1199
submitted 11 months ago by L4s@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

Incandescent light bulbs are officially banned in the U.S.::America’s ban on incandescent light bulbs, 16 years in the making, is finally a reality. Well, mostly.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] Coeus@coeus.sbs 73 points 11 months ago

I've been in the industry for over a decade and I find it fascinating how much lighting has changed in that time. When LEDs were first available, they were $60+ per bulb. Now you can get multipacks for under $10. Also, CFL bulbs were almost universally hated by everyone (and for good reason) now we no longer sell them. We strictly sell LEDs for regular lighting and we still sell incandescent specialty bulbs. Also, when LEDs first arrived there was a lot of distain for them, especially by the elderly. They wanted their energy wasting incandescent bulbs dammit! It seems the majority of them have come around because they've learned that LEDs are better.

[-] GlendatheGayWitch@lib.lgbt 13 points 11 months ago

Is there a brand that's better for LED? I get migraines and the stroking effect of LED bulbs can be a trigger.

LED christmas bulbs particularly bad. It felt like walking into a rave at the Christmas store.

[-] WetBeardHairs@lemmy.world 11 points 11 months ago

Yeah, many of those christmas lights use pulse width modulation to control brightness and it is very noticeable. I hope that gets changed over for an analog voltage dimmer soon.

[-] cerevant@lemmy.world 5 points 11 months ago

Also, cheap ones run directly on AC, so they flicker at 60 Hz (50 in Europe) because the current is only flowing for half the cycle.

[-] AndrewZabar@lemmy.world 1 points 11 months ago

How do high-end home LEDs get around this? Do they have a battery that caches the current between cycles?

When my wife and I bought our place, we renovated and made all lights LED. The overheads in the living room and kitchen are quite bright and steady, so they must avoid this somehow.

[-] cerevant@lemmy.world 6 points 11 months ago

A bridge rectifier flips the negative current to positive, so instead of a sine wave you get a series of humps. Then a capacitor acts as a battery like you describe to smooth out the dip between humps.

[-] CmdrShepard@lemmy.one 3 points 11 months ago

There are half wave rectifiers and full wave rectifiers. The former only converts the positive AC to DC and shuts off for the negative half (causing flickering). The latter will convert both positive and negative halves to DC and don't flicker.

[-] cerevant@lemmy.world 1 points 11 months ago

Well, LED lights are half-wave rectifiers that light up, so you wouldn’t add one. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a half wave rectifier referred to as a bridge rectifier.

[-] AndrewZabar@lemmy.world 2 points 11 months ago

Ok, I get the gist. Thanks!

[-] Aux@lemmy.world 1 points 11 months ago

FULL BRIDGE RECTIFIER!!!11

load more comments (11 replies)
load more comments (57 replies)
this post was submitted on 03 Aug 2023
1199 points (99.5% liked)

Technology

55692 readers
2542 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.


Our Rules


  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related content.
  3. Be excellent to each another!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots


founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS