was so much trouble with heat dissipation. That's for a LED matrix which is pumping out 8-12 watts of heat. The one in your microwave is creating less than a watt, which is much easier to deal with, and is not sitting on top of its power supply. The power supply is on the main circuit board.

If you run that microwave for 15 minutes straight, you might be pushing the heat dissipation envelope, but that is abuse of the appliance. Microwave ovens are not really designed to do that, especially not the cheap ones. You'll still likely burn out the microwave emitters long before you can fry that LED though. You might be surprised to learn that integrated circuits are literally supposed to be cooked before use. It's not an absolute requirement for most, but the more tightly packed chips come from the factory with desiccant and a moisture indicator. If that moisture indicator shows excessive moisture upon opening, the instructions are to cook the chip (which can be done in a microwave) for a specific time to remove any potential moisture.

I think once you get used to it, you'll wind up liking the LED. It is much more resilient to external heat than an incandescent bulb.

TheRedneck

I run the microwave for 20 minutes on 60 percent because I use it to steam vegetables. Which is worth more to my health than an 80 dollar microwave. I'm not going to spend the time steaming veggies on the stove every day and dealing with the cleanup. And yes. That generates a lot of heat even at 60 percent. Because even though the electronics don't overheat, the steam heats up the whole unit and (likely) overpowers the cooling capacity of the fan. Therefore, everything in a microwave gets "abused" in my house. But most of the components are beefy enough to withstand that. I've been steaming veggies in microwaves for years and I have had microwaves that took every bit of abuse I could throw at them. I have not had one with a bad magnetron yet. The magnetrons seem to be nearly indestructible. If they work from the factory, they'll work for ages. Likewise, the transformer and the capacitor will probably last as long as you'd ever want to keep a microwave.

The electronics are the weak point. I got rid of my last microwave because the interior started to rust and it had served it's time. I steamed my veggies in it every day for years. 20 minutes every day. $80 microwave. The one before that died due to some kind of faulty switch in the door that tripped the breaker every time you closed the door. That one was actually an expensive (well, more expensive) Panasonic unit that didn't last 2 years before that happened. Nice microwave that worked great when it worked. I started buying the cheap ones because I didn't see the point in paying $200 for a microwave that didn't last any longer than a cheap one.

a reply to: TGunner

I'm all for LED bulbs. I'm also for the government not telling someone what they can and cant use for lighting in their home. I got lucky as far as price. Where I work they brought in a company where one could buy LED bulb for not a lot of money. They had all sorts of different bulbs. I went nuts and stocked up. I haven't had one burn out yet.

a reply to: xuenchen

It's Voila.

a reply to: xuenchen

It was George Bush's idea but whatever.

a reply to: hopenotfeariswhatweneed

Its trumps major malfunction.

a reply to: gortex

Nice to know he is consistant in something.

a reply to: BrianFlanders

If you bought your regular bulbs at dollar store instead of a hardware store that was.your issue. They generally only have 120v bulbs, hardware stores will carry 130v. Most of the time people are running on between 123v -128 v so the bulbs arent really designed for our power grid. The increase in great for motors, not so mich for filaments.

There is a bulb, in what I believe is a Philadelphia fire house, that has been burning constantly since 1905, we reduced the glass thickness and filament thickness. We used to.over engineer, now we engineer to specific fail points to keep the waste continuous to prop our fake economy.

originally posted by: gortex
a reply to: Phage

He truly is the font of all knowledge.

Who knew?

a reply to: interupt42

Lets put lead back in paint and gasoline too. Let everybody have a choice.
Pica in kids. Pollution in the air.
As long as choice is not inhibited.

originally posted by: Phage
a reply to: gortex



Cancer.

From the noise no less.

a reply to: Sillyolme

A normal light bulb:
tungsten, glass, metal, gas/vacuum all non toxic.

Energy saving light bulb:
cadmium, radon and friends, glass, metal, gas. First group is extremely toxic.

One of the two brings you cancer for sure if you break it.

a reply to: Phage

And so it goes, and so it goes.

What a win. Pssst... incandescent bulbs were never taken off the market. LEDs are just better in every possible way.

originally posted by: LordAhriman
What a win. Pssst... incandescent bulbs were never taken off the market. LEDs are just better in every possible way.

They weren't but it was highly frowned upon to sell (for example) a 100 watt incandescent bulb. They were nowhere to be found in my local stores. Not that I was interested in buying them anyway. I was just curious as to whether or not they were still being sold. And they weren't. I found decorative incandescent bulbs, appliance bulbs and (I think) 55 watt halogen bulbs maybe by Sylvania that failed very rapidly.

originally posted by: Oleandra88
a reply to: Sillyolme

A normal light bulb:
tungsten, glass, metal, gas/vacuum all non toxic.

Energy saving light bulb:
cadmium, radon and friends, glass, metal, gas. First group is extremely toxic.

One of the two brings you cancer for sure if you break it.

Most people are not buying the swrl type CFL bulbs anymore. I don't even think they carry them at many stores anymore (or if they do there are very few of them). Most energy saving bulbs being sold now are LED. Many of which still contain more problematic e-waste than an incandescent. I think they are sort of addressing this by starting to make them out of glass. Which I guess but from a consumer standpoint, is kind of a step backwards because they break if you drop them. You could drop the plastic bulbs and they wouldn't break and would still work fine.

But yeah. A broken LED bulb is not gonna bring you cancer. Even a CFL is just a minor issue. You don't want to breathe what's inside a CFL but if you just break one of them and you clean it up very carefully, you'll be fine. The actual amount of mercury they contain is pretty trivial. They have been using the gigantic fluorescent tubes in office buildings and stores for decades and you have probably breathed the results of recently broken ones without even knowing it while shopping for your organic food.

But yeah. LED bulbs are far superior to CFLs. And incandescent too, for that matter. And they're only gonna get better.

originally posted by: Phage
a reply to: RadioRobert

Couldn't you settle for mercury in LEDs?

You mean CFLs. Right?
Been using florescents for a long time. Carefully.

Still upgrading to LEDs.

Hahaha

Yes, I must have.

I don't even remember posting this. I was trying to figure out why this thread was on my subscribed list! No more internets after midnight for me! Can't even blame a nightcap because I hadn't had one!

a reply to: BrianFlanders
If you break a CFL indoors the advice you get here is open all windows, to collect all pets and people and get outside. Sounds like it is not so safe when broken.

Of course today (see my message way up) LEDs are very good, but at the time they kicked in the law like 10 years ago, the LED bulbs you could buy for a reasonable amount of money, were laughable.

It was like you had them so you know there is a lamp at the ceiling and how to find it. But not lighting up a room.

originally posted by: Sillyolme
a reply to: interupt42

Lets put lead back in paint and gasoline too. Let everybody have a choice.
Pica in kids. Pollution in the air.
As long as choice is not inhibited.

That's the spirit!