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posted by n1 on Sunday September 28 2014, @04:12PM   Printer-friendly
from the light-bulbs-may-die-but-dark-bulbs-are-forever dept.

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 light bulb 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."

 
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  • (Score: 5, Interesting) by bziman on Sunday September 28 2014, @04:57PM

    by bziman (3577) on Sunday September 28 2014, @04:57PM (#99244)

    I've been on a bit of a "green" kick for a long time. And I remember how excited I was when CFLs came out, and I could replace my heat generating light bulbs with more efficient, longer lasting bulbs. Except that they had a tendency to burn out much more rapidly than the old incandescents they were replacing. And there was the mercury thing.

    Then I discovered a first generation high output LED bulb. They were $50 a bulb, and they had a fan that was absurdly noisy. But they were pretty close to a 75 W equivalent. Not too long after that, the prices started to come down, none of the newer bulbs had fans, and they got even brighter. I replaced those noisy bulbs with newer silent, dimmable ones, but I've never had an LED bulb actually fail - not even the cheapo discount brands. But I assume that's because I make sure that I don't install them in places that would affect the electronics - i.e. overheating, or wet. And it's great, because modern housing inexplicably puts lighting in places that can't be reached without scaffolding. It's nice to be able to install a bulb once, and then forget about it. With nice warm, high output light, at over 60 lumens per watt.

    That said, I think phasing out standard incandescents is pretty stupid (and I don't mean "banning" them, I mean creating unrealistic efficiency standards). I have 30 cent light bulbs that are fifteen, maybe twenty years old, and they operate just fine. If a bulb is only going to be on for a few hours a year; or if it's going to be in a harsh environment; or a place with dirty power; then it doesn't make make sense to spend $20 on a bulb, when a 30 cent bulb will suffice - particularly if you never put more than a few dollars worth of electricity through it, over its entire life.

    Maybe there's a conspiracy, and maybe not, but I've been gleefully delighted by my LED bulbs so far, and each new one I buy is cheaper and brighter than the one before it.

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  • (Score: 2) by frojack on Sunday September 28 2014, @05:24PM

    by frojack (1554) on Sunday September 28 2014, @05:24PM (#99250) Journal

    it doesn't make make sense to spend $20 on a bulb, when a 30 cent bulb will suffice

    But what about when you are spending $5bucks [homedepot.com] each (or less [homedepot.com]), which under your usage limits means it will last forever?
    Then it does make sense.

    --
    No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
    • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Sunday September 28 2014, @08:26PM

      by FatPhil (863) <pc-soylentNO@SPAMasdf.fi> on Sunday September 28 2014, @08:26PM (#99329) Homepage
      Why does your "$5 bucks" link lead to a product that's $9.97, and your "or less" link lead to a product that's $5.97? Has inflation caused a "buck" to now mean "$2"?
      --
      Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
      • (Score: 2) by sjames on Sunday September 28 2014, @08:53PM

        by sjames (2882) on Sunday September 28 2014, @08:53PM (#99340) Journal

        It seems to vary based on your location and if you have set a "my store".

      • (Score: 2) by keplr on Sunday September 28 2014, @10:47PM

        by keplr (2104) on Sunday September 28 2014, @10:47PM (#99377) Journal

        It shows as just under $10 for me, too. I'm generally all for environmentally friendly choices, even if they're less convenient, but the incandescent bulb users are right about this argument. The light in the attic that is used for a few minutes every decade doesn't need to be a $10 LED bulb.

        --
        I don't respond to ACs.
      • (Score: 2) by frojack on Monday September 29 2014, @12:38AM

        by frojack (1554) on Monday September 29 2014, @12:38AM (#99406) Journal

        Must be where you live. The second link pointed to under $2 bulb, in quantity 1.

        --
        No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
  • (Score: 2) by VLM on Sunday September 28 2014, @06:10PM

    by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Sunday September 28 2014, @06:10PM (#99265)

    "when a 30 cent bulb"

    I'm not convinced 30 cents is realistic when toward the end of their tenure they were pushing $1 each and we're collapsing the sale volume by maybe 95%.

  • (Score: 2) by Thexalon on Sunday September 28 2014, @06:18PM

    by Thexalon (636) on Sunday September 28 2014, @06:18PM (#99270)

    And I remember how excited I was when CFLs came out, and I could replace my heat generating light bulbs with more efficient, longer lasting bulbs. Except that they had a tendency to burn out much more rapidly than the old incandescents they were replacing.

    My experience of CFLs has been quite a bit different: I started replacing my incandescents with them about 10 years ago, and have yet to have one burn out. And given that they have a service life of about 15 times that of an incandescent, I'm really wondering what you were doing that caused such a different result. About the only thing that comes to mind is that I have no qualms about walking around my house at night with the lights off (there's ambient light from streetlights and neighbor's backyard lighting, and it's clean enough that I don't stumble over stuff regularly).

    --
    The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
    • (Score: 2) by forsythe on Sunday September 28 2014, @09:40PM

      by forsythe (831) on Sunday September 28 2014, @09:40PM (#99358)

      I have had yet a third experience. I had a five-bulb fixture in this place when I moved in that was all on incandescents. I have no idea when each of them were installed. About six months after I moved in, the bulbs started failing. Two failed within a week, so I replaced them, but I wasn't able to find any incandescents, as the department store I chose had switched over to CFLs entirely. So I picked up five CFLs, intending to replace the incandescents one at a time as they burned out.

      The next two bulbs went a week after that, but they weren't actually the next two bulbs, they were the new CFLs I had installed. I checked to make sure the dimmer on the fixture wasn't anywhere between OFF and FULL (since I had never modified it before, and have never modified it since), but the replacement CFL bulbs died just as quickly.

      At that point, I figured that the fixture had been installed in such a shoddy way that there was no CFL-safe position for the dimmer, and that I'd have to keep it alive with incandescents. I went out and hunted through every store I could find, and managed to come up with 6 incandescent bulbs. I decided that when they went I'd replace the fixture.

      Fast forward about two years, and I haven't had to replace a light bulb since: the fixture contains four incandescents and one CFL - the last CFL in the batch of five that I bought two years ago. I would like to say that CFLs have just improved, or that I fixed my dimmer, or that all CFLs are a conspiracy by our reptilian overlords, but I think the most probable result was that I bought an extremely bad batch. The price of the bad ones, combined with my time-of-use expectancy of the good ones has meant that CFLs were astronomically more expensive than incandescents, but the plural of anecdote is not data.

      • (Score: 2) by Reziac on Monday September 29 2014, @04:19AM

        by Reziac (2489) on Monday September 29 2014, @04:19AM (#99457) Homepage

        I've had both incandescent and CFL last anywhere from months to over a decade. But it's a per-fixture thing. In my old house, all the ceiling fixtures (both open and enclosed) had one incandescent and one CFL (because CFL alone looks like crap) put in them back in 2001. Some are used a lot, some hardly at all. NONE of those had burned out as of 2013. However the open porch light burned out a couple times a year regardless of bulb type (and with no regard to weather). The various open table lamps burn out about every 3 or 4 years.

        I have learned to pay attention when CFLs start getting dimmer... means the transformer is running hot (sometimes enough to scorch the socket), and at that point I pitch them out.

        --
        And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
      • (Score: 2) by mcgrew on Monday September 29 2014, @02:36PM

        by mcgrew (701) <publish@mcgrewbooks.com> on Monday September 29 2014, @02:36PM (#99600) Homepage Journal

        It sounds as if you may have (or had) an overvoltage. Have you plugged a voltmeter in to see?

        However, probably more likely was that your dimmer was faulty; I've found that CFLs are touchy about bad connections. The first thing I would have done was to replace the dimmer with an on/off switch.

        --
        mcgrewbooks.com mcgrew.info nooze.org
    • (Score: 1) by octalrage on Monday September 29 2014, @07:35AM

      by octalrage (4706) on Monday September 29 2014, @07:35AM (#99494)

      I've noticed CFL's seem to be more susceptible to dirty power than incandescents.

    • (Score: 2) by mcgrew on Monday September 29 2014, @02:31PM

      by mcgrew (701) <publish@mcgrewbooks.com> on Monday September 29 2014, @02:31PM (#99595) Homepage Journal

      My experience is similar to yours, except I have had a few that didn't last long, but only VERY few.

      --
      mcgrewbooks.com mcgrew.info nooze.org
  • (Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Sunday September 28 2014, @10:30PM

    by LoRdTAW (3755) on Sunday September 28 2014, @10:30PM (#99371) Journal

    I have one of those old 1st gen CFL bulbs that were housed in the plastic case, weren't spiral shaped and are really long. The thing must be 15 years old and still works to this day in my back porch light. I have another 100W equivalent over my side door that has been going for years, one of the first cheap-o bulbs from home depot. They have all gave me great service and I also have a bunch of flood CFL's as the house has track and high-hat lighting.

    The worst bulb I had was this crap CFL Con Edison gave out for free. The bulb was maybe 4 months old and looked really cheap but I figured what the heck. I put the thing in a bathroom light fixture. One day I flip the switch and a dim light came from the fixture along with a loud buzzing sound. Turns out the light came from burning electronics and not the bulb. A lot of smoke came out and I quickly opened the fixture and saw a large brown burn spot on the housing. No fire thankfully but if it was left on by accident I shudder to think what would have happened. I had another spare Con Ed bulb but I threw it out.

    I have a few LED bulbs as most of the CFL's are still kicking. I purchased nice bright white LED flood bulbs for my kitchen but they were expensive, $30 each. Great light though. The soft white bulbs are just as good as the incandescent and CFL's but they can dim and burn less power than a CFL. They were $20. As time goes by and the last of the incandescent bulbs burn out I will replace them with LED. Those are in seldom used rooms or fixtures. MY daily use lights are all CFL or LED.

  • (Score: 2) by mcgrew on Monday September 29 2014, @02:23PM

    by mcgrew (701) <publish@mcgrewbooks.com> on Monday September 29 2014, @02:23PM (#99591) Homepage Journal

    I've been using CFLs for fifteen years, and yes, a few were duds that didn't last six months but most of them have lasted for years.

    As to mercury, much of Springfield's electricity comes from coal. The electric generation needed to power an incandescent releases far more mercury into the atmosphere than a CFL contains.

    Now that LEDs are coming down in price I'll be switching to them -- when my CFLs burn out. Which might be a while.

    --
    mcgrewbooks.com mcgrew.info nooze.org