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Comment by thiht | Hacker News Reader

Are people really still mad about this?? In my country we switched to LED lights like… 10 years ago, maybe more? It’s not a big deal, we had light, we still have light. I don’t see what makes it "awful, ugly, unpleasant", is it really that bad? That just sounds like a gross overreaction to me but maybe I’m missing something?

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I am. LED lights are too bright, wrong colours, etc. I will want incandescent lights (including incandescent Christmas lights). We don't need to be very bright, nor does not need to be on all the time (especially, Christmas lights can be made flashy and don't need on all the time). But, often, they are using LEDs that are too bright and wrong colours. (Actually, I had also heard on CBC radio that some scientists also say so, even the ones that they try to make more red than blue, are still wrong)

What does "wrong" mean? Does it mean "not the same as incandescent"?

For me, "wrong" as in "blue glare." It only takes a few minutes for a glare headache to start forming.

Some of it could be because I have defective red/green color vision, but so do about 15% of all males.

+1 for headache-inducing. Perhaps not all of them, but certainly the blue-shifted ones I eventually had to remove from my living room.

white, cold temperature light

LED lights can be exactly as bright or dim as you want them to be, and they exist in many colours. Some are customizable on the spot.

I don't know where you live, but here you can get LEDs in all kinds of color temperatures and brightnesses.

My house is about 55 years old, originally it had 3 x 60W bulbs in the living area. So dark. Now it has LED downlights and 2 pendant lights - I added it up to just over 60W, and much brighter. I'll take the modern lighting thanks!

LEDs with a low color rendering index (CRI) make everything look "flat" and even "fake". It's hard to describe.

Part of the issue is that if you go to a hardware store this is what it will be.

A couple of years ago I looked through all the bulbs at my hardware store, they had Chinese brands and name brands like Philips and Osram. None of the bulbs had a CRI higher than 80.

>None of the bulbs had a CRI higher than 80.

I work for an electrical wholesaler and checked. We have 18 bulbs in stock with a CRI higher than 80, which is the average. The lowest is 55.

It's weird. It is not rare to find at a given store that all the name brand bulbs have "CRI > 80" (probably 80.5) and some cheap off-brand product has CRI > 95. You really need to check the labels. IME, high CRI products are otherwise fine as well, e.g. no flicker.

People eat fast food and don't understand why people cook at home. People listen to music on their phone speaker and don't understand why people would buy HiFi speakers. People use the internet without an ad-blocker and don't see a problem with it. What they're missing is what you're missing regarding light bulbs.

The next time you're in a restaurant, public place or somebody's home and notice that you're feeling good and comfortable, try to think about what makes you feel that way. It is probably that they've put thought in things such as illumination.

Yes! LEDs are the wrong color, flicker, and are directional plus they burn out in just as much time as a good old incandescent but cost more than 10 times the price and when that happens you can't just dispose of them in the regular household garbage (actually one could). They are only better than the compact fluorescent that were all the rage for a while.

Err LEDs do not burn out at all in the same timeframe as incandescents. If this happened to you, the LED bulbs were defective.

Well that's the problem. There are a lot of low-quality, defective LED bulbs being sold. Consumers don't have an easy way to find good ones. Just paying more or looking for a trusted brand name is no guarantee of quality.

This is true of all consumer products, not LEDs specifically. LED lighting has been mainstream long enough now that you can find plenty of information on which specific brands and models are decent.

My personal anecdote is that I have yet to have any Philips LED bulbs die on me. The oldest ones I have are from 2012.

I bought 8 Osram leds and all died within a year. I complained and got a few for free and those also died, I think even faster.

FYI, Osram is a zombie brand these days. The company was broken up and the consumer lighting brand was sold to some Chinese company that is selling some stuff branded with it.

I've had LED bulbs that lasted for well over a decade. Most seem to be pretty indestructible. But I've got one rail-mounted system using GU-5.3 leds that all seem to die pretty quickly. Not sure what's going on there.

Or the use case. LEDs are quite sensitive to heat, so use in closed or inverted fixtures will decrease their lifetime dramatically.

It's the same with vinyl disks, audiophile headphones, Win7, etc. There's no point arguing about these things.

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