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Journal by Papas Fritas
Markus Krajewski reports that today, with many countries phasing out incandescent lighting in favor of more-efficient and pricier LEDs, it’s worth revisiting the history of the Phoebus cartel—not simply as a quirky anecdote from the annals of technology but as a cautionary tale about the strange and unexpected pitfalls that can arise when a new technology vanquishes an old one. Prior to the Phoebus cartel’s formation in 1924, household light bulbs typically burned for a total of 1,500 to 2,500 hours; cartel members agreed to shorten that life span to a standard 1,000 hours. Each factory regularly sent lightbulb samples to the cartel’s central laboratory in Switzerland for verification. If any factory submitted bulbs lasting longer or shorter than the regulated life span for its type, the factory was obliged to pay a fine.
Though long gone, the Phoebus cartel still casts a shadow today because it reduced competition in the light bulb industry for almost twenty years, and has been accused of preventing technological advances that would have produced longer-lasting light bulbs. Will history repeat itself as the lighting industry is now going through its most tumultuous period of technological change since the invention of the incandescent bulb. "Consumers are expected to pay more money for bulbs that are up to 10 times as efficient and that are touted to last a fantastically long time—up to 50,000 hours in the case of LED lights. In normal usage, these lamps will last so long that their owners will probably sell the house they’re in before having to change the bulbs," writes Krajewski. "Whether or not these pricier bulbs will actually last that long is still an open question, and not one that the average consumer is likely to investigate." There are already reports of CFLs and LED lamps burning out long before their rated lifetimes are reached. "Such incidents may well have resulted from nothing more sinister than careless manufacturing. But there is no denying that these far more technologically sophisticated products offer tempting opportunities for the inclusion of purposefully engineered life-shortening defects."
Though long gone, the Phoebus cartel still casts a shadow today because it reduced competition in the light bulb industry for almost twenty years, and has been accused of preventing technological advances that would have produced longer-lasting light bulbs. Will history repeat itself as the lighting industry is now going through its most tumultuous period of technological change since the invention of the incandescent bulb. "Consumers are expected to pay more money for bulbs that are up to 10 times as efficient and that are touted to last a fantastically long time—up to 50,000 hours in the case of LED lights. In normal usage, these lamps will last so long that their owners will probably sell the house they’re in before having to change the bulbs," writes Krajewski. "Whether or not these pricier bulbs will actually last that long is still an open question, and not one that the average consumer is likely to investigate." There are already reports of CFLs and LED lamps burning out long before their rated lifetimes are reached. "Such incidents may well have resulted from nothing more sinister than careless manufacturing. But there is no denying that these far more technologically sophisticated products offer tempting opportunities for the inclusion of purposefully engineered life-shortening defects."
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
Everything bows to success, even grammar.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Sunday September 28 2014, @12:35PM
Oh just call a spade a spade and if you bought a Philips 429381 you got ripped off and all the bulbs will be dead in six months. It doesn't take much engineering to apply ink to a package claiming a bulb will last 20K hours. Or making the plastic corrosion proof enough to last 20K hours. Making the thing generate light for 20K hours is a totally different problem that they failed at. There is only one factory in China making all this stuff for all resellers and retailers, so the brand names they're marketed under don't matter at all. I'm sure you can buy this bulb under a slightly different name thats equally unreliable.
On the other hand if you buy a weird looking Philips 433227 they do seem to last forever. And Philips sold some 6 watt R20 LEDs and I got 12 of them for $300 in 2011 (or 2010?) and they are rapidly approaching 10K or so hours operating over 8 hours a day virtually every day and none of the 10 installed have failed. Its 2014, brand names mean nothing.
Another truly weird aspect of incandescent vs solid state is incandescents are silent but some LEDs are really loud, which is very strange. There's no reason other than pure cheapness that LEDs have to be so audibly loud.
There is also an interesting engineering rule of thumb that for every $1 of incandescent bulb you'll pay $5 of electricity over the life of the bulb and for every $5 of LED you'll pay about $1 of electricity over the life of the bulb (mostly due to incredibly low reliability). So it ends up costing about the same and damaging the environment about the same. You can get into huge arguments with people that silicon die manufacturing ruins more the of the environment worse than simple glass globes such that LEDs damage the environment worse than incandescents. They're probably correct. Generally whenever you see greenwashing in advertising you can safely assume the opposite is true and this stereotype seems to fit LED vs legacy bulbs.