I take a look at the complex innards of a common LED replacement light and ponder the real carbon footprint of these products. Discuss and enjoy!
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#LED #carbon #teardown
- Music by Fran Blanche -
Frantone on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/frantone/
Fran on Twitter - https://twitter.com/contourcorsets
Fran's Science Blog - http://www.frantone.com/designwritings/design_writings.html
FranArt Website - http://www.contourcorsets.com
I work for a US contract manufacturer that makes, among many other things, many different types of LED lighting.
I have seen so many different designs for LED lighting, from so many different companies, and so many different
applications . . .Military, Aerospace (NASA and SpaceX), Commercial and civilian aircraft, agricultural, industrial. . .
And on and on.
Here is a list of typical design flaws.
1. Over driving the LED current. This means they can use fewer LEDs . . . and it significantly reduces the life span
of the LEDs. It's a shameful practice and it may be why your lamp only lasted 12 months! 20 mA is the highest
level at which most single LEDs should be operated. In fact Operating LEDs at 10 mA only diminishes the
light output slightly, yet dramatically increases the life span of the LEDs, and at 5 mA, while the brightness is
noticeably less, the life span becomes very nearly indefinite. Two LEDs at 10 mA produce more light for the same
amount of power and have a dramatically longer life span.
Over driving LED current is a wicked hateful thing to do to your customers.
2. Dimming with a switching regulator without filtering the power to clean DC. We have all seen tail lights that
leave a trail of dots in view of the driver who is forced to look at them. Very annoying!
Flickering causes headaches and eye strain in many people.
We don't yet know the deleterious effects that even high flash rates may have on the eyes, the mind
or the body. Why risk it?
3. Over complicated designs. I have seen an engineer use a digital multiplexer as a light dimmer on a passenger
reading light intended for a commercial airliner. The schematic was so convoluted and poorly laid out that I had to
re-draw it just to be able to troubleshoot it. When a second engineer noticed that I had a better schematic than
they had, he accused me of trying to steal the design. I said, "No, Why would anyone bother to steal such a shitty
design? If you wanted to hobble your competition, you would GIVE THEM this design." . . . " It's just a fucking
light dimmer! You can do it with two transistors! It doesn't require the use of a God-damned microprocessor!!"
The company fired that engineer, and that's the last anyone saw of his horrendous design.
Over complicated designs often equate to a high failure rate, high cost to produce, and lower profit margin.
Not just LED lights, what about battery powered cars, solar panels, etc
They wanted it to look pretty too and track lighting is visible after installation. So you still have the rainbow glass with the silvered effect because the aluminum heat sink just doesn't look as nice.
It seems almost a bit digital: either the LED lights just keep working year by year… or they fail soon after purchase. I've seen mostly PSU fail and thermo-mechanical stress kill LED lights. I can only remember one that had a busted segment in the string of LEDs. I lived a bit outside the city so our grid was slightly wobbly depending on weather and what the neighbors, farmers and factories where up to -a fair bit of transients killed PSUs. From memory, it was mostly a tossup between thermo-mech and PSU failures. Worst are the cheapo chinsy LEDs, assembled with no due care to stress on solderings once pressed to fit inside bulb shape. Board to board soldering cracking, pin to board cracking, you would get heat and that accelerates oxide layers forming insulation in end. I've been smarter now, marking date on LED, saving receipt in LED box so it's easy to get money/replacement back.
Like a few has suggested: we need a reform for LED lights to be environmentally effective. Time to separate driver and LED chip – possibly even have a low voltage DC line for lights. Fixtures should have an adequate heatsink to fix LED segment to, it's asenine to put a 2-10W LED inside a thermally isolated plastic bulb!
Even a livingroom seldom needs more than 15-20W to light up, so even a 12V would do fine for light fixtures in ceiling.
If you burn out the LED (should be min 25000hr) – get a new chip. If you kill your driver – get a new driver. Maybe place driver in the bucket you have the lamp switch. Then you can opt for a dimmable or not since the LED chip itself is fine with either.
WHY HAS THIS NOT HAPPENED?!? Maybe I'm not smart enough to see the problem.
Bloody planned obsolesence maffia probably.
Pls. add the energy to pump a 100W halogen‘s waste energy to the outside in summertime. Might be 90% or more.
my school changed to led and it was nice for someone who was bothered by the flickering
This almost reads like a Technology Connections video. That'd be a hell of a collaboration…
one thing is, is to remember they DONT want each bulb to last too long, or they wont sell as many bulbs 😉😉
AN LED Light? That's AN definite no.
She addresses a deeper question than why it failed. One sharp cookie.
It´s funny because you can repair the most LED Light´s, they does not need to be wasted. If you had an elektronic repair shop, you can bring them over. If LED has a long lifecycle build, you have a smal amount of waste and on the other side you have real work options. It´s "customer thinking" to drop old bulbs away and buy new one.
Wow, something most of us overlook, take for granted. Yet, you have revealed the complexities and energy saving or loss in 11 minutes. I would be interested in your findings. Is it really as efficient as they say.
There is an interesting documentary on youtube about light bulb manufacturers getting together to agree to shorten the life span of incandescent bulbs . I had a bulb in a house that was built in 1957 in FL that lasted all the 15 years we owned that house. Bulbs in lamps that were newer were changed every couple of years.