I’m in a nasty frame of mind right now, and this is what my 'tism brain decided to laser focus on for several hours. I’m mad that my light bulbs cost 10x more than they used to, and don’t last any longer, and my power bill is higher than ever.
Yeah yeah, I know, it’s probably just capitalism shitting it up on purpose for profit. And bulb science is probably solid, I guess. I’m just pissed off that I just barely managed to scrape through this pay period with $2.78 left in the bank before I default on my mortgage.
Anyway, any lightbulb science comrades got any info?
LEDs run on DC power, not AC like regular bulbs; therefore there is a power supply inside that converts and regulates the power.
The two most common failures in LED systems is shitty power supplies dying prematurely, either because of heat or because of just crappy cheap hardware, or the design is wrong which overcurrents the LEDs which kills it.
I remember my uncle had all the lighting in his kitchen changed to LED with a fancy light, it was bright and really nice, but the power supply died (I tested it by switching the PSU between the units, all the LEDs were fine, just the power supplies sucked). I couldn’t find a replacement for the same serial number, so I put another PSU from a different brand I got on eBay and it was fine. The original PSUs were all dead within the first 4 years, the aftermarket ones are all still fine 6 years later.
Obviously for these lightbulbs, this is a bit harder to do since they are all in one, so it’s probably a good idea to get higher quality bulbs. I am not an expert, but I really like the Philips ones I have right now that are rated for 50000 hours (though they are relatively new, only bought them this year, so I can’t say much about their reliability).
TL;DR: Not all LEDs are created equal.
I’ve had Philips hues for a few years now. And they’re still going strong.
Also. I will vouch for smart lights. Unlike some smart appliances, I can fully see the advantage to them. Laid in bed all comfy and can’t be arsed moving but need to turn them off? Have no bullets for your designated light turning off gun? Just open the app, and you can turn them off, or whatever colour that works for you. Or just tell Alexa to do it.
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Ahh, okay. I haven’t seen anything about cloud stuff, but I don’t really change the colour much myself, in the bedroom at least, and the times I have domne, it’s just through the app. But I do have an account for out of home use.
I use Corsair and the desktop app to control the ones in my other room, though. But the last time I set that up, it was just the push button.
Also, you need an account if you link it to alexa. But that’s the only ones I know of that need an account.
In my opinion, I find the use of the light strip to be really helpful, as I can just set it to either match my pc lights or what’s happening on my main monitor. In the bedroom, I like having the option to dim then, or change them to a softer? Or more subtle colour if I’m watching a movie and eating. I feel it makes it a bit cosier.
I do find it quite appealing for changing colour temperature, having it on 5600k during the day, and as low as it will go for the evening.