Lament HN: Light Bulbs
I have a lamp that takes G9 capsule-lightbulbs. These have two little legs made of wire loops that push/click into sockets — about the size of a large bean.
I have two 30W halogen bulbs made by GE. A known brand, known technology, radiating across the spectrum in warm colors with stable light.
They are also far too hot. I want to replace them with LEDs. Searching Amazon for a minute felt as comfortable as buying in a black market at 4am. All brands I’ve never heard of. Most have bad reviews focusing mostly on either unwanted flicker, wrong color, or high failure rates.
I went to the website of a bricks-and-mortar store I trust. They have a Philips bulb and two other brands. Philips is a brand I recognize. The bulb is not omnidirectional. The other two have some reviews. One off-brand has multiple reviews saying the bulbs flicker and have odd color profiles.
The other off-brand has fewer bad reviews. I load up my cart with two bulbs for $12. There is a ~$2 fee to click and collect from the local branch of this bricks-and-mortar store.
I go back to Amazon. No handling fee but the price for is higher by ~50%. I go back to the bricks-and-mortar store and take the fee-hit, mostly because I don’t want to be wandering around the shelves in store for too long in these trying times.
I will pick the bulbs up on Saturday. The technology change will save me energy and save my lamp heating up too much.
LEDs are a wonder of the modern world. What’s not a wonder is this late stage capitalism shopping experience. I lament it as much as I am no longer surprised by it. This little experience encapsulated everything that’s awful about light bulb shopping online, and if I think too hard about it, quite a lot of other things in the modern world too.
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