I was today years old when I discovered that there are adjustable light bulbs. Had to replace some of the bulbs in several ceiling cans. Got to Target without checking what type of bulbs (warm vs. cool) were in the other cans, and discovered that now you can buy multipurpose bulbs and then adjust them at home.
The older I get the more I find myself echoing my 97-year old late mother's phrase of awe and admiration: "This modern world..."
Oh wow, new to me too. Now you say it, of course there are.
ReplyDeleteA sad thing about these LED bulbs is even when they burn out, they are still good. It's usually just one LED chip that goes bad. You can fix it with the following tools:
ReplyDelete1. Utility knife
2. Multimeter with diode setting
3. Magic marker
4. Soldering iron
- Break the seal between the bulb and base with the utility knife.
- Look down the inside of the base and see a ring of LED chips and use the multimeter leads placed on either side of each chip in the right direction (they will light up if placed on the right side of each chip that is good). Mark the ones (usually one) that don't light up.
- Take the soldering iron and melt the solder on the bad one(s) and remove it. You can just melt some solder so it spans the two ends of the chip you just removed to close the circuit in series. If want the same brightness and you have another spare burnt out bulb, you can remove one LED chip and solder it in the one you are fixing. Just remember to place it in the same direction. This saves on e-waste produced and you don't have to buy a new bulb. Check YouTube for a tutorial.
I've disassembled dozens of LED bulbs and found very few LED failures. Typically it's the electrolytic capacitor which fails, or rather the capacitor's connection to the rest of the circuit. Often spring clips are used to connect the capacitor's leads and after numerous heat-cool cycles the clips lose their tension and become intermittent. Soldering the clips doesn't help because the clips don't take solder well.
DeleteThese are also available as smart bulbs. You can change the setting with an app on your phone.
ReplyDeleteWe don't have those manually controlled ones, as far as I can see, in the EU/UK. Probably because they don't want you fiddling with a bulb in a live socket. Nanny state gone mad! You can get the Smart bulbs that you adjust with an app though. Nanny state wanting you to be a slave to their little surveillance devices!
DeleteGod it'd be so much simpler to be a conspiracy theorist.
How many tomorrow years old were you yesterday?
ReplyDelete"I was today years old" = ???
Deletefind a computer and look it up
DeleteIt seems I was today years old too! Thanks!
ReplyDeleteAre these dimmables as bright as your previous bulbs?
ReplyDeleteThese are not dimmable. The adjustment is to the color spectrum of the lights, not their brightness.
Delete1. Three for $12.79 plus tax at the local Tar-jeh. expensive?
ReplyDelete2. How often will you be changing the setting of these bulbs? Set and forget? Will they be "I should change that to another setting - maybe tomorrow, when I get out the ladder?" and never do?
3. Is a 65W LED bright enough?
Please tell us about your results?
ReplyDeletep.s. there is a strange typo in the opening of the first sentence.
I looked at adjacent lights, set the color temp accordingly, screwed it in, turned it on.
DeleteNo typos. Look up idioms when you don't recognize them.
Got it - internet slang. Me oldster don't get.
Deletep.s. why does that (your youthful phrasing and my re-ply) sound like Tarzan speaking?
A switch on the side? Remote-control ones have been around for I don't know how many years.
ReplyDelete