Longer-lasting light bulbs: it was complicated

It's a hot topic.

Oh, wanna learn about high pressure sodium lamps? Have I got a video for you.

What about that weird fluorescent adapter thingy?

Technology Connextras (my second channel where stuff goes sometimes)

Technology Connections on Mastodon:

This channel is supported through viewer contributions on Patreon. Thanks to the generous support of people like you, Technology Connections has remained independent and possible. If you'd like to join the amazing people who've pledged their support, check out the link below. Thank you for your consideration!

[TechnologyConnections]

So... yeah. And I didn't even get into things like the effects of thermal cycling stress!
Couple of fun facts that didn't make it in: one way to make an "energy-saving long-life" bulb is to design it for 130V, thus when on 120V supplies it's being underrun. And those are very weird because, for instance, it'll often be marked a "60W bulb" - but only at 130V. So in a sense it's like installing a dimmer that you can't go over 85% brightness or so. It works, but you have the same efficiency and output trade-off.
And to touch on that thermal cycling stress, light bulbs for stage lighting were pretty niche and expensive, so stage lighting controllers would often have slow warm-up period upon power-up and never switch lights fully off when a show was going - instead, a very small amount of current was run through the filament to keep it hot, but not hot enough to glow. There were plenty of ways to extend the life of incandescent light bulbs, but every one had its own little unique trade-offs. Be glad we have better tech now!

[glennvanderburg]

"The world is complex, and you should be skeptical of simple narratives." That's a great message that is applicable far beyond the topic of planned obsolescence.

[quinnobi]

"Incandescent light bulbs are called that because they rely on the phenomenon of incandescence to produce light in a bulb." I love this explanation.

[mwbullen]

Remember those 90's batteries that you could pinch to see the color change to show how much charge was left? I'd be interested in a video explaining those.

[ruairi_d]

Congratulations on 2 million subscribers!

[sergiorr]

You are a youtube treasure. Its very difficult to find a channel like this that places enough effort to carefully investigate a topic, displays well documented demostrations and with arecording quality that is just amazing. Thank you for your educational videos and greetings from Colombia.

[Anfros.]

One of the reasons LEDs burn out too quickly sometimes is that the electronics in their bases are heat sensitive. So installing them in a fixture that doesn't allow air circulation around the lamp, like most fixtures meant for incandescent and halogen bulbs, can make them overheat and burn out. So if you find you are changing LEDs often it might be due to the fixture not the light source.

[ZandarKoad]

"The world is complex, and you should be skeptical of simple narratives." So true. Such a simple, straightforward message and narrative. I'm not skeptical at all of it.

[hydra]

Another important thing about the centennial light. They never turn it on and off, so it doesn't experience thermal shock like a bulb in normal use would.

[Etienne.]

I am so thrilled... I asked you about this topic on Patreon, you made a lengthy response concluding with "I've never really thought of making a video about this, but honestly you have me thinking about it now"... and here it is ! Thanks a lot !

[audvidgeek]

For a good comparison for this is to look at projector bulbs that were used in movie, slide, or other film projection. Those bulbs typically only lasted about 50-100 hour long, but were extremely bright and gave excellent color rendering for displaying vivid color images. The tradeoff of the nice bright light out of them was the short life span

[jacobwing]

This is consistently some of the best content created on this platform. No hyperbole. I would watch this with cult like devotion if it were on pbs, or British television, or if I had to pay a cable bill to see it. You are truly adding to the society you are a part of, while educating those who choose to watch. Thank you, and I hope you know your self worth, because it is immense!

[starlingeyed]

I was one of the people who used the Phoebus cartel story to prove planned obsolescence, so this was some humble pie for me, haha! Amazing and informative, as always. I love getting to learn something new--especially when it corrects something I'd thought before!

[rj]

One addition, as watchers of big already know: running leds with lower current not only makes them last longer but also makes them more efficient (opposite to incandescent lights )

[CalebFrey]

Kelvin... degrees. [stares knowing exactly what he did]
Always gotta turn on closed captions for the extra Alec sass

[inasimplerhyme]

I just wanted to say thank you for the lack of ads. As someone who (occasionally) uploads YouTube content, I know it's possible to have it set so that ads periodically interrupt videos. This would probably make you more money, but you don't, and it is such pleasure! There's nothing like watching 20-40 mins of quality content with no interruptions. Again, my thanks!

[Enjoymentboy]

My grandmother had a solution that enabled her to make her lightbulbs last so long that she never had to buy any. What she did was save all of the burnt out bulbs in her house and whenever she went to a hotel or restraunt she would take some with her and swap them out for working bulbs. I remember once when out for dinner she stood up, unscrewed the bulb in the fixture over the table, took out the bulb in it and put in a burned out bulb and then proceded to call the waitress over to tell her we had no light. I don't condone this behaviour but I was always amazed at how brazen she was and never got caught.

[nathanahrens]

As an electrical contractor this was an amazing dive into a niche area. Thank you

[jeremiahrex]

I worked on a product at a previous job that required long life bulbs. The product used incandescent bulbs to generate light of a specific temperature for a spectrometer. The oranger long life bulbs put out more energy in the wavelengths desired, so everything was calibrated for that. My part in that project came decades later when our supplier of long life bulbs discontinued them. We had to hunt around for another one that was fairly close and then recalibrate the device. An uncommon use case for sure!

[Bant_Panorama]

Fellow Chicagoan here, I was a retail rep for the ComEd energy efficiency programs for around 7 years all over the loop, west side and Evanston/Skokie. We discounted CFLs and LEDs for over 10 years along with smart strips and TSTATS.

My company line for when people invariably asked my why they do it was it was easier to discount products than build out infrastructure etc. Spent most of my time explaining color temperature and lighting facts labels. I wish I would have had some of your clean explanations for the technology stored in my brain all those years ago as you explain things very concisely.