Light bulbs keep going bad

[JeremyH.]

In my kitchen I have some light bulbs that keep going out FAST. They're recessed kinda like this. I use incandescent and don't wish to change. There's no obvious indication of why.

 

[Holzhacker]

Probably a bad ground path or loose neutral connection.
Had a 4" can in a stairway doing same thing. Bulb would go bad fairly regularly. Other can bulb went bad on a more normal basis for a incandescent bulb. Finally got around to opening up the can. Loose wire nut connection on the neutral side. Tightened it all up. Hasn't happened since.

 

[JeremyH.]

Ok, I'll see what I can do to check everything. They're very high up, I'll find out what I can do.

 

[AstroKeith]

Eventually you'll have to change from incandescent lamps.

After a little while I now prefer LED, the ability to choose colour temperature is great.

 

[Alanbach]

Don’t buy your bulbs at the big box stores. Go to a good quality lighting shop and buy 130V bulbs. Also buy a tube of electrical grease and sparingly spread a little on the bulb threads and bottom terminal before installing. Also, as suggested above, check the tightness of the wire connections if possible.

 

[JeremyH.]

Eventually you'll have to change from incandescent lamps.

After a little while I now prefer LED, the ability to choose colour temperature is great.

I sincerely hope to never see that day. They're very electrically noisy.

 

[simo.ahtola@netikka.fi]

Jeremy

Quality ones are not noisy.

Have about 30 in my house, no issues.

And 20 at the workshop, no issues.

BR Simo

 

[JeremyH.]

Sorry but I can show you measurements, there is no such thing as a non-noisy LED currently.

 

[DeformedTree]

Sorry but I can show you measurements, there is no such thing as a non-noisy LED currently.

When you say noisy, do you mean sound, or do you mean electrically noisy?

if sound, are you thinking florescent.  No LED makes sound.  The noise of Florescent and some CFLs was annoying.  LEDs make no sound.

 

[Bob D.]

Sorry but I can show you measurements, there is no such thing as a non-noisy LED currently.

When you say noisy, do you mean sound, or do you mean electrically noisy?

if sound, are you thinking florescent.  No LED makes sound.  The noise of Florescent and some CFLs was annoying.  LEDs make no sound.

LEDs that are functioning normally are silent, but I replaced one that went bad and had a audible hum that drove me nuts until I figured out where it was coming from.

 

[AlexThePalex]

Electrically noisy does not mean sound noisy, but instead of a clean signal a signal with a lot of interference. What I don't understand is how this would bother you in a lamp. Electric measuring equipment might pick it up, but humans lack the sensors for that.

I changed most of the lights in my house to leds now, I love them. I love how they hardly use energy, I love how they don't produce any heat, I love how they have a wide variation of colour temperature, I love how close they can come to daylight, and I love how they can be extremely bright in a small package.

What I don't love is their dimmability, and that's a shame, they really suck at that, but I am sure that eventually the engineers will figure that out too. Led lighting is still a very young technology.

And yes, some leds can make a buzzing noise, and their dimmers even more. Suffice it to say, those things don't stay long in my vicinity.

 

[Mini Me]

I have had no trouble with dimmers on LED's but you do need to know if the dimmer needs to be leading or trailing edge whatever that means.

 

[DeformedTree]

You need a dimmer designed for LEDs.  Incandescent bulbs and LEDs behave differently as load. Get a dimmer designed for LEDs and Dimable LEDs and you should be good to go.

 

[Cheese]

I guess I don't quite know what the aversion to LED lighting is all about. The color fidelity is better, the energy usage is less, the bulb life is longer, what did I miss?

I have outdoor lighting that has 30+ fence LED's for down lighting, 30+ bollards for general garden lighting and at least 6 other LED lights for step lights, spot lights and general lighting. They run on a dusk to dawn circuit and average about 4400 hours of use per year. The monthly cost is $1.60 for all of this and I've replaced 1 LED bulb in the last 4 years. If this would have been traditional incandescent lighting my energy costs would be 10x and I'd have replaced all the bulbs 6-8 times. What's not to like?

I've also changed the house over to LED's ...me likee, no regrets.

 

[JeremyH.]

Sorry but I can show you measurements, there is no such thing as a non-noisy LED currently.

When you say noisy, do you mean sound, or do you mean electrically noisy?

if sound, are you thinking florescent.  No LED makes sound.  The noise of Florescent and some CFLs was annoying.  LEDs make no sound.

Electrically. They're dirty dogs.

 

[DeformedTree]

Curious what you have that this would be an issue? Do you have scientific instruments plugged into your house?

 

[Bob D.]

Curious what you have that this would be an issue. Do you have scientific instruments plugged into your house?

If you're a SWLer or Ham Radio Operator the RF noise can be a PITA. But it can also invade broadcast spectrum for radio and/or OTA TV (though current OTA digital TV signals are not affected much if at all unless there is significant receiver overloading) and potentially interfere with HA (Home Automation) devices running on Wi-Fi, Z-Wave, and Zigbee.

Inferior LEDs can also interfere with your GDO.https://support.chamberlaingroup.co...-I-use-in-my-garage-door-opener-1484145692747

Genie makes a bulb that they claim does not interfere with their GDOs. Not inexpensive but if they work.https://www.geniecompany.com/led-light-bulb-/LED-Bulb

 

[kevinculle]

I replaced every light in the house we just moved out of with LEDs, probably 70 or more in all.  LEDs of 10 years ago were much inferior to more modern ones in color temp and life.  The only challenge with dimming is that LEDs draw so little current that they won't work with many incandescent dimmers, dimmers that are LED compatible used with dimmable LEDs work just fine.  As to electrical noise I do a good bit of electronics work including low level measurements with instruments and oscilloscopes in my basement, which has 15 of the 4' LED shoplights putting out 4000 lumens each and I don't see any impact on my measuring equipment and certainly no audible noise.  The new house we just moved into is 100% LED.  I doubt you'll be able to buy much else in 5-10 more years.

 

[serge0n]

I guess I don't quite know what the aversion to LED lighting is all about. The color fidelity is better, the energy usage is less, the bulb life is longer, what did I miss?

You missed the flicker and the fact that it's impossible to truly dim LEDs.

All LEDs flicker and that flicker is either coming from AC or PWM.
If it's a light bulb, you have to use electronic components to rectify AC and as customer demand drives prices down, down goes the quality of the electronic components. Cheap electronics do crappy rectification causing major flicker effect. It's not perceptible by a naked eye, but you can easily detect it if you shoot a slo-mo video of a light with your smart phone.

Most LED bulbs bought at a home center flicker like crazy. Good quality LED bulbs will have flicker that is not noticeable to the human eye and even to most high speed cameras, but these are either very expensive or very hard to find as most manufacturers don't publish detailed specs on their LED lights.
Even incandescent bulbs flicker due to the nature of the AC waveform, but at a much lower rate.

Further, LEDs can be either at a 100% brightness or at a 0% brightness, you can't dim them. But you can simulate the effect by keeping them turned off 75% of the time and on 25% of the time, switching them on and off very rapidly (75% dimmed). The problem with dimming LEDs is that a cheap LED driver which is needed to achieve this effect will produce a lot more flicker than even a cheap LED bulb at all levels of brightness, even when you turn it all the way up. And once again, good LED dimmers are hard to find.
Bulbs that heat up filament to produce light can be easily dimmed by reducing voltage.

To summarize, LED is not a magical new technology that trumps it's predecessors on every front. Similar to flat screen TVs (LCD, LED, OLED, etc.) and EV cars, it has some major drawbacks when compared to legacy solutions it has come to replace. Unfortunately this is the future of lightning until something better emerges and for now all concerns about flicker causing health issues are swept under the rug in the name of being greener.

[member=49284]JeremyH.[/member] I'm genuinely curious, why electrical noise produced by LEDs is a concern to you?

 

[Mini Me]

Further, LEDs can be either at a 100% brightness or at a 0% brightness, you can't dim them. But you can simulate the effect by keeping them turned off 75% of the time and on 25% of the time, switching them on and off very rapidly (75% dimmed). The problem with dimming LEDs is that a cheap LED driver which is needed to achieve this effect will produce a lot more flicker than even a cheap LED bulb at all levels of brightness, even when you turn it all the way up. And once again, good LED dimmers are hard to find.
Bulbs that heat up filament to produce light can be easily dimmed by reducing voltage.

The above puzzles me as I have recently installed LED downlights with leading edge dimmers on them and they appear to dim in exactly the way I would have expected and in the same manner that incadescent globes act. Certainly the LED's were not expensive but I notice that all the ones I buy now have switchable color temperature in them which needs to be set when installing. It is a bit of a disappointment when a lot of lights are installed and some did not have the temp set correctly, DAMHIKT.