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Comment by gt565k | Hacker News Reader

Hah... the light bulbs today are the biggest scam ever.

Light bulbs made 100 years ago are still working today, because the materials used, more precisely, the filament, was made out of a lot more durable materials. However, companies quickly realized that if ligh bulbs lasted so long, no one would buy new light bulbs.

If you have not seen the light bulb conspiracy, please watch it on youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WPrTk90VZM

Planned obsolescence...

You can buy long lasting light bulbs made with stronger filament, of course they are no LED, but will probably last a century.

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Nonsense.

You can trade long life for energy efficiency. That's all.

After some tweaking and market testing people settled on the current balance.

The old stuff is just not very efficient, that's why it lasts so long - nothing stops you from doing that today, just derate the bulb, use a bulb intended for a higher voltage (or put a dimmer on it).

> After some tweaking and market testing people settled on the current balance.

FWIW, old style incandescent lightbulbs have effectively been banned in europe, australia, brazil and other places for years, and will be such in the US next year, IIRC.

While I think that is overall a good thing it's not exactly an invisible hand thingy.

i think the balancing he talked about happened far earlier than the bans. or what bans on what kinda incandescent lightbulbs are you talking about?

> Light bulbs made 100 years ago are still working today

This is a bit of an urban legend. There is indeed a lightbulb that has been running for >100 years I think, but it is nearly never cycled. And that's what kills filaments, not continuous running.

Can you provide a name from, or a link to, a company that makes these long lasting bulbs?

There's a Spanish company called OEP Electrics[1] that makes non built-in obsolescence light bulbs.

The CEO has reported discredit campaigns and even death threat letters [2]

(spanish links sorry)

[1] http://www.oepelectrics.com/ [2] http://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2012/06/03/economia/1338718307...

Even still, that doesn't do anything about the energy savings you get with LED...

I'm just saying. Plus, I still don't understand why people care about light bulbs saving energy. The majority of electricity consumed in a houses and apartments comes from the AC unit, refrigerators, heaters, TVs, and computers.

Implying that this light bulb will save you money would imply that you're terrible at keeping your lights off, and thus you should save money by continuing to exercise bad habits that cost you money.

The way I see it is, the problem with energy consumption in households usually stems from the consumer' habits, and not so much from the equipment used. People are terrible at turning the lights off. Just like my roommates. If I don't turn the lights off, no one else does.

It's going to vary based on the duty cycle and size and age of the refrigerator, but a modern fridge might only average 60-70 watts.

A modern TV might be 100 or 200 watts.

Saving 80 watts in a 2 bulb fixture starts to compare to those numbers.

Heating and cooling, lighting does not compare to.

It's because in this day and age, I shouldn't be turning the lights off, ever. They should be turning themselves off.

We humans are quite bad at rote work...

bingo! You've hit the nail on the head on all fronts. But light blubs and the act of turning on and off lights are very tangible to the average person, compared to thermostat programming. Awareness itself is a big step, sadly.

Disclosure: I work for an energy efficiency company and basically telling people to do turn off / lower the settings is our business: opower.com.

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