Phillips make bulbs in Dubai that give approximately twice the lumens/watt, and last an order of magnitude longer, at marginal difference in production cost. The super high-tech clever secret? Just put twice as many LEDs in them. Strangely enough, Phillips don't produce these bulbs anywhere else in the world, I wonder why?

They are designed to be the most efficient available, matching high lumen output with very long life

In return for the development Philips gained exclusive rights to manufacture the lamps for a fixed duration, extending from their announcement in 2016. Philips expect to have supplied 10 million of the lamps by the end of 2021

These lamps are currently only available in Dubai. The likelihood of them appearing elsewhere is limited by the fact that they are designed to last a long time, which isn't profitable for the manufacturers.

I'unno I know this shit is happening in all areas all the time because capitalism but the blatant examples like this are really stupid and upsetting.

  • kristina [she/her]
    ·
    edit-2
    2 years ago

    i mean we do functionally understand how to make the perfect lightbulb that would exist for 100+ years. we just choose not to for profits. this goes for a lot of things.

  • Awoo [she/her]
    ·
    2 years ago

    You should be legally allowed to copy and produce a product that a company refuses to produce or supply, even for profit. Patents or not.

    • ClimateChangeAnxiety [he/him, they/them]
      ·
      2 years ago

      100,000%. If you own a patent you should have to link to a place to purchase the product on the patent office website. If it’s unavailable, you lose the patent.

      • ElmLion [any]
        hexagon
        ·
        edit-2
        2 years ago

        True, but then you'd also have to legally control their pricing, and all aspects of the sale, and so forth to make sure it's all reasonable and accessible to consumers. By the time you have a remotely fair system, you'll basically have nationalised the thing.

        Not to say that would be bad :sicko-wholesome:

  • ComradeSankara [he/him]
    ·
    2 years ago

    Yeah the great lightbulb conspiracy has been a thing almost as long as light bulbs have - They made a great doc on it I think its this one - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Light_Bulb_Conspiracy

    • ElmLion [any]
      hexagon
      ·
      2 years ago

      Oh yeah, read about this! I recall the Veritasium youtube channel did a video on it, but as with most 'journalism' on the matter, they conclude with "but it's all over now they got found out and so it's definitely no longer a thing and all was solved"

  • hexaflexagonbear [he/him]
    ·
    2 years ago

    An aside, but I always felt the goal of the "degrowth" movement was to get rid of completely wasteful shit like this. Rather than the bad faith interpretation that it's just "austerity by another name". Like if Davos summit or Trudeau pitched something similar sounding, I'd assume it's just more austerity, but it's not like capitalism isn't filled with a milliom little "inventions" which fuel growth and waste but don't improve our lives necessarily.

    • Sinister [none/use name, comrade/them]B
      ·
      2 years ago

      Usually when most people outside of the small niche of leftists talk about degrowth, they mean green austerity and deindustrializing. Which will be the end of any communist movement.

      • hexaflexagonbear [he/him]
        ·
        2 years ago

        You're saying this as if liberal/centrist degrowthers aren't themselves a tiny niche.

        • Sinister [none/use name, comrade/them]B
          ·
          2 years ago

          Well the mindset is widespread, the people would not label themselves as degrowthers but they are ideological similar to them. For example the “The Earth is sick, with Humanity” BS Facebook iamsodeep thing

        • D61 [any]
          ·
          2 years ago

          They just tend to be in positions of authority and/or the loudest about it. :pain:

  • RoabeArt [he/him]
    ·
    edit-2
    2 years ago

    More effort needs to be done to go after companies that make and sell electronics that break or fail after a few months, or one-time use electronics. They contribute so much to the growing pile of E-waste.

    This past Christmas I was at a party. A few people got these battery powered flashing Christmas light string necklaces as door prizes. The battery life on them wasn't so good, and at the end of the party most were barely glowing and some people were throwing theirs in the garbage. I dug them out so I could repurpose the flasher circuit for something else, but it got me thinking about all the cheaply made electronic treats like this that are out there and how many people just trash them after a few hours of use.

    This shit needs to be outlawed or regulated, but you just know the reactionaries will immediately start crying about the government taking their treats away.

    • ElmLion [any]
      hexagon
      ·
      edit-2
      2 years ago

      If we completely got rid of all planned obsolescence as a society, you're obsoleting an enormous percentage of jobs - unemployment would absolutely skyrocket and capitalist society would probably collapse. So it'll never be outlawed or meaningfully regulated.

  • opsecisgay [they/them]
    ·
    edit-2
    2 years ago

    If y'all are upset about this I'd like to introduce everybody to the one-time-use sex toys (non-rechargeable, sealed battery tiny vibrators) that companies are trying to push now lmao

  • mkultrawide [any]
    ·
    2 years ago

    I want incandescents back!

    I'm planning on buying like 50 incandescent Edison bulbs to stockpile because the light just isn't the same with the LED Edisons.

  • D61 [any]
    ·
    2 years ago

    I have yet to buy a compact florescent or LED light bulb that has lasted more than 2 years with intermittent use.