alt Hacker News> The use of solid-state technology gives the lights an extraordinary life-span, often measured in decades rather than years.
I have found this not to be the case. They seem to last several years, but not an amazing period of time. Also, the ones that were installed in my home are quite expensive, something like $45 per can (the whole thing must be replaced), and the price to install is $30 per can because the company changed their plug design in the last 5 years. So I end up spending $75 for each light, which is roughly $10 per year per light (per light-year?). That doesn't strike me as a great value, especially because I can't change the lights myself due to the wiring/plug situation. Maybe that piece won't apply in future years, but it's still a lot even if it's just $45 for the darn can.
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Yes, I was wondering if they really last longer than sodium-vapor lamps, which last about 5 years at a 50% duty cycle.
I have seen a lot of complaints about LED lamps with a short life, usually caused by defects in their integrated power supplies, typically arising from bad cooling.
On the other hand, I have more than a dozen LED lamps that have been continuously used for more than ten years and none of them has failed yet. They are mounted in classic Edison fixtures for incandescent lamps and they were made by Philips, but at the time when they were bought they were one of their better models, and having a 4000 K color temperature, i.e. very slightly yellowish, but not noticeably yellow, like the lamps with a color temperature less than 3000 K, which try to imitate incandescent lamps.
At home, my solution to that is to use lighting fixtures have Edison sockets inside for a bulb to screw into, just like they always used to.
The fixtures last forever, and may have already been there for half a century. It doesn't need changed.
The bulb lasts as long as it lasts, but is easily replaced. It can be dumb, or it can be smart. It can be changed for different color temperature or CRI or protocol or efficiency rating or whatever.