Extending the Life of Your LED Lighting

Folks, as an Electrical Engineer, I can say that much of the LED lighting bulbs out there are designed to intentionally fail within about a year of normal use. There are ways to prolong their life after you buy them, the only down-fall is loss of brightness. If you wish to save money, there are ways to keep from having to buy them as about as frequently as the original incandescent bulbs. Remember that LED bulbs still cost about four to five times more than the incandescents used to cost, and last about as long.

Watch this video for a tip that works on most LED bulbs.

 
An additional benefit to this hack is that you also cut down the power consumption of the LED bulb. The power was cut almost by 2/3rds. So, the more power pushed through LED's, the brightness does not go up proportionally because more current through LED's causes them to generate more heat than is necessary, which is a loss of energy. When you turn on a LIGHT switch, you don't want HEAT, you want LIGHT. Right? Heat deteriorates LED's. That's why over-drivng them greatly reduces their lifespan. They should last between 50,000 hours and 100,000 hours. Folks, 100,000 hours is a little over the light running for more than 11 years straight, 24/7. So, you can do the math from there.
 
Also, if you have a newer vehicle (which I can't afford) that has LED tail lights, those too are intentionally being over-driven to ensure they don't last. One can place a resistor in series to cut down on the amount of current flowing through them. One fell told me the replacement assembly was almost $1600, but that was some years ago for Cadillacs. Maybe they are all cheaper in price nowadays, but still, why allow manufacturers to rip you off like they are doing. Many LED fixtures are more than bright enough that dimming them down with a 15 to 30 ohm resistor should make a HUGE difference in longevity. There are videos on Youtube that help to explain this better if this interests you in another money-saving hack that stops manufacturers from taking your money needlessly from your pocket. Modern ethics are so corrupt, and yet the public just moves on through life not giving it much notice.
 
Also, if you have a newer vehicle (which I can't afford) that has LED tail lights, those too are intentionally being over-driven to ensure they don't last. One can place a resistor in series to cut down on the amount of current flowing through them. One fell told me the replacement assembly was almost $1600, but that was some years ago for Cadillacs. Maybe they are all cheaper in price nowadays, but still, why allow manufacturers to rip you off like they are doing. Many LED fixtures are more than bright enough that dimming them down with a 15 to 30 ohm resistor should make a HUGE difference in longevity. There are videos on Youtube that help to explain this better if this interests you in another money-saving hack that stops manufacturers from taking your money needlessly from your pocket. Modern ethics are so corrupt, and yet the public just moves on through life not giving it much notice.
One of our vehicles is a 2018 Ford Expedition with LED everything.
Could you break that down to lower but not ignorant skill level?
As a matter-of-fact, I will just PM you. I have a couple other things
I will disclose to you.
 
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Well, you can try these from Amazon, and install just one for starters, in series with the turn signal line to both rear fixtures for starters, and see how much it dims the LED's down. 6 Ohms should not make all that much difference in the intensity, but it will lower the current through the LED's, and every bit helps to prolong their life.

Amazon Items

Ideally, it would be better to have a resistor break-out box once can use to arrive at the right resistance value for intensity of the LED's, but most people don't have such a thing, and may not know what shops in the area have one. THEN you could order a different resistance value for the running and brake/blink LED lines. Some are as high as 30 ohms. I have seen LED tail lights that are WAY too bright.

Anyway, I would say that for most LED fixtures on vehicles, the 6 Ohm resistors should not post any problems. If you really want to experiment, install the resistors only on one side, and see what difference they make in the lifespan for yourself...if you feel adventurous. You can always remove the resistor if you don't like the results, and re-splice the wiring.

If you don't know to do that, then let someone do it who knows how to crimp splices into wiring. Soldering is even better, but, again, most people don't know how to do that kind of stuff.

Those resistors are also ideal for converting incandescent tail lights to LED. The problem is that you don't gain any efficiencies in your electrical system in those conversions because the current draw is about the same with either type of bulb when you connect the resistor in parallel with the tail light fixture. That's how they keep the hyper-blinking that generally happens when replacing incandescents with LED's in vehicles.

Do this ar your own risk, of course. Wouldn't want you to get shocked...

MM
 
Folks, as an Electrical Engineer, I can say that much of the LED lighting bulbs out there are designed to intentionally fail within about a year of normal use. There are ways to prolong their life after you buy them, the only down-fall is loss of brightness. If you wish to save money, there are ways to keep from having to buy them as about as frequently as the original incandescent bulbs. Remember that LED bulbs still cost about four to five times more than the incandescents used to cost, and last about as long.

Watch this video for a tip that works on most LED bulbs.

Wow! Great stuff...thank you Musicmaster. (And, I really like the accent.)
 
Ok, let me get this straight, LED lights are a waste of money?

What is the best lighting in your opinion?
What about flourescent lighting?

I'd like to know because I'm wondering what lights work best for my library at school. We currently have flourescent lighting in those long tubes. Half the time on a sunny day I don't really need it. But in winter I always turn the lights on. However people say flourescent lighting isn't great and also, its probably not the best for reading books by.
 
I do know that solar lighting is rubbish, the ones in your garden. They fail after a few months, so I'm not wasting any money buying them anymore.
 
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