This is why (more than anything) I wanted the UK to stay in the EU. The EU seems to be one of the few organisations with the clout and principle to actually make this sort of thing happen - to improve people's lives and raise standards.

2 year guarantees being another example: https://europa.eu/youreurope/business/dealing-with-customers...

I can't figure out where the logic is in not selling these Dubai bulbs in other markets at all. Why not just sell the expensive-to-make bulbs at an equal or higher margin than standard ones? Are they protecting the bulb-replacement specialist industry by giving them something to do? Where are the competitive free market forces?

I've been using LED lighting at home for a decade+ now. Some bulbs I bought back then still work. Many of the newer ones are failing fast, obviously struggling with heat in the fixtures they're in, which has been bothering me. The bits I like best are adhesive LED strips driven by a stand alone power supply with PWM dimmer in the living room. They're mounted in aluminum backed diffuser rails. I expect that stuff will last near as long as I do. They're under-driven and run cool, and the power supply seems high quality.

Search for Osram Professional / Parathom Retrofit Classic A & B. I use them exlusively since a few years.

What would be interesting to me is how reliable the stated 1 Watt of those Phillips E14 Candlelights are, mine from Osram are rated at 2,5Watts. Otherwise looking very similar in specifications.

These led strips sound interesting can you suggest some brands/models? I've had led strips but not with a diffuser.

The LED strips are pretty standard. The diffuser is a separate product. Search for LED aluminum channel and you'll find some. They don't do a very good job of diffusing (would love to see some that are better at it) but they do act as a heatsink.

> Are they protecting the bulb-replacement specialist industry by giving them something to do?

That's the eternal question: How many computer scientists does it take to change a lightbulb?

ǝnssᴉ ǝɹɐʍpɹɐɥ ɐ sᴉ ʇɐɥꓕ ǝuoN

Isn't this already a "problem" with ordinary LED's though? For instance, I have the following first world problem: I bought a set of (newer, nicer) LED's to replace older bulbs as they burn out, but they've just been sitting in my closet for 4 years because not a single bulb has burned out since I moved in!

IMHO, you should have moved the existing bulbs to the closet for if/when the new ones fail, so you can enjoy your upgrade. :)

To answer your question, it really depends. If they run cool, are a good design, and aren't defective, they will last incredibly long. Often, one or more of those things isn't true.

That's exactly what I do, when I move I replace all light bulbs and keep the originals which I put back when I'm moving out.

There are plenty of junk LED bulbs on Amazon for instance. I got some Amazon Basic LED bulbs and a couple of them didn't even last a year.

I'm going to guess you didn't send them back for free replacements? And, guess again that the reason is "it's not worth the hassle [ie cost is greater than my time is worth]".

We should be punishing product manufacturers whose products fall in the bottom quartile of life expectancy - returns by Freepost (receiver pays the postage) and get £10 compensation + money back or replacement.

Perhaps then we could start addressing some of the planned obsolescence in low value goods.

See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoebus_cartel

> The Phoebus cartel existed to control the manufacture and sale of incandescent light bulbs. They appropriated market territories and fixed the useful life of such bulbs. … The cartel tested their bulbs and fined manufacturers for bulbs that lasted more than 1,000 hours.

Bulbs like this, even at a much higher price, would be great for high ceiling mounted fixtures where changing the bulb requires a ladder and probably moving furniture.

The most powerful of these is only 3W, which it says replaces a 60W incandescent. Nowhere near powerful enough to replace anything that actually uses a lot of power and would be high-mounted. Maybe if you have a chandelier full of 60W incandescent bulbs, which since this is Dubai we're talking about, is actually possible.

A specific use case would be recessed ceiling lights, which are not uncommon in this nominal wattage.

Yes that could be. Most recessed lights I've seen recently are spotlights, although that could be a function of where I am looking.

IMO, interior designers and light manufacturers need to work together to make attractive energy-efficient lighting solutions. For example, recessed halogen-based spotlights are a nightmare for LEDs - there's nowhere for the heat to go. Even if you get an LED bulb from aliexpress, it won't last long because of the lack of proper heatsinking. Meanwhile there's plenty of surface area that could be utilized for heatsinking if the fixture is designed for LEDs from the ground up.

Yeah this is my big gripe with LED bulbs - it's hard to find compact 200W equivalents.

The higher wattage units need good heatsinking, and I believe that is easier done with integrated units, where the "bulb" aka driver is not replaceable. I've also thought of making my own, with a strip of aluminum and mounting 1W/3W emitters to it myself. Easy enough to drive them at whatever wattage you want, and maintain good thermal properties.

I think there could be luxury market for them. They use a lot of more LEDs and electronics but there might be people that are willing to pay few times for more efficient LED that lasts longer and is gives more stable light when grid voltage fluctuates.

Customer must just be easily able to tell apart better LEDs and they can just by looking how many LED filaments per watt they contain.

I think China can make plenty of those if they become fashionable.

> Customer must just be easily able to tell apart better LEDs and they can just by looking how many LED filaments per watt they contain.

When I make buying decisions, I often struggle with exactly that: I have no way of telling what is "good" or "bad" quality, and I have to much experience with expensive stuff being repackaged cheap crap, so I end up buying cheap crap more often than I should.

One thing I really hate are discounts.

brand: this product is worth X brand, during some random days in the year: GUESS WHAT IT'S JUST X/2 TODAY YOLO me, always: you are ripping me off during the rest of the year

When some of the first edison style LED bulbs came out by Philips (looked like bug lights since the bulb looked yellow when off) they cost $40 a bulb. I did purchase one and is still being used.

Edison-style? As in the connection? I thought Edison-style bulbs had the strings of LED filaments.

I'd pay double for a lamp with double the life span because it's half the waste and that is just the right thing to do. Maybe they can then also give some warranties on this (internal timer?) I have already had about 3 Philips leds that I'm positive never got to over ~100 hours. Not the Hue ones, they seem to be pretty good quality.

I think the price would be rather quadruple or quintuple for undetermined (multiple(?) decades average probably) lifetime with no or standard warranty and better energy efficiency.

I would still gladly buy it if I was sure that higher prices actually pay for more undervolted LEDs and is not a marketing gimmick to "instill sense of quality".

This is exactly an area where government efficiency standards could help push the market forward (similar to CA in autos).

Exactly. Halogen and incandescent bulbs are allowed to be sold in Germany for decorative use, and what happens is that some people who can't imagine progress get their architects to put in multiple energy-sucking halogen lamps throughout their home. To hell with efficiency.

If the trick is running the leds at a lower, more power and lifetime efficient, voltage - then can't existing lamps be modified?

BigCliveDotCom does this, and mentions it in the linked YouTube video upthread.