rjhenn
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Post by rjhenn on Jul 13, 2018 0:32:12 GMT -5
I've been replacing my incandescent bulbs with LEDs whenever they burn out. So far they appear to have reduced our electric bill enough to pay for themselves within a couple of months. However, I have also had two of them fail on me, usually acting strange for a few days, blinking and varying light levels for a few days before dying completely. I'm pretty sure that's due to the supporting circuitry failing, not the LEDs themselves.
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Post by Interesting on Jul 26, 2018 13:34:20 GMT -5
Could be either, both need to work for it to light.
But yes usually it's the ballast that fails. It is possible that one LED chip fails taking out the whole unit too.
They're not user serviceable anyway so it's a unit failure.
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Post by sneakers (Metro Houston) on Jul 27, 2018 13:31:41 GMT -5
I had one die in the “infant mortality” period but other than that mine have been going strong. I have three candelabra bulbs in a bathroom fixture that I relamped with LEDs. Cut my electricity consumption for that fixture from 180 W to 21 W. And they are much brighter to boot!
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Post by CampKohler (Sacramento CA) on Aug 11, 2018 18:28:03 GMT -5
Here is a new issue with LED lamps. But first a little background info. At some point, three-way incandescent lamps were introduced. They had an additional filament typically rated at 1/2 the wattage of the main filament, e.g. 50W and 100W. Using a lampholder (socket) designed for them, the switch could select OFF, 0N, 100W, and 150W (both filaments ON, hence the name three-way). A ring contact was added between the screw shell and the center contact to accommodate the additional filament. Likewise, the lampholder was modified by adding a matching tab-shaped contact between the center contact and shell. This all worked fine, even when using legacy single-filament lamps, because the latter were designed to have insulation between the shell and center contact such that the third contact of a three-way lampholder would just run into that insulation with no consequences. And now for the LED situation. My next door neighbor bought many LED lamps at the 99¢-only Store. The ones purchased of course had a metal screw shell. Unfortunately, the shell extended downwards about 1/8" further than the shell of typical incandescent lamps, such that it touches the third contact of a three-way holder. The following consequences ensue: Holder __type__ | Switch _setting_ | Operation w/ _1-way Incand._ | Operation w/ _3-way _Incand._ | Operation w/ ____LED____ |
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1-way | OFF | No light | No light | No light | 1-way | ON | Full brightness | 2/3 brightness | Full brightness | 3-way | OFF | No light | No Light | No light | 3-way | LOW | No Light | 1/3 brightness | Dead short | 3-way | MED | Full brightness | 2/3 brightness | Full brightness | 3-way | HIGH | Full brightness | Full brightness | Dead short |
Notice that two of the possible combinations of switch setting and lamp type result in dead shorts if the lamp is screwed in tight. This trips the branch circuit breaker or blows the fuse. If the holder center contact is bent upwards a bit, it is possible to screw in the lamp loosely and get away with it, but that is a tenuous situation. My neighbor (who should know better) tossed the LED lamp after the short pitted the screw shell. It works fine in my 1-way holders. Silly goose. I have contacted Underwriters Laboratories and they have an online form for submitting problems to their surveillance people. I'll fill it out after I get the E number off the lamp. Either UL missed this problem (either as a design or manufacturing matter), or unapproved changes were made to the product. Will this result in product recalls? As an additional matter, I notice that this lamp is marked "NOT FOR USE WITH A DIMMER," yet the package was labelled "Dimmable." I wonder if the UL has any rules about mismarking the packaging? Or does the mfr. even submit the packaging to UL? Those sneaky Chinese!
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Post by Interesting on Aug 14, 2018 22:02:40 GMT -5
I've always wondered about those 3-way bulb sockets and what happens if you stick a non-compliant 1-way bulb in it. Most 1-way bulbs have a small enough contact so that it won't short out both inputs but I would expect that most 3-way lamp switches (how's THAT for ambiguity with 3-way wall switches?) should be wired such that it won't short out (i.e. leave the "off" contact open circuit) if an oversized lamp contact was screwed in, and thus would simply run the lamp at full brightness in either position...
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goldie
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Post by goldie on Aug 16, 2018 9:12:48 GMT -5
I don't understand all the technical stuff, but I have some three-way lamps with one-way incandescent bulbs in them. There are two clicks off and two clicks on. I haven't noticed any difference in brightness between the on clicks. Is it dangerous to do this? I don't use those lamps too much now, as I mostly use the ones with compact fluorescents in them. Yeah, all old technology, but I usually use things until they are used up, and these aren't.
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Post by Interesting on Aug 16, 2018 12:01:03 GMT -5
That is exactly how I would expect it to work, two clicks on, two clicks off if you have a 1-way bulb, either LED or incandescent or CFL in a 3-way lamp. If it hasn't fried yet, it should be fine to use it.
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reb
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Post by reb on Aug 22, 2018 9:36:27 GMT -5
I have replaced most of the bulbs with energy efficient bulbs. Began with cfl, and when prices came down, with led's.
Vanities in the bathroom makes a big difference, since wife didn't like the warm up phase for the cfl's there. I replaced with LED's in her bathroom and she is now a fan..
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wb6yyz
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Wilkes Barre/Scranton Area
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Post by wb6yyz on Sept 5, 2018 12:12:30 GMT -5
That's due to a bad design of the bulb base. If done correctly, there should be no connection and the switch operation should be OFF FULL OFF FULL instead of OFF SHORT FULL SHORT.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Sept 7, 2018 5:33:17 GMT -5
I have had really good luck with some really old led bulbs. Some i have are over 15 years old. some of the old ones have gotten dim over the years and a few have failed. all the failed ones where the Led's themselves, these where normal lead type led's so replacing the led was easy, i even have a couple that have a few red led's mixed in(red was all i had laying around).
newer bulbs use SMC Led's and drive them really hard and hot, so i would expect a shorter life than mine.....we will see.
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reb
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Post by reb on Sept 9, 2018 14:12:42 GMT -5
Just bought some replacement led fixtures for two fluorescent fixtures that died in August.
The one in Kitchen will require another pair of hands, but replaced the hanging one in the work room. The one in the Kitchen needed to pass the Mrs. approval, but she actually approved of the work room as well.
Said these are supposed to last 50 years (if used 4 hours a day).
LOL, I'll be good with 30 years....
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Post by CampKohler (Sacramento CA) on Sept 18, 2018 20:04:05 GMT -5
With some embarrassment, I may have to suck back some of the stuff I said about using the LED in a 3-way lampholder. Looking at an incandescent lamp, I don't see much difference from the LED that gave the short with regards as to how long the screw shell is. It could be that the lampholder's low-watt contact—the one built in between the shell and the center contact—is bent out of position and that caused the short. That only causes a problem when the lamp is screwed in tight enough to hit the bent contact. So now we have to throw into the mix how tightly the lamp is screwed in. Imagine that, everybody and his brother maybe didn't screw up, and it's all due to a bent piece of metal. Nahhhh. It couldn't be that simple, could it? I'll let you know if my neighbor hasn't thrown out the fixture and I can still examine it. With regards to my everyday use of LEDs, they are all holding up well at my place. With the small draw of those darlings, it may be that no future technology need be pursued to replace them, that is to say, they are good enough from now on. The only exception I can see is that something newer may be cheaper to build, although that is hard to imagine. Once you say that something lasts for 50 years, are you really saying anything at all? There might be some accountant type with OCD that daily logs all his lamp usage in order to find out if the claim is true, but a soon as you get beyond the time where you can actually remember installing a particular lamp, it is all a blur and they might has well have claimed a hundred years for all the difference it makes. MARTHA, MARTHA! I DISTINCTLY REMEMBER INSTALLING THIS LAMP ON CHRISTMAS MORNING OF '04, AND NOW IT JUST DIED AFTER ONLY 86 YEARS! WE'VE BEEN CHEATED!
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wb6yyz
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Wilkes Barre/Scranton Area
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Post by wb6yyz on Sept 19, 2018 0:30:26 GMT -5
On the UPS systems, I put a label on them as to when they were first installed (or batteries replaced) and the words "DUE YYYY" (Where YYYY is a date four years in the future) to remind me to check and replace the battery before it dies at the worst possible time. Just for the heck of it I should label the install date of the next LED bulb I put in.
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Post by Interesting on Nov 9, 2018 2:37:52 GMT -5
I found some "F32T8" LED tubes cheap and tried one in a fixture with a real F32T8 tube in the other slot... didn't work! Flashed and then went dark. Uhoh! Put the real F32T8 back in...works fine. Hmm!
Then I had this other known electronic ballast, unfortunately it's "277VAC" for stealing a phase off of 3-phase industrial. Luckily I had a 240V step up, which seems to power it just fine. In any case this electronic ballast lights up this LED F32T8 just fine...
Unfortunately I have a surplus of regular F40T12's to use up...
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wb6yyz
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Wilkes Barre/Scranton Area
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Post by wb6yyz on Nov 9, 2018 12:51:14 GMT -5
I don't think you can mix different lamp types on the same ballast.
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