WEBVTT Kind: captions Language: en 00:00:00.080 --> 00:00:02.489 For those who may not have been paying attention, 00:00:02.489 --> 00:00:08.870 the last 20 years in the lighting industry have been an absolutely wild ride. 00:00:08.870 --> 00:00:10.706 Pretty much all thanks to these things - 00:00:10.706 --> 00:00:12.490 the light emitting diode. 00:00:12.490 --> 00:00:17.056 This is an incredibly important technology and we should thank our lucky stars 00:00:17.056 --> 00:00:20.900 (and of course the countless folks who contributed to its invention and refinement) 00:00:20.900 --> 00:00:22.754 that we can take advantage of it. 00:00:22.754 --> 00:00:28.231 But it’s also made everything so much more complicated! 00:00:28.231 --> 00:00:33.493 At this point, the very concept of the light bulb... is pretty much over. 00:00:33.493 --> 00:00:38.492 Oh, sure, you can still buy light bulbs in a dazzling array of varieties, 00:00:38.492 --> 00:00:42.669 and a few old-fashioned ones hang around for those special cases. 00:00:42.669 --> 00:00:49.363 But most of ‘em these days are a far cry from the hot glowy tungsten wires in fragile globes of glass 00:00:49.363 --> 00:00:51.354 us olds grew up with. 00:00:51.354 --> 00:00:55.306 Frankly, modern LED light bulbs aren’t so much light bulbs 00:00:55.306 --> 00:00:59.760 as they are electronic devices that mimic light bulbs in form and function. 00:00:59.760 --> 00:01:06.457 And the key part of this video is that the form and function of a light bulb is actually pretty handy. 00:01:06.457 --> 00:01:09.498 But at the same time, it also kinda stinks. 00:01:09.498 --> 00:01:13.040 Looks like we found one of them situational situations, huh? 00:01:13.040 --> 00:01:16.600 Today, I’d like to talk to you today about these things today. 00:01:16.600 --> 00:01:22.650 They’re starting to become quite commonplace, and they’re only possible thanks to the LED. 00:01:22.650 --> 00:01:27.272 They’re a clever implementation of the technology and have several distinct advantages 00:01:27.272 --> 00:01:30.750 over the drop-in light bulb replacements you’re familiar with. 00:01:30.750 --> 00:01:35.200 But these particular things are also not really any different at all. 00:01:35.200 --> 00:01:38.991 They have pretty much the same guts as any other LED bulb, 00:01:38.991 --> 00:01:44.972 but those guts just so happen to connect to a couple of wires sticking out the back. 00:01:45.197 --> 00:01:46.989 This isn’t a light bulb; 00:01:46.989 --> 00:01:52.165 this is the spirit of a light bulb plonked into a cheap light fixture. 00:01:52.165 --> 00:01:54.155 And I have feelings about this. 00:01:54.155 --> 00:01:56.094 Which you’re now about to hear. 00:01:56.301 --> 00:01:59.396 If you’ll indulge me with a little bit of electric lighting history, 00:01:59.396 --> 00:02:04.050 we can see why this is at once great and awful. 00:02:04.050 --> 00:02:07.721 When you get right down to it, all you really need to make an electric light 00:02:07.721 --> 00:02:14.530 is a thing which makes light from electricity somehow and a way to make that thing touch energized wires. 00:02:14.530 --> 00:02:19.477 The Edison screw-socket is an ancient (and pretty bad frankly) way to do that, 00:02:19.477 --> 00:02:21.092 and the traditional light bulb 00:02:21.092 --> 00:02:25.604 (which remember is really just a piece of wire which gets real hot when you run current through it) 00:02:25.604 --> 00:02:28.838 was designed to work holistically with the socket. 00:02:28.838 --> 00:02:34.524 It provides both electrical contact and a mechanical interface to mount the bulb. 00:02:34.524 --> 00:02:37.432 The socket provided two key benefits. 00:02:37.432 --> 00:02:45.526 First, it provided a marginally safe, and standardized interface between the energized electrical system and the light bulb, 00:02:45.526 --> 00:02:51.951 and second it did that in such a way that the bulb could be easily replaced by the user when it failed. 00:02:51.951 --> 00:02:55.246 Early incandescent lamps really did not last long at all, 00:02:55.246 --> 00:03:01.884 and while improvements were made with time, they never got too far beyond one or two thousands hours of runtime. 00:03:01.884 --> 00:03:08.983 And yes, there are those stories of light bulb cartels and planned obsolescence which are fun to tell and rile people up, 00:03:08.983 --> 00:03:16.069 but there was a real, actual trade-off you made when you designed an incandescent lamp that lasted longer 00:03:16.069 --> 00:03:21.886 and that was a not-quite-as-hot filament which produces a duller light less efficiently, 00:03:21.886 --> 00:03:26.420 so there was some reason to that rhyme and it annoys me that nobody ever talks about it! 00:03:26.814 --> 00:03:29.886 I mean, incandescent light bulbs are very simple 00:03:29.886 --> 00:03:37.730 and once the tech was refined became pretty cheap so people would rather spend a little bit more and replace them more frequently 00:03:37.730 --> 00:03:39.940 than have dull light bulbs everywhere. 00:03:39.940 --> 00:03:41.660 But anyway, I digress. 00:03:41.660 --> 00:03:45.494 Ordinary light sockets provide raw mains AC power. 00:03:45.494 --> 00:03:50.520 Take a look at this bare-bones thing and you’ll see that the terminals for hot and neutral 00:03:50.520 --> 00:03:52.770 go straight to the bulb socket. 00:03:52.770 --> 00:03:55.837 In some cheaper designs the terminals and the lamp contacts 00:03:55.837 --> 00:03:58.970 are literally the same piece of brass. 00:03:58.970 --> 00:04:04.840 Really, the socket is just a rudimentary interface between the light bulb and the electric grid. 00:04:04.840 --> 00:04:10.641 It just has to get the hot wire touching the bottom bit and the neutral wire touching the side somewhere. 00:04:10.641 --> 00:04:16.356 And that’s fine for incandescent lamps which are nothing but resistive electrical loads. 00:04:16.356 --> 00:04:20.164 However, making light that way is just not a good way to do it, 00:04:20.164 --> 00:04:25.912 and every other technology out there requires an intermediary device to handle the electricity 00:04:25.912 --> 00:04:28.669 and drive the light-producing bit. 00:04:28.669 --> 00:04:29.740 That’s not new. 00:04:29.740 --> 00:04:33.267 We’ve had those technologies for a long, long time. 00:04:33.267 --> 00:04:38.289 Fluorescent and discharge lamps require a ballast and starter to drive them properly, 00:04:38.289 --> 00:04:40.268 which are integrated into the fixture. 00:04:40.268 --> 00:04:42.195 That made the fixtures more expensive, 00:04:42.195 --> 00:04:49.240 however the lamps lasted many times longer than incandescent lights, and they were much more energy efficient. 00:04:49.240 --> 00:04:52.075 They had severe performance and light quality penalties 00:04:52.075 --> 00:04:58.360 which made them less suitable for general use, but fluorescent tubes found their way into some places at home. 00:04:58.360 --> 00:05:02.702 Regardless, no matter which of these long-lived technologies we’re talking about, 00:05:02.702 --> 00:05:05.286 re-lamping was eventually necessary. 00:05:05.286 --> 00:05:08.440 Lamps wear out, it’s just a fact of life. 00:05:08.440 --> 00:05:12.954 And so, even the light fixtures which housed the most enduring of lamps 00:05:12.954 --> 00:05:17.736 were always designed in such a way that the component with a limited life-span 00:05:17.736 --> 00:05:18.860 - the lamp - 00:05:18.860 --> 00:05:21.137 could easily be replaced. 00:05:21.137 --> 00:05:26.722 The lines started to get blurry, though, around 25 or so years ago. 00:05:26.722 --> 00:05:33.820 In a desire to bring the efficiency of fluorescent lighting technology to more places with a simple drop-in device, 00:05:33.820 --> 00:05:36.736 the self-ballasted lamp was born. 00:05:36.736 --> 00:05:43.934 Now, I made a video on a weird, early device which was more of an adapter than it was a self-contained lamp, 00:05:43.934 --> 00:05:46.849 so I’m not counting that in this discussion. 00:05:46.849 --> 00:05:49.485 Instead, I mean these things. 00:05:49.485 --> 00:05:55.211 I also made a video about my appreciation of these as an important stepping stone technology. 00:05:55.211 --> 00:05:57.585 They’re not great, and they have problems, 00:05:57.585 --> 00:05:58.852 but hey. 00:05:58.852 --> 00:06:00.286 We all do. 00:06:00.286 --> 00:06:05.867 Side-note, there were/are other self-ballasted lamps besides just fluorescent 00:06:05.867 --> 00:06:10.763 but I’m just talking about the CFL here because it was by far the most mainstream. 00:06:11.201 --> 00:06:16.964 These twisty boys are their own itty-bitty self-contained fluorescent lighting systems 00:06:16.964 --> 00:06:23.045 which just happen to be about the same physical size and profile as the light bulbs they aimed to replace, 00:06:23.045 --> 00:06:27.762 and which just so happen to receive their electricity through an Edison screw, 00:06:27.762 --> 00:06:31.385 which conveniently also allows for convenient mounting of the device 00:06:31.385 --> 00:06:34.314 conveniently inside an ordinary light fixture. 00:06:34.314 --> 00:06:35.590 How convenient. 00:06:35.590 --> 00:06:38.971 It’s like they were designed to be backward compatible or something. 00:06:38.971 --> 00:06:42.190 You get your line voltage here, your neutral there, 00:06:42.190 --> 00:06:45.863 and wires inside the device attach to the screw’s contact surfaces 00:06:45.863 --> 00:06:50.952 and then bring that electrical energy to a tiny little ballast inside of this part 00:06:50.952 --> 00:06:54.850 which then drives the tube out here and makes the photons happen. 00:06:55.075 --> 00:06:59.834 These became feasible in large part because of innovation in the electronic ballast, 00:06:59.834 --> 00:07:02.052 both in cost and size. 00:07:02.052 --> 00:07:10.488 Eventually ballasts became cheap enough that it made sense to produce single-use ballasts meant to be disposed of with the lamp when it wore out. 00:07:10.488 --> 00:07:15.556 Of course, those ballasts were so cost-cut that they often failed prematurely, 00:07:15.556 --> 00:07:18.478 especially in certain circumstances… 00:07:18.478 --> 00:07:23.632 Like I said, these were problematic in various ways, but we have the LED now! 00:07:23.632 --> 00:07:28.634 Mercury-free, better light quality, more energy efficient, and longer-lasting. 00:07:29.207 --> 00:07:30.399 Usually. 00:07:30.399 --> 00:07:32.014 We’ll get to that. 00:07:32.014 --> 00:07:35.964 However, we still have the same fundamental problem. 00:07:35.964 --> 00:07:41.821 Just like a fluorescent tube, you can’t just hook an LED up to mains voltage and expect light. 00:07:42.299 --> 00:07:45.152 Well, actually you can expect it but it would be very brief. 00:07:45.152 --> 00:07:50.179 Uh, but anyway LEDs need some sort of device to regulate the power they receive. 00:07:50.179 --> 00:07:55.261 For some reason we call that a driver and not a ballast, the reason’s not important, it’s probably because it outputs DC, 00:07:55.261 --> 00:07:59.217 but in any case we’re in roughly the same boat as before. 00:07:59.217 --> 00:08:02.100 But now, this boat can fly. 00:08:02.100 --> 00:08:08.002 Not only can the driver for LEDs consist of just a few electronic components on a circuit board, 00:08:08.002 --> 00:08:11.672 but the LEDs themselves are teeny tiny little things. 00:08:11.672 --> 00:08:16.839 We don’t have this big tube thing anymore, we have these little chips with a dab of phosphor on them 00:08:16.839 --> 00:08:18.641 and they’re freaking neat! 00:08:18.641 --> 00:08:21.286 They can look like this, sometimes they’re a little bigger, 00:08:21.286 --> 00:08:25.004 and we can put them behind lenses to make more focused sources of light, 00:08:25.004 --> 00:08:29.506 or we can put them on little sticks of glass and make old-school lookin’ light bulbs, 00:08:29.506 --> 00:08:33.954 we can even make the sticks less like sticks and more like noodles and get all twisty again, 00:08:33.954 --> 00:08:36.204 the sky’s the limit. 00:08:36.204 --> 00:08:42.345 And, wouldn’t ya know it, we are starting to see really interesting light fixtures for sale these days 00:08:42.345 --> 00:08:47.094 which are taking full advantage of the LED’s amazing versatility. 00:08:47.094 --> 00:08:49.707 And that is what this is. 00:08:49.707 --> 00:08:51.534 Aside from the interesting part. 00:08:51.534 --> 00:08:55.653 This is merely a commodity, builder-grade light emitting device. 00:08:55.653 --> 00:08:59.210 This thing essentially cuts out the middle man that is the light socket 00:08:59.210 --> 00:09:04.718 and brings AC power straight to a unified driver-and-emitter circuit board. 00:09:04.718 --> 00:09:11.784 That board is then attached to a larger piece of aluminum with some holes stamped through it for mounting to an electrical box, 00:09:11.784 --> 00:09:15.596 and then a diffusing lens covers up the board (and the holes) 00:09:15.596 --> 00:09:17.351 and makes it look pretty. 00:09:17.351 --> 00:09:20.719 And if you’re in the position of constructing or remodeling a home, 00:09:20.719 --> 00:09:24.311 this is versatile, effective, easy, and cheap. 00:09:24.311 --> 00:09:26.191 And we love those words! 00:09:26.191 --> 00:09:30.271 OK, so a little bit of background on light fixtures is required here. 00:09:30.271 --> 00:09:31.822 For those that may not know, 00:09:31.822 --> 00:09:37.534 the wiring in your home passes through and ends up in electrical boxes inside the walls. 00:09:37.534 --> 00:09:44.771 If you were to examine most light fixtures you would find that they are attached to the ceiling or wall with a couple of screws. 00:09:44.771 --> 00:09:49.742 Those are in fact attaching it to the electrical box and not the wall directly. 00:09:49.742 --> 00:09:55.575 The purpose of electrical boxes is to provide standardized mounting points for electrical devices 00:09:55.575 --> 00:09:59.398 and a protected space for making electrical connections. 00:09:59.398 --> 00:10:02.779 Naturally, inside the electrical box are some wires. 00:10:02.779 --> 00:10:05.540 Usually three: live, neutral and ground, 00:10:05.540 --> 00:10:12.859 though if you’re in a place like Chicagoland the wires have to be run inside of metal conduit even in residential applications 00:10:12.859 --> 00:10:17.318 and the local code often allows using that conduit as the ground path, 00:10:17.318 --> 00:10:19.940 so you may only find two. 00:10:19.940 --> 00:10:23.656 That’s why the ground lead has been snipped off this unit - 00:10:23.656 --> 00:10:26.727 simply mounting it to the box grounds it. 00:10:26.727 --> 00:10:28.672 At least, in theory. 00:10:28.672 --> 00:10:31.102 The paint on this thing makes me a little nervous 00:10:31.102 --> 00:10:36.593 but it did get rubbed off where it was mounted (with just ONE SCREW) to the box. 00:10:37.184 --> 00:10:39.416 Yeah, I know this doesn’t weigh much at all, but c’mon! 00:10:39.416 --> 00:10:43.230 Anyway, the wires inside the box are what gives power to the fixture, 00:10:43.230 --> 00:10:47.051 and ordinarily what you’d really be doing when you install a light fixture 00:10:47.051 --> 00:10:52.522 is connecting the leads coming from its bulb socket or sockets to the wires inside the wall 00:10:52.522 --> 00:10:58.541 (please enjoy the inevitable discussion on wire nuts vs. Wago connectors that I’m confident is happening down below) 00:10:58.541 --> 00:11:02.838 and then you secure the fixture to the electrical box using its mounting screws 00:11:02.838 --> 00:11:07.762 while finagling the excess wire into the box and now you’ve got a light fixture. 00:11:07.762 --> 00:11:10.192 Just add some light bulbs and you’re done. 00:11:10.192 --> 00:11:14.201 But what if you just slapped one of these puppies on that box? 00:11:14.201 --> 00:11:16.537 Then you’d be done in one step! 00:11:16.537 --> 00:11:19.680 Lamp, fixture, all in one solution! 00:11:19.680 --> 00:11:20.480 And, 00:11:20.480 --> 00:11:21.096 And! 00:11:21.096 --> 00:11:28.494 this thing sotra looks and behaves like the much more expensive recessed can lights which people go gaga over, 00:11:28.494 --> 00:11:32.612 even though it’s just a simple surface mount light. 00:11:32.612 --> 00:11:33.771 Say, 00:11:33.771 --> 00:11:38.742 when building or remodeling we could just put some dirt cheap ceiling boxes up there 00:11:38.742 --> 00:11:40.167 and stick these things on ‘em! 00:11:40.167 --> 00:11:43.922 Rather than go through the trouble of putting in actual cans. 00:11:43.922 --> 00:11:48.110 What a fantastic solution we have stumbled upon here! 00:11:49.151 --> 00:11:51.905 Except, oh right... 00:11:51.905 --> 00:11:56.276 now you’re stuck with it unless you’re comfortable dealing with electrical wiring. 00:11:56.276 --> 00:11:58.097 Are you ready for some nuance? 00:11:58.097 --> 00:12:01.604 Because there be pros, there be cons. 00:12:02.234 --> 00:12:06.762 Now, I’m actually pretty OK with this particular class of product 00:12:06.762 --> 00:12:10.771 because in addition to being sleek-looking, cheap, and easy, 00:12:10.771 --> 00:12:14.906 they also have some real advantages compared to the old way of doing things. 00:12:14.906 --> 00:12:17.580 First, let’s talk about efficiency. 00:12:17.580 --> 00:12:22.256 If we were to look at the unfortunate architectural staple that is the boob light, 00:12:22.256 --> 00:12:28.846 we’d find a fixture which interferes with and thus reduces the light output of the bulbs inside of it. 00:12:28.846 --> 00:12:32.540 A general-purpose light bulb spreads light in all directions, 00:12:32.540 --> 00:12:38.818 and that means a lot of the light it produces ends up getting absorbed on the top inside surface of the fixture 00:12:38.818 --> 00:12:43.219 before it even has a chance to be further attenuated by the glass on its way out. 00:12:43.219 --> 00:12:45.969 You can have really efficient lamps in here, 00:12:45.969 --> 00:12:53.593 but they’re always going to perform somewhat poorly because not all of their light actually makes it out to where it’s useful. 00:12:53.593 --> 00:12:58.732 These things, on the other hand, have entirely down-firing diodes. 00:12:58.732 --> 00:13:03.580 Essentially all of the light output from those diodes makes its way out of the fixture, 00:13:03.580 --> 00:13:09.970 so the 950 lumens these things are rated for will seem much brighter than a boob light 00:13:09.970 --> 00:13:13.300 with a single 950 lumen bulb in it. 00:13:13.300 --> 00:13:17.868 And of course that means you need less energy to get the same actual light output, 00:13:17.868 --> 00:13:19.910 and that’s always good. 00:13:19.910 --> 00:13:24.462 To be fair, there are plenty of LED bulbs you can buy that work just like this. 00:13:24.462 --> 00:13:27.528 Most diffused flood lights, for instance, 00:13:27.528 --> 00:13:32.139 are pretty much this exact device, just packaged a little differently. 00:13:32.139 --> 00:13:36.968 But these are designed for the most part to work in recessed cans or spotlight fixtures 00:13:36.968 --> 00:13:39.650 which you may not have or want. 00:13:39.650 --> 00:13:43.780 The other significant advantage these have which makes their design less of a... 00:13:43.780 --> 00:13:49.371 crime is that they can also be more reliable than a typical LED bulb because, 00:13:49.371 --> 00:13:53.663 if designed right, it can more effectively deal with heat. 00:13:53.663 --> 00:13:57.972 Premature failures of LED light bulbs are unfortunately somewhat common, 00:13:57.972 --> 00:14:03.962 and in a great deal of cases those failures occur because the lamp couldn’t keep itself cool. 00:14:03.962 --> 00:14:08.160 Heat stresses electronic components, particularly certain capacitors, 00:14:08.160 --> 00:14:13.485 and even when that’s not an issue thermal cycling as the lamp heats up and cools off with use 00:14:13.485 --> 00:14:18.700 can lead to fractures in solder joints on the circuit board if those thermal swings are too extreme. 00:14:18.700 --> 00:14:20.935 And that’ll lead to all sorts of problems. 00:14:20.935 --> 00:14:26.620 Rather unfortunately, lots of cheaper LED light bulbs have barely adequate cooling. 00:14:26.620 --> 00:14:29.430 I mean, just look at a bulb like this. 00:14:29.430 --> 00:14:32.882 While many of them utilize materials with decent heat conductivity, 00:14:32.882 --> 00:14:39.110 this is the only surface it can radiate from (the plastic diffuser is just covering an air pocket). 00:14:39.110 --> 00:14:45.190 That’s not a lot of surface area, and so even in open air these units get pretty hot. 00:14:45.190 --> 00:14:50.370 And you make things even worse when you stick ‘em in enclosed fixtures which trap in that heat. 00:14:50.370 --> 00:14:53.933 Some clever lamp designs have temperature sensors on the driver board 00:14:53.933 --> 00:14:59.046 and will reduce their light output slightly to prevent exceeding a certain design temperature, 00:14:59.046 --> 00:15:03.334 but that’s almost never marketed as a feature so it might as well not exist. 00:15:03.334 --> 00:15:09.635 Devices like these, being free from the massive design constraints that crop up when emulating a light bulb, 00:15:09.635 --> 00:15:13.073 can rather easily be optimized for a long service life. 00:15:13.354 --> 00:15:17.345 Of course, that doesn’t always happen because we can’t have nice things, 00:15:17.345 --> 00:15:21.914 but this particular model seems to have done a pretty good job in my estimation. 00:15:21.914 --> 00:15:26.432 The circuit board with all the parts that get hot is made of thermally conductive material 00:15:26.432 --> 00:15:29.354 and is bonded to a large aluminum housing. 00:15:29.354 --> 00:15:34.201 That spreads the heat produced by those components away from the board, keeping it relatively cool, 00:15:34.201 --> 00:15:40.620 and all this surface area allows that heat to dissipate into the air before anything gets too hot. 00:15:40.620 --> 00:15:44.207 And of course, this won’t be enclosed inside a light fixture because… 00:15:44.207 --> 00:15:45.957 it is the fixture! 00:15:45.957 --> 00:15:50.777 Taking a look at it with a thermal camera reveals that yeah, it’s just not getting that warm 00:15:50.777 --> 00:15:53.139 even after being lit for a half-hour. 00:15:53.139 --> 00:15:58.005 The light saucer is dissipating about the same quantity of heat as this LED bulb, 00:15:58.005 --> 00:16:03.001 but with much more surface area to go around, nothing manages to get that hot. 00:16:03.001 --> 00:16:08.400 Again, some designs are gonna do better than others, but for the record I think this one is quite good. 00:16:08.400 --> 00:16:11.533 I especially like how the electrolytic smoothing capacitor, 00:16:11.533 --> 00:16:15.814 arguably the single most prone component to failure from heat damage with time, 00:16:15.814 --> 00:16:21.064 was attached to long leads so it could be mounted away from the circuit board entirely. 00:16:21.064 --> 00:16:22.114 Smart thinking. 00:16:22.480 --> 00:16:29.330 I imagine that this thing outperforms nearly every LED drop-in bulb when it comes to component cooling. 00:16:29.330 --> 00:16:34.210 And lastly, I mean you gotta admit these things are wonderfully versatile. 00:16:34.210 --> 00:16:39.660 You can stick ‘em pretty much anywhere, and have a sleek, effective, and efficient light. 00:16:39.660 --> 00:16:42.442 If you have a light fixture somewhere that just isn’t cutting it, 00:16:42.442 --> 00:16:46.859 and you can’t put bright bulbs in it because they keep cooking themselves to an early grave, 00:16:46.859 --> 00:16:51.010 products like this one might be a great solution for you. 00:16:51.010 --> 00:16:55.334 They also satisfy certain code requirements, for instance in closets. 00:16:55.334 --> 00:16:58.361 These days simple bare-bulb fixtures aren’t allowed 00:16:58.361 --> 00:17:03.750 because it’s too easy to break the bulb and potentially cause electrical or fire hazards. 00:17:03.750 --> 00:17:08.205 So it’s no surprise that these are popping up everywhere in new construction, 00:17:08.205 --> 00:17:11.240 and you might be looking for something similar when remodeling. 00:17:11.240 --> 00:17:17.601 And, good news, models with pull-chains exist for closets where the box is unswitched. 00:17:17.601 --> 00:17:20.885 But despite how much I kinda admire this idea, 00:17:20.885 --> 00:17:23.615 I’m probably never going to buy one of these. 00:17:23.615 --> 00:17:27.101 In fact, I’ve taken them down from my new home because, 00:17:27.101 --> 00:17:30.906 unlike some of you weirdos who want their home to feel like a hospital for some reason, 00:17:30.906 --> 00:17:33.688 I much prefer cozy, warm lighting 00:17:33.688 --> 00:17:39.509 and not just because I live in a cold place and evidence seems to suggest that's a pretty good predictor of color temperature preference 00:17:39.509 --> 00:17:41.398 but because I’m right. 00:17:41.398 --> 00:17:45.001 And these are balanced at 3000 kelvin degrees. 00:17:45.001 --> 00:17:52.348 Now, that’s pretty warm, but you see I like to go with the true incandescent look of 2700 kelvin, 00:17:52.348 --> 00:17:57.276 and these two lights were both in places where they turned on with another light fixture, 00:17:57.276 --> 00:18:00.944 and if there’s one thing I like less than cool white color temps, 00:18:00.944 --> 00:18:04.321 it’s clashing color temps, so these had to go. 00:18:04.321 --> 00:18:08.214 And the fact that I needed entirely new light *fixtures* 00:18:08.214 --> 00:18:12.592 and to be comfortable replacing them just to fix that problem... 00:18:12.592 --> 00:18:14.502 is pretty sad. 00:18:14.502 --> 00:18:22.491 Now I should point out that there are a number of products like this that are available with selectable or sometimes even tunable color temperatures. 00:18:22.491 --> 00:18:30.148 That’s nice, but you’re still locked into however good or bad the actual LEDs might be in those devices. 00:18:30.148 --> 00:18:32.124 The diodes in here are pretty good. 00:18:32.124 --> 00:18:37.096 I've left of number of these in place because, where they aren’t clashing with some other lighting, 00:18:37.096 --> 00:18:40.546 I find them totally fine - surprisingly good, actually. 00:18:40.546 --> 00:18:42.333 I have no issues with them at all. 00:18:42.333 --> 00:18:48.382 But if they had, for instance, a really bad color-cast or had a poor color-rendering index, 00:18:48.382 --> 00:18:52.096 well there’d be nothing I could do outside of taking the things down. 00:18:52.096 --> 00:18:54.115 And what happens when it fails? 00:18:54.115 --> 00:18:58.651 That’s gonna happen eventually, and it may happen in a rather unpleasant way. 00:18:58.651 --> 00:19:01.781 You’ve seen dying LED lighting, I’m sure, 00:19:01.781 --> 00:19:07.727 and rather unfortunately this often means flashing, pulsing, or even rapid strobing. 00:19:07.727 --> 00:19:11.014 To be clear, that’s largely a fixable problem. 00:19:11.014 --> 00:19:16.650 The driver, if it’s smart enough, could notice when that's happening and shut itself down. 00:19:16.650 --> 00:19:21.200 But smart designs cost money and so are frustratingly rare. 00:19:21.200 --> 00:19:25.789 Frankly, for the sake of folks who can be significantly affected by such flashing lights, 00:19:25.789 --> 00:19:29.901 I feel like some regulatory action might be warranted on that front. 00:19:29.901 --> 00:19:33.325 But regardless of how these meet their eventual demise, 00:19:33.325 --> 00:19:38.710 when they go you now have a problem which can’t be solved with a light bulb. 00:19:38.710 --> 00:19:41.070 Now you need electrical work! 00:19:41.070 --> 00:19:45.490 It’s simple work, yeah, and someone like me will be confident doing it. 00:19:45.490 --> 00:19:51.509 But it’s not correct to assume everyone is, nor should we assume people will want to learn. 00:19:51.509 --> 00:19:56.330 They shouldn’t have to, that is a completely unreasonable expectation. 00:19:56.330 --> 00:20:00.628 And, uh, some folks might try who, let’s be frank... 00:20:00.628 --> 00:20:03.509 shouldn’t which presents some risk of danger. 00:20:03.509 --> 00:20:07.809 Plus, let’s not forget the swaths of renters who couldn’t do it even if they wanted to 00:20:07.809 --> 00:20:09.601 and knew what they were doing. 00:20:09.601 --> 00:20:14.109 Even if we assume a best case scenario and you are totally confident 00:20:14.109 --> 00:20:16.838 and competent around electrical wiring, 00:20:16.838 --> 00:20:21.954 let’s say you bought a number of these things, put them in a nice arrangement inside your remodeled kitchen, 00:20:21.954 --> 00:20:25.247 and 5 years down the line one of them fails. 00:20:25.247 --> 00:20:28.693 Now the model you installed isn’t available anymore. 00:20:28.946 --> 00:20:32.369 What now? Do you buy an entirely new set? 00:20:32.369 --> 00:20:35.443 Or do you live with one of them not matching the rest? 00:20:35.443 --> 00:20:40.769 Best case scenario you bought some spares five years ago, but the ones that remain in service 00:20:40.769 --> 00:20:44.412 have shifted their color a bit or worn in some other way, 00:20:44.412 --> 00:20:48.775 and the spare you have annoyingly is not quite like the others. 00:20:48.775 --> 00:20:52.549 That’s not gonna bother some folks but it definitely would bother me. 00:20:52.549 --> 00:20:55.779 Still, I appreciate these things for what they are. 00:20:55.779 --> 00:21:00.328 A very good, incredibly flexible and inexpensive solution; 00:21:00.328 --> 00:21:03.360 models similar to this cost about $10 each. 00:21:03.360 --> 00:21:06.799 That’s very cheap for such a sleek looking light. 00:21:06.799 --> 00:21:09.679 And arguably these are a better use of resources 00:21:09.679 --> 00:21:16.699 than the same electronics packed into a light bulb which can’t keep itself cool and dies way too early. 00:21:16.699 --> 00:21:22.401 But the cost of the problems it solves is paid for by the new ones it creates. 00:21:22.401 --> 00:21:28.739 And unfortunately, this concept is creeping into more and more light fixtures. 00:21:28.739 --> 00:21:31.237 Some of them, like I mentioned way back in the beginning, 00:21:31.237 --> 00:21:37.845 are genuinely quite interesting designs which are only possible thanks to the freedom of the LED. 00:21:37.845 --> 00:21:43.080 But a lot of them are just rehashes of old concepts but made disposable. 00:21:43.446 --> 00:21:44.799 Like this thing. 00:21:44.799 --> 00:21:47.220 This is just another boob light but worse! 00:21:47.220 --> 00:21:52.140 It’s got selectable color temperatures, yeah, but it doesn’t go all the way down to where I want it 00:21:52.140 --> 00:21:56.140 and its CRI is quite poopy. 00:21:56.140 --> 00:22:01.350 And you know each of these has a custom driver board so serviceability is probably zero. 00:22:01.350 --> 00:22:06.450 Seriously, don’t even entertain fixtures like these, get it out of your head. 00:22:06.450 --> 00:22:09.720 If you want this look, find something with light sockets. 00:22:09.720 --> 00:22:12.358 Then buy whatever bulbs you want. 00:22:12.358 --> 00:22:15.238 Every time you install one of these light fixtures, 00:22:15.238 --> 00:22:17.255 or even something like this, 00:22:17.255 --> 00:22:21.359 you’re locking yourself or someone else out of future choice. 00:22:21.359 --> 00:22:24.734 Maybe it’s the wrong color temperature for that person’s preference. 00:22:24.734 --> 00:22:26.631 Or your future preference. 00:22:26.631 --> 00:22:32.790 Maybe you’d like to put in a smart bulb but now you can’t because this thing has nowhere to put a bulb. 00:22:32.790 --> 00:22:38.393 Or even simpler, as technology progresses LEDs get more efficient and have better light quality, 00:22:38.393 --> 00:22:44.970 and this might be pretty great right now, but it’d be unwise to bet on it being the gold standard in 10 years. 00:22:44.970 --> 00:22:47.217 Or even just five. 00:22:47.217 --> 00:22:50.027 User-serviceability is a pretty good thing, 00:22:50.027 --> 00:22:54.528 and we nailed that concept over a century ago with the light socket. 00:22:54.528 --> 00:22:59.141 And these days not only is it giving us the ability to replace a dead light bulb, 00:22:59.141 --> 00:23:02.542 but it's giving us options to customize our lighting. 00:23:03.640 --> 00:23:08.274 Maybe it’s best to hang onto it, for just a little while longer. 00:23:08.801 --> 00:23:10.741 I’d like to end with a bit of advice. 00:23:10.741 --> 00:23:17.966 If you experience a lot of premature LED bulb failures you might want to give the filament-style bulbs a try. 00:23:17.966 --> 00:23:21.039 They come in frosted varieties now if you’d prefer that look, 00:23:21.039 --> 00:23:25.370 just look for “traditional glass style” or some other marketing language like that, 00:23:25.370 --> 00:23:32.504 and it’s my personal assessment that these tend to have more effective cooling thanks to two key design differences: 00:23:32.504 --> 00:23:35.649 First, the driver ends up separated from the diodes 00:23:35.649 --> 00:23:39.738 so the heat those two components make isn’t compounded together. 00:23:39.738 --> 00:23:42.401 That’s good as neither gets as hot. 00:23:42.401 --> 00:23:49.424 But also, since the driver is inside the metal screw-base which is in physical contact with the light socket, 00:23:49.424 --> 00:23:53.726 a lot of the heat the driver produces ends up getting sunk there, 00:23:53.726 --> 00:23:57.754 where the surface area of the socket then helps to dissipate that heat. 00:23:57.754 --> 00:24:00.757 Bonus points if your fixture has a porcelain socket 00:24:00.757 --> 00:24:04.987 since there’s a lot of thermal mass to slow the warm-up and cool-down processes, 00:24:04.987 --> 00:24:07.408 reducing thermal cycling stress. 00:24:07.408 --> 00:24:12.064 I have had great luck with this bulb style from various manufacturers, 00:24:12.064 --> 00:24:13.987 even dimmable versions. 00:24:13.987 --> 00:24:17.228 While I had some premature failures, I remember only two, 00:24:17.228 --> 00:24:24.281 and they both happened within a month of installation, so they were almost certainly just due to some manufacturing defect. 00:24:24.281 --> 00:24:25.751 As far as the rest? 00:24:25.751 --> 00:24:32.504 I installed… 21 of them in various styles back in the fall of 2016, 00:24:32.504 --> 00:24:37.259 several of which were run for many hours a day at various dimmer settings. 00:24:37.259 --> 00:24:42.598 And they all were working flawlessly through the spring of 2021 when I moved out. 00:24:42.598 --> 00:24:47.643 Now, none of those were in enclosed fixtures, so they did have that going for them, 00:24:47.643 --> 00:24:50.123 but I figured I would share that with you. 00:24:50.123 --> 00:24:53.965 Four and a half years without changing a light bulb is pretty great. 00:24:53.965 --> 00:24:56.848 Though, I did take them down once to dust them… 00:24:56.848 --> 00:25:02.267 Frankly I’ve had great luck with LED bulbs in general for the past 6 or 7 years, 00:25:02.267 --> 00:25:07.938 and every time I’ve had a premature failure — regardless of the bulb style or manufacturer 00:25:07.938 --> 00:25:10.196 — it’s happened super early. 00:25:10.196 --> 00:25:14.377 My experience is so long as the bulb makes it past a month or two, 00:25:14.377 --> 00:25:16.614 it’s probably in it for the long haul. 00:25:16.614 --> 00:25:23.351 I really don’t know what’s happening to all the folks who claim they can’t even get an LED bulb to last as long as an incandescent. 00:25:23.351 --> 00:25:25.548 I think you’re just cursed or something. 00:25:25.548 --> 00:25:31.062 OK, I’m gonna cut in here because I decided to put one of these LED filament style bulbs 00:25:31.062 --> 00:25:35.825 in front of the thermal camera to get a sense of how it dissipates its heat. 00:25:35.825 --> 00:25:40.456 And this is very interesting, this confirms something that I had read at one point 00:25:40.456 --> 00:25:44.018 but since this was at the very end of the video I didn’t bother fact-checking it, 00:25:44.018 --> 00:25:49.300 which was that these are actually filled with a gas which is pretty thermally conductive. 00:25:49.300 --> 00:25:56.862 So the heat that’s being produced by the LED, uh, emitters on the sticks of glass is actually convecting inside the glass 00:25:56.862 --> 00:25:59.013 and getting to the outside surface. 00:25:59.013 --> 00:26:03.195 Now, the number that the camera is showing is almost certainly inaccurate 00:26:03.195 --> 00:26:09.598 because glass is a bad surface for an infrared camera to detect heat from, 00:26:09.598 --> 00:26:14.376 however clearly it’s getting warmer and, ya know, I can just feel it with my hands. 00:26:14.376 --> 00:26:22.580 The glass is actually pretty warm, it’s about as warm as the surface of the, uh, surface mount light fixture. 00:26:22.580 --> 00:26:27.350 The other thing is we can see that clearly the socket is sinking some of its heat. 00:26:27.350 --> 00:26:31.279 Uh, this is a plastic so it’s gonna be more accurate as far as the numbers, 00:26:31.279 --> 00:26:33.950 let me see what it reports… 00:26:33.950 --> 00:26:36.659 about 32 degrees Celsius at the top there. 00:26:36.659 --> 00:26:41.029 And, uh, yeah it’s warm but not very warm. 00:26:41.029 --> 00:26:44.907 Uh, and if we unscrew the bulb… 00:26:44.907 --> 00:26:49.429 again the metal surface, because it’s shiny, isn’t a good indicator but we can see 00:26:49.429 --> 00:26:54.690 the plastic ring right around at the bottom and that is plenty warm. 00:26:54.690 --> 00:26:58.659 So, the… this is the lava lamp behind there that you’re seeing. 00:26:58.659 --> 00:27:06.019 So anyway, I’m pretty confident in saying that actually this design is pretty great 00:27:06.019 --> 00:27:08.473 when it comes to its thermal performance, 00:27:08.473 --> 00:27:13.559 and so again if you keep having issues with LED bulbs that are failing quite frequently, 00:27:13.559 --> 00:27:15.457 you might want to try these. 00:27:15.457 --> 00:27:19.542 Particularly in those fixtures that might be problematic for you. 00:27:19.542 --> 00:27:24.306 Oh, and if you have can lights or some sort of spot light situation going on, 00:27:24.306 --> 00:27:30.126 I would highly suggest you look for an LED bulb which emulates PAR lamps. 00:27:30.126 --> 00:27:36.757 Putting in a frosted lamp is fine but the difference between a diffuse light and a directed light 00:27:36.757 --> 00:27:40.059 can make a dramatic impact on a space. 00:27:40.059 --> 00:27:44.183 It’s pretty popular to put these LED adapter thingies into can lights, 00:27:44.183 --> 00:27:48.861 and they can be a great refresher especially if your cans have old trim rings, 00:27:48.861 --> 00:27:51.356 but they’re usually frosted. 00:27:51.356 --> 00:27:56.528 You really oughta try something like this if you can, it makes a surprising difference. 00:27:56.528 --> 00:27:59.208 This doesn't really have anything to do with lamp lifespan, 00:27:59.208 --> 00:28:07.835 but I recently got some high CRI floods at 3000K and I gotta tell ya they look exactly like halogen lamps to me. 00:28:07.835 --> 00:28:15.417 And they also demonstrated quite well that color temp and CRI figures don’t necessarily mean a whole lot. 00:28:15.924 --> 00:28:22.426 This is also 3000K, but it clashed badly with the 2700K lighting in the room. 00:28:22.426 --> 00:28:28.507 Yet the PAR 38 bulbs I put in the kitchen don’t at all despite being 3000K. 00:28:28.507 --> 00:28:30.305 At least, they don’t to my eyes. 00:28:30.305 --> 00:28:33.716 Color rendering and perception is really complicated. 00:28:34.223 --> 00:28:36.000 Have you heard about brown? 00:28:36.852 --> 00:28:39.410 ♫ serviceably smooth jazz ♫ 00:28:40.634 --> 00:28:46.087 But it’s also made everything SO MUCH MORE COMPLICATED-AH 00:28:46.087 --> 00:28:48.961 They’re only possible thanks to the LED. 00:28:48.961 --> 00:28:51.752 They’re a clever implementation… 00:28:51.752 --> 00:28:53.726 is that right? 00:28:53.726 --> 00:28:54.871 I guess it is! 00:28:54.871 --> 00:28:59.748 They're a clever implementation of the technology and have several distinct… 00:29:00.592 --> 00:29:01.592 I wasn’t... 00:29:01.592 --> 00:29:03.721 You probably couldn't see that but now I’m worried that you could. 00:29:03.721 --> 00:29:06.632 Early.. *coughs* 00:29:06.632 --> 00:29:07.869 Bleughuh 00:29:07.869 --> 00:29:15.785 But, there is a real, actual trade-off you made when you designed an incandescent lamp to last longer and… 00:29:15.785 --> 00:29:16.837 oh, there’s a... 00:29:16.837 --> 00:29:19.203 There’s a tense problem in the sentence. 00:29:19.203 --> 00:29:20.478 Did you catch it? 00:29:20.478 --> 00:29:21.462 I did. 00:29:21.462 --> 00:29:22.700 That’s why I’m starting over. 00:29:22.700 --> 00:29:24.671 I don’t like how that sentence started. 00:29:24.671 --> 00:29:27.864 Let's just ignore how weird it is and keep going. 00:29:27.864 --> 00:29:32.113 There were slash are other self-ballasted lamps because… 00:29:32.113 --> 00:29:33.794 whoops! 00:29:33.794 --> 00:29:35.142 Besides! 00:29:35.142 --> 00:29:37.144 Yeah I know it doesn’t weight much at all but c’mon 00:29:37.144 --> 00:29:39.371 *clunk* anyway... [laughs] 00:29:39.371 --> 00:29:45.293 They’re designed to work in recessed cans or spotlight fixtures which you may or not have want need what now? 00:29:46.869 --> 00:29:48.889 Sorry for being away for so long. 00:29:48.889 --> 00:29:50.553 I was moving. 00:29:50.553 --> 00:29:54.734 Which was great because, as you can see from this video, it has presented the opportunity for CONTENT. 00:29:54.734 --> 00:29:58.498 Anyway, yeah, I don't hate the idea, exactly, but I find it quite troubling. 00:29:58.498 --> 00:30:00.606 Do what you want, though, I won't stop you. 00:30:00.606 --> 00:30:02.333 YOU CAN'T CUT BACK ON USER-SERVICABILITY! YOU WILL REGRET THIS!