Probably like the rest of you, I am adapting to the discontinuation of incandescent bulbs as best I can. But there is just one problem. I keep buying LED bulbs (which should be good quality–and look like regular bulbs, for all intents and purposes). And they keep burning out on me. Not in a matter of hours, perhaps. Maybe in a matter of months, I suppose.
I might as well tell you all. I live in Detroit. And my house was built in 1946. It originally belonged to a Jewish couple, call them the B’s. And then my parents bought in, probably in the late 1960’s.
I don’t think the fixtures in my house are c. 70 years old though. They do look more modern than that. (Although actually, my whole house looks very modern. People are surprised when I tell them it was built in 1946.)
The base of the bulbs are a little hot, when I take them out. But I do follow the recommended wattage on the box of the LED’s. And I think if there was a fire hazard, it would be apparent by now (I would never post a question about a life-and-death situation, of course).
What brand are you buying?
I only buy Cree’s, and I write the date on each lamp when it is installed, and save the receipt and UPC, since they have a 3-year warranty. So far, I’ve had no failures.
You might want to have your voltage checked, to see if it’s particularly high or low.
I think it has less to do with your home’s electrical circuitry and more with the quality of the LED lights themselves. It would help if you named the brand(s) you’re using. They are not all the same and have standards of quality just like all electronics. My best guess is that the LEDs you’re using don’t have a proper heat sink and are “burning out” prematurely. More so if you’re using the lights in a sealed enclosure.
Seriously now…as you know, you can still buy incandescent bulbs, as well as long-lasting compact fluorescents. Do the other types of bulbs seem to burn out quickly too? Correct me if I’m wrong but if there are voltage problems it should affect all types of bulbs, right?
I think I usu. buy GE’s, as I said. Or whatever the grocery store has (but I just looked at all the bulbs I bought–and they are all GE, sure enough).
There’s another strange thing I’ve noticed. I buy these fluorescent bulbs, from Dollar Tree. And they last much longer than the LED’s. The only problem with them, is I can’t fit them in all my light fixtures.
I saw your response of GE brand LEDs after I made my post. At least they are a brand name so let’s give them the benefit of doubt:p
I still think high heat is the cause of your LEDs failing. You’re sure you’re using the correct lumens-rated lights in the appropriate wattage-rated sockets?
Now I’m almost certain you are not using GE’s LEDs. It sounds like you’re using the halogen bulbs I linked to in my previous post. They are energy-efficient bulbs, i.e. uses 53 Watts to output the equivalent of 75 Watts worth of luminosity.
An LED that is equivalent to a 75 watt incandescent would use 13 to 15 watts. I don’t think they sell any LEDs that use 53 watts for regular home consumer use. Such a monster would probably cost hundreds of dollars and blind you.
Looking at the GE web page, I agree with Saturn Dreams that you are almost certainly using halogen bulbs.
All I can say, is I buy whatever they have, be they LED’s, halogen or whatever. Also, since I am a relative newbie (if that’s the right word) when it comes to electronic issues, I use the word “LED” as a very broad (and perhaps inaccurate, I now realize) term.
Btw, it does say “.9 Year Life” on the package. So could burning out after a couple of months, in fact, be normal? (Although I could swear they sometimes burn out only after a much shorter time, say a month or two.)
If these are indeed the bulbs you are using, the reviews on Amazon are mixed. The good reviews talk about the nice colour of the light, but the several bad reviews all talk about early failure. Seems like it’s a common problem with this product.
It’s not “perhaps” inaccurate, it’s totally wrong. Being a “newbie” doesn’t excuse it.
That said, halogen incandescents eke out a bit more efficiency by running the filament at a higher temperature. If the quality control is spotty then I could see that they’d be more likely to fail.
I used halogens for a while but rarely got more than a year out of them. I switched to CEFs to save money, but they were horrible - slow to ‘warm up’ gradually losing efficiency and still a short life. Now I now use LEDs everywhere I can and I like the (instant) light and the minimal power use. I don’t like the up front cost, but I can live with that if they last as long as they are supposed to.
