The Race To The Underside: LED Bulbs And DFM

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The dropping cost of LED bulbs is accelerating. We examine a few brands to see how they're approaching design and lower cost manufacturing. You have in all probability observed LED bulbs situated subsequent to the incandescent and compact fluorescent (CFL) bulbs at your local hardware retailer. I spend way a lot time in these aisles. That is capitalism at its finest! I find the battle of latest tech, smart manufacturing, and massive demand intriguing. I've switched nearly all of the lights in our house over to LED in part due to the (small) energy savings, but mostly because I'm lazy: A 22-12 months lifetime means I don't must climb a ladder for some time. Once i purchased my LED bulbs a couple of years ago they had been round $15 a pop. As with most all tech, I've watch the price drop over time. In this case, LED bulbs in my local Residence Depot (Philips 60W) are hovering round $10.



On a latest visit to the lighting aisle I used to be taken off guard when a pack of two 60W bulbs by Philips had been selling for $5 ($2.50 each!). This isn't only a drop in value, this is an all out price warfare between some heavy hitters. Confusing me was the fact that proper subsequent to these 60W bulbs for $2.50 had been 60W bulbs for $10 from the identical producer. Upon nearer inspection I noticed something odd. These lower cost LEDs had a show life of 10 years versus 22. Okay, EcoLight in order that they shaved some cost by shortening the life span of the bulb. Neat advertising and marketing trick but the engineer in me wished to know the way. Nothing too crazy. Each bulb claimed to be 800 lumen at numerous power consumption levels (8.5W to 9.5W). And that i solely observed this now but a budget bulbs are non-dimmable. Hard to see within the above picture but the bulb in the middle (cheap Philips) is slightly shorter than the dearer Philips bulb.



The TCP is a couple of centimeter taller. This has little impact on lighting however millimeters of materials will start to matter. I did a fast initial take a look at to see how the bulbs carried out. 13.2W). Maybe the actual LEDs eat 9.5W and the ballast (the factor changing AC to DC) consumes the remaining. This could be an excellent-sneaky advertising ploy, as I assumed the ranking on the surface of the packaging was the overall reduce energy consumption consumption of the bulb. All three bulbs had opaque plastic higher bodies. The expensive Philips bulb got here apart with some sturdy twisting. Beneath was a neat plastic diffuser. Beneath the diffuser was a mixture of small and huge LEDs. Not what I would have expected - 14 massive LEDs, 6 small. A, as effectively as the date code: 2014-10-14, EcoLight a delta of 7 months from after i purchased the bulb. The date might be in relation to design version and not manufacture date.



With quite a little bit of prying power, the metallic LED PCB comes off the steel base heatsink. This was to be expected; there was good thermal grease sandwiched between the PCB and the heatsink. Some further prying and we can see the ballast beneath. I received a bit forceful with a hacksaw so ignore the hack marks for the moment. The metallic base is threaded onto the plastic base and then spot crimped to the plastic (you may see the a number of dots or dimples across the metallic base). This is the primary clue that Philips is engaged on simplifying the manufacturing course of. Moreover, the two exposed wires in the picture should not soldered to the bottom, they're compressed to it, additionally simplifying the meeting course of. The ballast! Numerous caps, an inline fuse, transformer, inductor, and a few transistors. C1, C2 and C3 are metalized polyester film capacitors. Right here is the rear side of the ballast.