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submitted 1 year ago by L4s@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

Incandescent light bulbs are officially banned in the U.S.::America’s ban on incandescent light bulbs, 16 years in the making, is finally a reality. Well, mostly.

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[-] Coeus@coeus.sbs 72 points 1 year ago

I've been in the industry for over a decade and I find it fascinating how much lighting has changed in that time. When LEDs were first available, they were $60+ per bulb. Now you can get multipacks for under $10. Also, CFL bulbs were almost universally hated by everyone (and for good reason) now we no longer sell them. We strictly sell LEDs for regular lighting and we still sell incandescent specialty bulbs. Also, when LEDs first arrived there was a lot of distain for them, especially by the elderly. They wanted their energy wasting incandescent bulbs dammit! It seems the majority of them have come around because they've learned that LEDs are better.

[-] GlendatheGayWitch@lib.lgbt 13 points 1 year ago

Is there a brand that's better for LED? I get migraines and the stroking effect of LED bulbs can be a trigger.

LED christmas bulbs particularly bad. It felt like walking into a rave at the Christmas store.

[-] WetBeardHairs@lemmy.world 11 points 1 year ago

Yeah, many of those christmas lights use pulse width modulation to control brightness and it is very noticeable. I hope that gets changed over for an analog voltage dimmer soon.

[-] cerevant@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

Also, cheap ones run directly on AC, so they flicker at 60 Hz (50 in Europe) because the current is only flowing for half the cycle.

[-] AndrewZabar@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

How do high-end home LEDs get around this? Do they have a battery that caches the current between cycles?

When my wife and I bought our place, we renovated and made all lights LED. The overheads in the living room and kitchen are quite bright and steady, so they must avoid this somehow.

[-] cerevant@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

A bridge rectifier flips the negative current to positive, so instead of a sine wave you get a series of humps. Then a capacitor acts as a battery like you describe to smooth out the dip between humps.

[-] CmdrShepard@lemmy.one 3 points 1 year ago

There are half wave rectifiers and full wave rectifiers. The former only converts the positive AC to DC and shuts off for the negative half (causing flickering). The latter will convert both positive and negative halves to DC and don't flicker.

[-] cerevant@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

Well, LED lights are half-wave rectifiers that light up, so you wouldn’t add one. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a half wave rectifier referred to as a bridge rectifier.

[-] AndrewZabar@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

Ok, I get the gist. Thanks!

[-] Aux@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

FULL BRIDGE RECTIFIER!!!11

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this post was submitted on 03 Aug 2023
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