A revolution is upsetting the lighting business as LED lightbulbs replace energy-hogging incandescent ones. This is good news for consumers and the environment; using less energy reduces the greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change.
But this shift comes with a cost, exemplified by a century-old lightbulb factory in St. Marys, Pa., that is the latest to shut down.
For much of its long history the LEDVANCE facility, 120 miles northeast of Pittsburgh, produced lightbulbs under the Sylvania brand. Now all it produces is scrap metal.
Times change and so do technology. The truth is the modern light-bulb is far more sophisticated then those outdated technologies, and China built the factories to make the inexpensive advanced, highly-efficent switch-mode power supplies and LED panels that make the modern bulbs much more affordable -- rather then the United States. But as technologies advance, it really is a win for most Americans, even if the old technology manufacturers are left behind.
"If it's been a few years since you shopped for a light bulb you might find yourself confused. Those controversial curly-cue ones that were cutting edge not that long ago? Gone. (Or harder to find.) Thanks to a 2007 law signed by President George W. Bush, shelves these days are largely stocked with LED bulbs that look more like the traditional pear-shaped incandescent version, but use just one-fifth the energy."
"A second wave of light bulb changes was set to happen. But now the Trump administration wants to undo an Obama-era regulation designed to make a wide array of specialty light bulbs more energy efficient."
"At issue here are bulbs like decorative globes used in bathrooms, reflectors in recessed lighting, candle-shaped lights and three-way light bulbs. The Natural Resources Defense Council says that, collectively, these account for about 2.7 billion light sockets, nearly half the conventional sockets in use in the U.S."
This is a very interesting video about street lighting.
It turns out humans (and most animals) have a lot of trouble seeing yellow light after dark, which means that much of supposed efficiency of high pressure sodium lights is wasted. Colder light colors, like that of the mostly obsolete mercury vapor lights of 1950s and 1960s, and modern LED bulb are better at lighting up a street with less actual light output. As the video notes, is some evidence today they made a mistake in 1970s ripping out mercury vapors lights in favor of the more "higher laboratory light output per watt" high pressure sodium.
LEDs can be made any color you want based on the phosphorous. Cold white is popular because you can use a dimmer light while it appears brighter to human and animal eyes. Warm white is less disruptive to sleep and wildlife, more pleasant to the eye, and with less light pollution (in theory) but it's harder humans to see. One interesting idea proposed in the video would be to have street lights start out at a lower-output cold white color in the early evening, and switch to a higher-output warm white color in the early hours of the morning, when fewer people are in the street but you don't to disrupt sleep as much.
Another interesting idea from the comments in the video would be to use high pressure lamps (or warm white LED bulbs) in residential neighborhoods, while using well aimed cold white LED in commercial areas, on highways, and other "high crash areas" such as city centers where there many pedestrians crossing the streets. Mixing warm white and cold white strategically could work to further warn drivers -- suddenly transitioning from a warm white color to cold white color could warn the driver that they are entering a "high crash area" and to use extra care proceeding through that area.
"Leonard McBean had been told for months that his south Los Angeles home was a firetrap. Decades-old wiring had never been replaced, a common situation in his low-income neighborhood. One Tuesday morning, McBean asked a friend about the electrical contractor working on their house. By Wednesday night, the same contractor—a man who gave his name as Yogi—had approved the Jamaican immigrant for $18,000 in energy-efficient improvements."
“I said, ‘I don’t have that money,” McBean, a 67-year-old retired medical shuttle driver, told me. “He said, ‘Mr. McBean, don’t worry, you’re not going to pay a lot, just $100 a month.’ He said it was an Obama program.”
"When McBean electronically signed the contract two years ago, he didn’t realize he was consenting to have a lien placed on his house, meaning the county could take the home away for lack of payment. "He didn’t know the escrow payment attached to his mortgage would jump $400 a month. He didn’t know the lien would make the home difficult to sell."
What are the differences between different waterproofing rates on LEDs and other products?
Learning about the different types of RGB LED products that are out there.