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The Race to the Bottom: LED Bulbs And DFM

por Leticia De Gruchy (17-09-2025)


northern aurora lights on skyThe dropping value of LED bulbs is accelerating. We compare a few manufacturers to see how they're approaching design and lower price manufacturing. You've got most likely noticed LED bulbs situated next to the incandescent and compact fluorescent (CFL) bulbs at your local hardware retailer. I spend manner too much time in these aisles. That is capitalism at its most interesting! I discover the battle of latest tech, sensible manufacturing, and massive demand intriguing. I've switched nearly the entire lights in our house over to LED partly due to the (small) energy savings, however principally because I'm lazy: A 22-12 months lifetime means I do not have to climb a ladder for EcoLight dimmable some time. When i bought my LED bulbs just a few years in the past they have been round $15 a pop. As with most all tech, I've watch the price drop over time. On this case, LED bulbs in my local Dwelling Depot (Philips 60W) are hovering round $10.



Living Glow Rechargeable MultiSocket LED Bulbs 3packOn a recent go to to the lighting aisle I was taken off guard when a pack of two 60W bulbs by Philips had been promoting for $5 ($2.50 every!). This isn't just a drop in worth, this is an all out price struggle between some heavy hitters. Confusing me was the fact that proper next to these 60W bulbs for $2.50 had been 60W bulbs for $10 from the same manufacturer. Upon nearer inspection I seen something odd. These decrease value LEDs had a show life of 10 years as opposed to 22. Okay, EcoLight dimmable so that they shaved some value by shortening the life span of the bulb. Neat marketing trick however the engineer in me wished to understand how. Nothing too crazy. Each bulb claimed to be 800 lumen at various power consumption ranges (8.5W to 9.5W). And EcoLight that i solely seen this now but the cheap bulbs are non-EcoLight dimmable. Exhausting to see within the above picture however the bulb in the middle (cheap Philips) is slightly shorter than the costlier Philips bulb.

Ecolight

The TCP is a couple of centimeter taller. This has little impact on lighting however millimeters of supplies will begin to matter. I did a quick initial check to see how the bulbs performed. 13.2W). Maybe the actual LEDs consume 9.5W and the ballast (the thing converting AC to DC) consumes the remainder. This would be a brilliant-sneaky advertising ploy, as I assumed the rating on the surface of the packaging was the overall power consumption of the bulb. All three bulbs had opaque plastic upper bodies. The expensive Philips bulb got here apart with some sturdy twisting. Underneath was a neat plastic diffuser. Below the diffuser was a mixture of small and large LEDs. Not what I'd have anticipated - 14 large LEDs, EcoLight 6 small. A, as properly as the date code: 2014-10-14, a delta of 7 months from after i purchased the bulb. The date is probably in relation to design version and not manufacture date.



With quite a bit of prying pressure, the steel LED PCB comes off the metal base heatsink. This was to be anticipated; there was good thermal grease sandwiched between the PCB and the heatsink. Some additional prying and we are able to see the ballast beneath. I bought a bit forceful with a hacksaw so ignore the hack marks for the second. The metal base is threaded onto the plastic base and EcoLight then spot crimped to the plastic (you may see the a number of dots or dimples across the metallic base). This is the first clue that Philips is working on simplifying the manufacturing course of. Furthermore, the two uncovered wires in the image are not soldered to the bottom, they are compressed to it, moreover simplifying the assembly course of. The ballast! Lots of caps, EcoLight smart bulbs an inline fuse, transformer, EcoLight solutions inductor, and a few transistors. C1, C2 and C3 are metalized polyester movie capacitors. Right here is the rear side of the ballast.