I'm going full circle on lightbulbs. LEDs are great in certain applications that need small form factor, low energy draw, and low heat production, (or vertical farming!) but room lighting isn't one of them in my opinion.
Every bulb has tons of electronics in it, AC/DC converter, control system, dimming control, noise reduction, flicker reduction, etc. And all of these electronics and LEDs themselves, and heatsinks all require metals and semiconductors, some of them relatively rare. LED bulbs are heavy, there's a lot of.mining that goes into it.
Not only that, but all of these electronics (and heatsinks) make the bulbs expensive. Because of the expense, to serve the residential market they usually use the cheapest and worst quality materials and construction. This drops the price to "affordable" (they're like, $10 a bulb without subsidies?), but the cheap electronics means most will crap out after only a few months or a few years. This is the same timescale as incandescent bulbs.
Incandescents, on the other hand, are cheap, have only regular metals and glass (and maybe we could go back to bamboo filaments?), are light (less material), and cheap. They are also more accessible to manufacture for areas that want to do it themselves.
And they have better quality light. LEDs have a ways to go before I'm convinced they're not unhealthy, due to flicker, potential for eye-damage, and weird spectra.
Anyway, in areas where grid energy is clean (nuclear and hydro), saving energy on lighting is not a huge carbon saver, and in cold climates, the heat of incandescents can actually offset heating bills a little, which are usually natural gas as well.
Saying all that, I still have LEDs in my house, but when they burn out I'm considering switching back if I can find them.
I'm going full circle on lightbulbs. LEDs are great in certain applications that need small form factor, low energy draw, and low heat production, (or vertical farming!) but room lighting isn't one of them in my opinion.
Every bulb has tons of electronics in it, AC/DC converter, control system, dimming control, noise reduction, flicker reduction, etc. And all of these electronics and LEDs themselves, and heatsinks all require metals and semiconductors, some of them relatively rare. LED bulbs are heavy, there's a lot of.mining that goes into it.
Not only that, but all of these electronics (and heatsinks) make the bulbs expensive. Because of the expense, to serve the residential market they usually use the cheapest and worst quality materials and construction. This drops the price to "affordable" (they're like, $10 a bulb without subsidies?), but the cheap electronics means most will crap out after only a few months or a few years. This is the same timescale as incandescent bulbs.
Incandescents, on the other hand, are cheap, have only regular metals and glass (and maybe we could go back to bamboo filaments?), are light (less material), and cheap. They are also more accessible to manufacture for areas that want to do it themselves.
And they have better quality light. LEDs have a ways to go before I'm convinced they're not unhealthy, due to flicker, potential for eye-damage, and weird spectra.
Anyway, in areas where grid energy is clean (nuclear and hydro), saving energy on lighting is not a huge carbon saver, and in cold climates, the heat of incandescents can actually offset heating bills a little, which are usually natural gas as well.
Saying all that, I still have LEDs in my house, but when they burn out I'm considering switching back if I can find them.
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