Dude, it's bitchin' cool! The number of over-the-hill hippies it takes to turn on and repair one of these light bulbs is ____________ 
Posted on 04/23/2012 3:19:08 PM PDT by SMGFan
After months in development, Philips is finally ready to sell LED light bulbs that last 20 years. Could be quite a game-changer — after all, if you didn't have to change a light bulb between now and when your unborn child graduates from high school, just think of all the precious minutes you could spend on other tasks. And the environment would surely thank you.
Philips put the $60-bulb on sale yesterday, which was also Earth Day, of course. The bulb uses LED — otherwise known as light-emitting diodes — to light things up, instead of filaments, reports BBC News.
(Excerpt) Read more at consumerist.com ...
$60, huh you can already buy the LED bulbs for way less.
There are companies coming out in a few months with 75 watt equivalent bulbs for around $15 that last 20+ years.
I am an LED believer. Though I can’t comment on this bulb specifically, and the good LED lights may still be a couple of years out.
If the $20 price is legit then I would buy a few for the garage, basement, etc.
It will last for 20 years?
So they have had one for 20 years in use and it lasted that long?
What if it breaks?
I would estimate that I have spent maybe 10 to 15 precious minutes in the last 20 yrs changing lightbulbs. For that I am supposed to spend $1500 replacing all the bulbs in my house? /s
Let’s see, I usually get one year out of a plain old Edison bulb which costs about 50 cents. .50 x 20 years = $10.00. Call me when your LED bulb costs $10.
The lighting quality will sell it. If the lighting quality sucks, it will be off the market in a hurry.
Only way I’m paying $60 for a light bulb is if it gets installed for me, by a naked Playmate, while I’m sitting directly under it. I don’t care how long they last, light bulbs just ain’t worth 60 bucks.
LEDs are amazing, but all the hype is bullsht. The market will develop when the technology is ready.
Cold light!
Of course there are times when you want warm light! For that, incandescents are perfect.
I will not buy it. I will not use them. I do not believe them.
60 years is a long time. Lamps get knocked over. Power spikes burn out bulbs. Newer technology.
Hell... If you move you have to take your light bulbs with you. I guess you just buy a half dozen and carry them around the house with you. Better yet get one of those flashlight head straps and wear it around the house. Say I’ve got maybe 20 bulbs in my house. That’s $1200. I’d have to make payments.
Doesn’t seem too practical.
I’ve been stockpiling incadescents. Not using the new bulbs until there are no more incadescents left.
Every CFL bulb I have tried has underperformed the regular bulbs for both lumens and life.
It doesn’t say anything about the color. I think LED bulbs will be the wave of the future, but first, they need to get the color right. That will probably be by mixing different led elements to produce a good color that people can live with.
I’ve used compact flourescents for years in our house. Some makes give off a horrible color, but (I hate to say it) GE bulbs are a pleasant color to live with, IMHO.
We save a ton of money on our electric bills. LED bulbs would be even better, but first they need to get the price down and get some livable color from them. Also, unless you want spotlights, they also need to develop bulbs that give light that isn’t all directed one way. Indirect lighting only goes so far.
I will not buy it. I will not use them. I do not believe the hype about them.
Sorry I would pay a naked playmate 60 bucks to change my light bulb.
bfd as is often said. IIRC, there are a couple of actual Edison bulbs still burning after almost 100 years (or more-didn’t do a search on it today)after first lighting.
It’s like a table dance. Only at home. And you get a free light bulb.
Dude, it's bitchin' cool! The number of over-the-hill hippies it takes to turn on and repair one of these light bulbs is ____________
Mary Beth, Mary Beth, you are so uninformed.
What about the energy needed to mine the materials needed to make the LED, and then to refine them in to purity levels to make the useful?
Gallium, Arsenic, Antimony, Indium, Germainuim, Yttrium, and the many other minerals used to dope the surfaces are not exactly eco-friendly to mine and refine.
You can pay me now or pay the Chinese later.
Yabut ... look at all the people you’d put out of work ... YOU know ... one to hold the bulb and two to turn the ladder ....
Whoa. I thought CFL’s were the best thing since sliced bread.
So why do we now need LED?
Oh yeah...CFL’s didn’t match their hype....wonder if LED will.
let the suckers test it out
The kind you stick in the ground so when you're drunk, you can get to the door before puking ...
And I pulled off all the stick-in-the-ground things, arrranged them cell up, in a wirew basket I've had since .. I don't know .. (took 19, I think) and after charging all day, I hang it off of my kitchen light.
Great FREE night light
('cept o'course the initial cast of LESS than 29 bucks)
At my age,never——I’d have to add the bulb to my will.
Will I get a refund if I die before the bulb?
Yep no-brain er is not too far away from reality when (not if) a bulb breaks and you have mercury spewed around the home of an yet-to-be born child.
Obama is trying to turn the US into an something approaching an Indonesian village complete with a night market.
2 years?! I can’t get any to last 1 year! And I still have some incandescents that came with the house that are now going on 7 years.
That’s the ticket.
I don’t understand what would make this bulb more desirable than the LED bulbs you can buy now for as little as $8.50 on Amazon. I realize that it costs a bit more for dimmable.
My guess is it is the promised lifetime, but unless they give you a guarantee for that 20 year period, I don’t know how you can count on it.
I’ve just started dabbling in LED bulbs. I’ve got one that looks a lot like a nice 60-watt incandescent, which works great as a standalone light in my TV room (light enough to move around, but doesn’t cast harsh light on the screen like the CFL). It’s 6 watts.
I’ve got one in my bathroom that is only 2 watts, and puts out a more “point source”. I pointed it at a mirror, and it is a fine light for almost everything you have to do in the bathroom. I have a CFL that is slightly unscrewed in the other light socket, so if you need extra light you just turn it a bit. At 2 watts, you can afford to leave the thing on all day. However, this isn’t really the right light for a bathroom, my plan is to mount it on a directional light off a wall that I can use as a reading light, because with it’s directional feature it’s like a 100-watt bulb if you point it where you need it. It is surprisingly bright for 2 watts, and it only cost me $10 bucks and it’s dimmable.
But I’m seeing how long it will last. That is what my test is now.
Still, if I had a guaranteed 20-year cycle, I would pay $60 for LED bulbs for all of my enclosed hard-to-reach fixtures.
The plan is to be able to run most of the lights in my house on a UPS unit. I’m still working on a UPS unit big enough to run my FIOS box and TV for 8 hours. :-)
I am really going to buy a propane generator (I was going to use gas, but with propane I am truly off-grid for months if things go bad — otherwise I’d use natural gas because I’ve never lost gas feed before). I want to be ready when the EMP pulse hits.
I have them. I use them. I believe them.
Until Big Nanny comes in five years, tells you its mumbo jumbo radiations are killing the speckled butterfly of the south pacific, and you have to change it
I’ve had one of these Philips bulbs at my desk for the past year. Very pleasing incandescent-like lighting. Easy on the eyes. No complaints & we were able to find ‘em for around $17 each.
I don’t, I won’t, I don’t care.
I can’t make out details at all under LED lighting. LED lead lights really are the pits.
...what needs investigating is how many senators and congresscritters have stock in this “new” bulb?
Yep. According to this story, one has been going since at least 1905, so that's 107 years so far.
I still have a computer I bought 20 years ago. The problem is obsolesence. But I say let the market decide. I don’t want Obama telling me I’ve got to buy it though.
I respect your opinion, I disagree, I like ice cream.
The apartment complex my sister lived in changed all her bulbs to the new ones. I hated those new bulbs as they were dim when first turned on, and took a while to reach their full capacity. When in the bathroom, you'd basically be peeing in the dark.
In 2009 I moved into an apartment that had been refurbished with a couple dozen or so CFL bulbs in the ceiling. The bulbs were brand-new when I moved in. Within a year more than half of them were burned out. The savings to my electric bill was more than negated by the cost of replacing the bulbs prior to me vacating the unit.
Put in a DC transformer for you light circuit and normal lights will last 20 years.
Weird......every light, but one (don’t wanna use the flash), in my house just went out moments after reading that story.
after bozo spends billions on them , the price will drop. LED’s are the future and CFC’s are shit
We replaced 30 Halogen 75 Watt bulbs with 18, 17 Watt LED lights in our main gallery room. And an additional amount in the downstairs gallery so for 36 LED bulbs that really work with artwork. We had been looking for this type lighting for about three years but this past August we found the TCP par 38 LED. Spent about $1,500. in total. So that's the bad news.
Here's the good news. Our light bill went from $450-500 per month down to $200-250 per month. So now in the 9 months we have recouped all monies spent. An added benefit is that the air conditioning has gone practically off as halogen 90 watt bulbs put out a ton of heat.
Now we are seeing the prices beginning to tumble. So if I outlive the first thirty six I'll need to replace them all in 20 years. Doubt that will happen.
AKA Lenin's birthday...
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