The Race To The Underside: LED Bulbs And DFM
The dropping value of LED bulbs is accelerating. We examine a few brands to see how they are approaching design and decrease value manufacturing. You've got in all probability noticed LED bulbs situated next to the incandescent and compact fluorescent (CFL) bulbs at your local hardware store. I spend approach a lot time in these aisles. That is capitalism at its best! I discover the battle of recent tech, good manufacturing, and large demand intriguing. I've switched virtually all of the lights in our house over to LED partly due to the (small) energy savings, however principally because I am lazy: A 22-12 months lifetime means I do not must climb a ladder for a while. After i bought my LED bulbs a few years ago they were around $15 a pop. As with most all tech, I've watch the price drop over time. On this case, LED bulbs in my local Residence Depot (Philips 60W) are hovering round $10.
On a latest visit to the lighting aisle I used to be taken off guard when a pack of two 60W bulbs by Philips have been selling for $5 ($2.50 each!). This isn't just a drop in worth, this is an all out price struggle between some heavy hitters. Complicated me was the truth that proper subsequent to these 60W bulbs for $2.50 had been 60W bulbs for $10 from the same producer. Upon nearer inspection I observed something odd. These lower value LEDs had a display life of 10 years versus 22. Okay, so that they shaved some price by shortening the life span of the bulb. Neat advertising trick but the engineer in me needed to understand EcoLight reviews how. Nothing too crazy. Each bulb claimed to be 800 lumen at various power consumption levels (8.5W to 9.5W). And that i only noticed this now however a budget bulbs are non-dimmable. Onerous to see in the above image but the bulb in the middle (cheap Philips) is slightly shorter than the more expensive Philips bulb.
The TCP is about a centimeter taller. This has little impact on lighting however millimeters of supplies will start to matter. I did a fast initial check to see how the bulbs performed. 13.2W). Perhaps the actual LEDs devour 9.5W and the ballast (the factor converting AC to DC) consumes the remainder. This could be a super-sneaky advertising and marketing ploy, as I assumed the rating on the outside of the packaging was the overall energy consumption of the bulb. All three bulbs had opaque plastic upper our bodies. The costly Philips bulb got here apart with some robust twisting. Beneath was a neat plastic diffuser. Below the diffuser was a mixture of small and huge LEDs. Not what I might have anticipated - 14 huge LEDs, EcoLight 6 small. A, as well because the date code: 2014-10-14, EcoLight a delta of 7 months from after i purchased the bulb. The date is probably in relation to design model and not manufacture date.
With quite a bit of prying drive, EcoLight reviews the steel LED PCB comes off the metallic base heatsink. This was to be anticipated; there was good thermal grease sandwiched between the PCB and the heatsink. Some further prying and we are able to see the ballast underneath. I received a bit forceful with a hacksaw so ignore the hack marks for the second. The metal base is threaded onto the plastic base and then spot crimped to the plastic (you'll be able to see the a number of dots or dimples around the steel base). This is the first clue that Philips is engaged on simplifying the manufacturing process. Moreover, the 2 exposed wires in the picture are usually not soldered to the bottom, they are compressed to it, additionally simplifying the meeting course of. The ballast! Numerous caps, an inline fuse, transformer, inductor, and some transistors. C1, C2 and C3 are metalized polyester movie capacitors. Here is the rear aspect of the ballast.
