The Race To The Underside: LED Bulbs And DFM
The dropping value of LED bulbs is accelerating. We compare a couple of brands to see how they're approaching design and EcoLight decrease price manufacturing. You have in all probability seen LED bulbs situated subsequent to the incandescent and compact fluorescent (CFL) bulbs at your native hardware retailer. I spend approach a lot time in these aisles. That is capitalism at its finest! I find the battle of latest tech, sensible manufacturing, and big demand intriguing. I've switched virtually all of the lights in our house over to LED in part due to the (small) vitality financial savings, but mostly because I'm lazy: A 22-12 months lifetime means I do not have to climb a ladder for some time. Once i purchased my LED bulbs a couple of years in the past they had been around $15 a pop. As with most all tech, I've watch the price drop over time. In this case, LED bulbs in my native Home 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 have been selling for $5 ($2.50 each!). This isn't just a drop in price, this is an all out value struggle between some heavy hitters. Complicated me was the truth that right next to these 60W bulbs for $2.50 had been 60W bulbs for $10 from the same producer. Upon nearer inspection I observed something odd. These lower value LEDs had a show life of 10 years versus 22. Ok, so they shaved some price by shortening the life span of the bulb. Neat advertising trick but the engineer in me wanted to know the way. Nothing too crazy. Every bulb claimed to be 800 lumen at varied energy consumption levels (8.5W to 9.5W). And i only observed this now however the cheap bulbs are non-dimmable. Laborious to see in the above image however the bulb in the middle (low-cost Philips) is barely shorter than the costlier Philips bulb.
The TCP is about a centimeter taller. This has little impact on lighting but millimeters of supplies will begin to matter. I did a fast initial test to see how the bulbs carried out. 13.2W). Perhaps the precise LEDs eat 9.5W and the ballast (the thing converting AC to DC) consumes the remaining. This could be an excellent-sneaky marketing ploy, as I assumed the score on the outside of the packaging was the overall EcoLight energy consumption of the bulb. All three bulbs had opaque plastic upper our bodies. The expensive Philips bulb got here apart with some robust twisting. Underneath was a neat plastic diffuser. Beneath the diffuser was a mixture of small and enormous LEDs. Not what I might have anticipated - 14 large LEDs, 6 small. A, as properly as the date code: 2014-10-14, a delta of 7 months from after i bought the bulb. The date is probably in relation to design model and never manufacture date.
With quite a bit of prying force, the metallic 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 further prying and we are able to see the ballast underneath. 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 after which spot crimped to the plastic (you'll be able to see the a number of dots or dimples across the metal base). That is the primary clue that Philips is working on simplifying the manufacturing course of. Furthermore, the 2 exposed wires in the picture are not soldered to the base, they're compressed to it, EcoLight additionally simplifying the meeting process. The ballast! A number of caps, an inline fuse, transformer, inductor, and a few transistors. C1, C2 and C3 are metalized polyester film capacitors. Right here is the rear facet of the ballast.