Great, just great. Don’t get me wrong, I like the LED bulbs, I have several in my house. But when we get back to basics, a tungsten light bulb doesn’t require a haz-mat squad to dispose of. It’s glass, ceramic, tungsten, some thin steel, and tin solder (if ROHS). CFL bulbs and now LED bulbs are so much more eco unfriendly and when they inevitably end up in landfills, they become a source of heavy metal. We may have gained short term energy efficiency, but the long term payback may not be worth it.
LED products billed as eco-friendly contain toxic metals, study finds
UC researchers tested holiday bulbs, traffic lights and car beams
From UC Irvine:
Those light-emitting diodes marketed as safe, environmentally preferable alternatives to traditional lightbulbs actually contain lead, arsenic and a dozen other potentially hazardous substances, according to newly published research.
“LEDs are touted as the next generation of lighting. But as we try to find better products that do not deplete energy resources or contribute to global warming, we have to be vigilant about the toxicity hazards of those marketed as replacements,” said Oladele Ogunseitan, chair of UC Irvine’s Department of Population Health & Disease Prevention.
He and fellow scientists at UCI and UC Davis crunched, leached and measured the tiny, multicolored lightbulbs sold in Christmas strands; red, yellow and green traffic lights; and automobile headlights and brake lights. Their findings? Low-intensity red lights contained up to eight times the amount of lead allowed under California law, but in general, high-intensity, brighter bulbs had more contaminants than lower ones. White bulbs copntained the least lead, but had high levels of nickel.
“We find the low-intensity red LEDs exhibit significant cancer and noncancer potentials due to the high content of arsenic and lead,” the team wrote in the January 2011 issue of Environmental Science & Technology, referring to the holiday lights. Results from the larger lighting products will be published later, but according to Ogunseitan, “it’s more of the same.”
Lead, arsenic and many additional metals discovered in the bulbs or their related parts have been linked in hundreds of studies to different cancers, neurological damage, kidney disease, hypertension, skin rashes and other illnesses. The copper used in some LEDs also poses an ecological threat to fish, rivers and lakes.
Ogunseitan said that breaking a single light and breathing fumes would not automatically cause cancer, but could be a tipping point on top of chronic exposure to another carcinogen. And – noting that lead tastes sweet – he warned that small children could be harmed if they mistake the bright lights for candy.
Risks are present in all parts of the lights and at every stage during production, use and disposal, the study found. Consumers, manufacturers and first responders to accident scenes ought to be aware of this, Ogunseitan said. When bulbs break at home, residents should sweep them up with a special broom while wearing gloves and a mask, he advised. Crews dispatched to clean up car crashes or broken traffic fixtures should don protective gear and handle the material as hazardous waste. Currently, LEDs are not classified as toxic and are disposed of in regular landfills. Ogunseitan has forwarded the study results to California and federal health regulators.
He cites LEDs as a perfect example of the need to mandate product replacement testing. The diodes are widely hailed as safer than compact fluorescent bulbs, which contain dangerous mercury. But, he said, they weren’t properly tested for potential environmental health impacts before being marketed as the preferred alternative to inefficient incandescent bulbs, now being phased out under California law. A long-planned state regulation originally set to take effect Jan. 1 would have required advance testing of such replacement products. But it was opposed by industry groups, a less stringent version was substituted, and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger placed the law on hold days before he left office.
“I’m frustrated, but the work continues,” said Ogunseitan, a member of the state Department of Toxic Substances Control’s Green Ribbon Science Panel. He said makers of LEDs and other items could easily reduce chemical concentrations or redesign them with truly safer materials. “Every day we don’t have a law that says you cannot replace an unsafe product with another unsafe product, we’re putting people’s lives at risk,” he said. “And it’s a preventable risk.”
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Funny how you can no longer buy incandescent light bulbs, but there’s no problem buying a 3KW electric heater, or even a 500W halogen bulb
There are two basic ways to make white LEDs which are the essence of LED light bulbs. The first approach is to use several diodes of different colors to make white light.
There is actually a thrid way to make a white light (for a flash light (torch)); but it isn’t of much use for anything else.
It can be proved theoretically, that the highest luminous efficiency “white” light can be made from two monochromatic sources at 448 and 568.7 nm which are a blue and yellow. The resulting “white Light” (Standard Source C) produces 400 lumens per Watt. Present LEDs are around 55 l/W and up to 100 l/W has been done in the laboratory. The LED gurus believe that they can reach 200 l/W, with a practical “white light”.
The two color lamp migh make a goor torch; but it is useless as an illuminant since there is nothing there but that blue and the yellow, so you do not get correct color rendition.
But three color LEDS can produce quite good “white” light. The individual LEDs are not monochromatic like the theoretical best; but are still quite narrow, and you have to match three different drive currents to the three LEDs to keep the color constant, if you dim them. It turns out that the Human eye does not in general see a colored light source as being a constant hue, if you vary the output. In fact only three specific wavelengths have the property of staying constant hue as you crank the brightness up and down; ok since I raised the issue, I’ll tell you they are 478, 505, and 573 nm wavelength. OK so two of them are damn close to the highest efficiency pair. At the red end, a 600 nm orangy color can shift all the way to more like a 665 deep red when you crank the brightness up.
These effects of course are not physics; they are the psycho-physics of color vision; ie, a property of the (normal) human eye.
This particular effect is called the Bezold-Brucke phenomenon (umlaut over that u).
The most prevalent white LED, single diode design, is based on a totally unique phosphor property. That phosphor is the Cerium doped Yttrium Aluminum Garnet; Ce 3+ : Y3Al5O12
This has a unique very clean strong absorption in the blue at about 460 nm. The 50% width is about 440 to 480 nm. Ordinary Blue LEDs are usually more like 470 nm, as 460 starts toi get a bit Indigoish; and evidently men don’t really see Indigo; so we don’t like looking at colors near that range.
So you make a 460 Blindigo LED, ad you coat it with the Cerium doped Garnet phosphor, which absorbs a lot of the blue light, and then fluoresces over a fairly broad yellow region; well from yellow through orange, since yellow is only about 5 nm of the spectrum. The broad green-yellow-orange mixes with the residual blue that didn’t get absorbed by the Cerium, and the result is a reasonable white light but with a color temperature of maybe 6500 K; so whiter that sunlight; but there isn’t any red in it.
This is a patented system (Japanese). Other vendors have added small amounts of a typical T&V red phosphor to put a slight red kick into the color, and give a much better color rendition white light with color temperatures more in the 3000 K range; so “warm white”.
Well everybody is playing the phosphor game either licensing the Cerium phosphor and adding their own red goose, or trying to find alternatives. Unfortunately, approaches that lead to more pleasant “white” lamps, tend to be less efficient, in terms of lumens per Watt.
But the stakes are high and the payoff is there for the companies that put in the research. So every illumination company in the world has abig investment in white LED technology; and LED technology in general. Phillips is very good at it; having teamed with Hewlett Packard in a joint venture, LumiLEDs; which is now pretty much totally owned by Phillips.
But Cree research is no slouch either and they are going to be one of the big players; with their own technical inputs.
Siemens and Osram of course are big European players; and I am sure I am forgetting some others.
My house is going to go as near to all LED as I can get; it’s either that or explain to the family, that ALL light switches have an “off” position.
And I’m just going to thumb my nose at those monthly Arsenic tests; my hair has mostly gone anyhow, so not much to test.
>> _Jim says:
February 11, 2011 at 6:39 am
For automobiles: car accidents, house related: hurricanes, tornadoes, accidental drops during handling, rough-housing with the kids, … <<
Car accidents is a possibility. I doubt rough-housing would release anything. Rather than crush up a thousand LEDs and measure the toxins, the researchers should have tested how much mechanical damage it would take to expose the internal chemicals.
I suspect George Smith is correct and that all of the LEDs are a drop in the bucket compared to natural toxins.
@ur momisugly reason – CFL’s will NEVER be able to replace filament lamps in your last scenario – the ballast’s wouldn’t last more than a few minutes. Excess heat is the primary cause of failure with them. If you read the small print on the side of the box it invariably says they should not be used in enclosed fittings, and I have even seen recommendations that they should only be installed cap down, which isn’t much use as regards the light being given off…
I have a couple of Phillips “SL” fluorescent bulbs which must be ten years old at least. They are huge, and heavy due to a conventional wound ballast, but despite the ends of the tube being well blackened they keep going. I wish I could buy some more, as they don’t interfere with the I/R remote control on my HiFi…
>> Jeff Alberts says:
February 11, 2011 at 7:56 am
In all the years I’ve been using CFLs, I’ve only have one break, because a lamp stored in the garage got pushed over and broke. I haven’t had to change a CFL bulb yet, and have NEVER had a problem with breakage screwing one in. I think the hype is high on both sides of this issue. <<
I've had many CFL bulbs burn out. My estimate is that they last about twice as long as tungsten bulbs. Bugs in the ballasts are a problem with exterior use, and the ballasts smell godawful when they burn out.
I tend to not worry so much about turning them off, so they probably don't save as much energy because of that. I don't find the light quality a problem, and prefer them in applications where replacement is difficult or the light needs to stay on a long time. I'm not the type to worry about the small level of mercury if one breaks.
IMO the government shouldn't mandate them, and doesn't need to. Neither should they be subject to lawsuits for mercury. Just let the various light bulbs stand on their own merits and let the user decide what he wants.
Mr. Watts… Do your homework please. This one was way too easy. You have a very public and important forum here – obviously this comes with a responsibility for good information.
The impact of CFLs in coal-burning regions (50% of our electric generation) results in less mercury being released, because coal-burning is a source of mercury itself (among other heavy metals).
¨In the United States, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimated that if all 270 million compact fluorescent lamps sold in 2007 were sent to landfill sites, that this would represent around 0.13 metric tons, or 0.1% of all U.S. emissions of mercury (around 104 metric tons that year).¨ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compact_fluorescent_lamp#Mercury_content)
Not to mention that nothing even close to a lifecycle analysis was considered for the expected long-life of LED lights. Yes, they and CFLs have heavy metals, but what is the alternative? Increased mercury production released uncaptured into the air. The mercury in CFLs/LEDs at least has the opportunity to be recycled/concentrated where it could be treated/handled safely.
Rough calculations and non confirmed numbers (GIGO):
LED Chip is roughly 1mm X 1mm, doped layers are roughly 3 microns thick (Depending on type).
Arsenic is < 0.8% in doped layers.
One LED has about 50 mcg arsenic. About what you would find in 50 grams of beef or half that much shrimp.
Silicon is "7" on the Mohs scale of hardness, tooth enamel is about "5" (That's softer).
You would digest about 20 or 30 times more tooth enamel than arsenic, and the daily safe limit would probably be two or three strings of lights (just the arsenic, not the rest).
So go ahead and eat an LED.
Bob Diaz says:
February 10, 2011 at 9:11 pm
“I thought that regular light bulbs used lead at the base of the bulb. … or has this been changed to lead free solder?”
IMO it doesnt matter.You are not gonna eat the light bulb, are you? Mercury vapour…much worse.
George:
Now you are saying, gasp, Yttrium \? Just when I thought it couldn’t get any worse. Cerium? Ouch! Lawyers, pay attention! Grad students looking for grants? Here is a goldmine—just link Cerium to blue earlobe syndrome in hamsters, and voila! —Instant career on the staff of the Environmental Defense Fund at $200K/annum.
Seriously, I know these little fiascos are here to stay. I just added a Rare Earth ETF in my investment portfolio. China is cornering the market on the Rare Earths as we speak, and the costs of these little beauties will go up much higher, as will the costs of the LEDs.
Once we have installed the fixtures in our homes to drive them, they have us by the leotards! Ka-ching!
That’s part of why LEDs don’t scare me, Scott. Another is that they do not break easily when you drop them. I’ve probably breathed more than my share just soldering/rremoving the little ssurface mount buggers onto/from PCBs.
I just happen to prefer light from a soft white incandescent bulb for personal use (flourescents give me a headache, LEDs aare too “pure”.)
Mark
Scott Covert says:
February 11, 2011 at 10:31 am
Arsenic at 0.8%! That is 8,000 ppm! Or 8 million ppb!
I am not saying any of these levels of As, Hg, Pb are really toxic. I know these things are safe unless you wallow in them.
The people on this board are just smarter than the average bear, and they do not have legal and regulatory axes to grind. But if you can measure these elements at any level (and elements do not go away!) in the environment, and they are in the future deemed to be unsafe by the EPA and the Henry Nasaltov Waxmans of the world, then they become legally toxic.
All I’d like to say is – Thank God – for the incandescent light bulb I was using in my lawn light. Due to the recent snowfall the plastic on the top of the lamp had cracked and the top knot of the lamp had broken off and fallen in on the light bulb. When I went out to check on it the bulb flashed and cracked open on me. If this had been a CFL bulb I would have had a toxic mercury spill out on my front lawn at that point. Instead, I could merely fish out the old bulb and get it replaced. No problem.
So why would we ever choose to get rid of a reliable (and necessary) convenience such as incandescent lighting? Don’t get me wrong. I’ve got other types of bulbs that I use. CFL’s, halogens. But they each have a place. For me, I don’t want a bulb that could be a major problem if it cracked under harsh environmental conditions.
I used to “vaporize” LED’s by shorting them across the terminals of a 9-volt battery. The heat generated would shoot little pieces of colored plastic all over the house.
Not so sure I could do that with these, though.
We have to get some terms straight.
Carbon is pretty innocuous stuff, unless it is in a fine powder (soot) and you snuff it, and get it in your lungs; where it will irritate the hell out of you. CO or carbon monoxide is toxic, and it will kill you if you get it in your lungs. CO2 is carbon dioxide, and it is not toxic, unless you ingest enough of it to displace the oxygen to where you suffocate; it also trigegrs an involuntary breathing if you get oo much in your lungs, as in holding yourt breath.
So the 90 freely available elements are not necesarily by themsleves highly toxic; but in combonations they can be, Nitrogen, Carbon even Hydrogen in moderation are not particularly harmful; but if you combine them into HCN and take a good whiff of that; you will die a horrible death; ask the Jim Jones followers.
LEDS do not contain Arsenic; they might contain Gallium Arsenide. Both Gallium and Arsenic are toxic; Gallium Arsenide is not. It is a compact crystal that forms the cubic lattice Zinc Blende structure (ZnO); That’s the very same lattice that when formed in a single element like carbon is called “diamond”. It’s a flaming rock for heaven sake. Phosphorous is also toxic and flammable or even inflammable; but Gallium Phosphide is neither flammable nor toxic. Adn you can mix those two crystals in almost any ratio to make a GaAs(1-x)Px mixed crystal, that is also non toxic and non flammable.
Gallium Nitride on the other hand does not normally form the cubic zinc blende crystal; and trying to force it to do that yields a crystal that is so defective, you can hardly get any light our of it.
The breakthrough in Blue (and white) LED technology, came when Shuji Nakamura at Nichia in Japan, decided to let GaN grow in its preferred Wurzite crystal structure, which is hexagonal instead of cubic. The Zinc Blende (diamond) and Wurzite structures differ in that both are composed of two interlocking regular Tetrahedrons (inverted relative to each other, where every atom is in the middle of the other tetrahedron. For Diamonde and GaAs, those two tetrahedrons have their triangular bases rotated 60 degrees from each other. In Wurzite the two base triangles are parallel to each other; and that gives a hexagonal crystal such as is formed by Sapphire, or Silicon Carbide.
Both SiC and Sapphire (Aluminum oxide (sandpaper)) hasve been used as substrates for BLue LEDs in GaN, and InGaN, or even InGaAlN.
The elements may be toxic; the compounds may not be; or verse vicea as the case may be.
There isn’t anything; even Oxygen, that is not toxic at some exposure level. for Oxygen, the toxic level is as low as five times normal vapor pressure, as every scuba diver knows.
I love these kinds of topic… as usual the final authority is from George E. Smith.
I’m entertained by the “Mr. Watts, be responsible” posts demonstrating how to confuse, befuddle, and exaggerate, while simultaneously showing the incorrect use of anecdotal data to drive an agenda.
I can’t even imagine the kind of muddled thinking that would lead someone to write about the chemical hazards of LEDs. As repeatedly stated here, the actual quantity of potentially harmful materials is insanely small, and difficult to even get to. The only potential hazard is going to be at the manufacturing facility where materials are stored in quantity.
And George E. Smith mentions something I’ve been explaining to people for a while now… white LEDs use phosphorus, which is the main reason they have a lifetime while red, yellow and greed LEDs from the 60s and 70s are still illuminating to this day.
The invention of the Blue LED and eventually White deserve proper recognition since they were something of a holy grail for a long time. The first white LED I bought was over $10, but today their very existence means practical solar powered lighting in remote poverty stricken regions.
I will also never understand why so many people are so against landfill sites. You dig a hole, you pile crap into it, you cover it up and let it sit for a few years, then you build industrial parks on top. What could be easier? In 5000 years, archaeologists will applaud our foresight in providing them snapshots of our civilization.
Scott Covert
“LED Chip is roughly 1mm X 1mm, doped layers are roughly 3 microns thick (Depending on type).
Arsenic is < 0.8% in doped layers.
One LED has about 50 mcg arsenic. About what you would find in 50 grams of beef or half that much shrimp."
Lucky we need about 42 ordinary LEDs to give a fair amount of reading (blueish) light, but of course those 3 W power LEDs are quite good (but they contain more arsenic right, and have shorter life span.)
The thing is though, come garbage disposal, which I might add is like drainage, 50 grams of meat in a bore hole computes to several hundreds of LEDs. Put another way, it only takes 50 grams of meat to equal the toxic waste of one LED, but it takes 500 LEDs to equal the bore hole fill volume in grams to measure up to one meagre 50 gram steak, which, then, means for every gram of meat we get the toxic waste of 10 LEDs which is, per your calculations, comparable to the toxic waste of 500 grams of meat.
So I'd rather eat 50 gram meat rather 'an 50 gram LEDs. (It probably take more 'an 500 ordinary LEDs to get 50 grams worth though, but it's friday.) :p
HenryP says:
February 11, 2011 at 8:23 am
Henry@RichardVerney.
A few years ago I was living in Nelspruit (RSA) – we heated the swimming pool with very cheap solar heating – gave us an extra month each side of the normal swimming time.
Take some 40 metres black hose pipe (standard garden stuff). Lay out in coils on a flat roof (garage ) – north sloping would be better (southern hemisphere solution).
Now; tap into the re-circ/filter pump with a Y junction (valve it so you can turn i off mid-summer).
I used to get 15C increase between input & output mid summer (needed to turn off or the pool became a bath …)
At the time the local swimming pool shops were selling ‘Pool Solar Heater Elements’ for a couple of thousand rand (was still about R12 : £1 ) – they claimed I’d need 6 to 10 units to warm my pool. And they were ugly contraptions about a metre cube.
A friend having seen my ‘solar heater’ just laid his out on the grass – not quite as good – but got some extra night time warmth from the ground .
Oh – I didn’t bother ever turning the solar heater off during the night – just during winter – if I remembered……
Like you; HenryP ; I totally fail to understand why there is so little solar heating in the tropics; I suspect the dead hand of Building Codes; Regulations and the lack of initiative left after a going through what is laughingly called an education system
A Bit of fun, just stumbled across this and I found it amusing. It IS on topic guys.
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=33b_1297447057
“”””” 1DandyTroll says:
February 11, 2011 at 12:29 pm
Scott Covert
“LED Chip is roughly 1mm X 1mm, doped layers are roughly 3 microns thick (Depending on type).
Arsenic is < 0.8% in doped layers.
One LED has about 50 mcg arsenic. About what you would find in 50 grams of beef or half that much shrimp."
Lucky we need about 42 ordinary LEDs to give a fair amount of reading (blueish) light, but of course those 3 W power LEDs are quite good (but they contain more arsenic right, and have shorter life span.) """""
How many times do I have to say it. modern LEDS specially anything that is a 3W lamp, do not contain ANY Arsenic; neither as a light emitting material of a dopant in some other material. The Band gap of GaAs is enough to get near infra-red LEDse mitting at about 900 nm if they are ordinary zinc doped GaAs, which are quite inefficient, and more like 940 nm for the Liquid epi silicon amphoterically doped GaAs which is more efficient, because the emitted wavelength (940 nm) is longer, that the Ga As band edge absorption (900 nm, so the crystal is transparent at 940 nm, which is why they are quite efficient.
IBM developed amphoteric silicon doped GaAS (liquid epi) around 1966/7. Amphoteric doping means that Silcon is the acceptor dopant on one side of the junction and also the donor ropant on the other side of the junction. Since both silicon levels are relatively deep below the band edge the transition energy is lower which is why oyu get 940 nm IR, instead of the 900 nm band edge radiation.
Arsenic HAS been used as an alternative to Phosphorous as a dopant in Silicon, to make N-type silicon. Boron is the usual P-type dopant in silicon.
Depending on the way the crystal is grown, a Gallium Arsenide wafer can be differnt on the two opposite faces. I believe it is the 110 lattice face, that has Arsenic atoms on one side of the wafer, and Gallium atoms on the opposite side (talking cleaved crystal faces here). So the two sides are chemically quite differnt, but you can't tell them apart by eye.
A problem with all III-V semiconductor processing, as that unlike silicon which is elemental, Ga As or GaP are chemical compounds, and they can dissociate when you heat them. The vapor pressure of Arsenic ove Gallium Arsenide, is about 1 atmospehre at the melting point; so you typically want to do GaAS diffusions at the lowest possible temepratures, and use a sealed system with an overpressure of Arsenic to stop the surface from decomposing.
For GaP, the phosphorous vapor pressure, at the melting point, is about 35 atmospheres, so to grow Gallium Phosphide crystals, you have to maintain a phosphorous over pressure of about 40-45 atmospheres, so the crystal growing furnace tends to be somewhat bomb like; and needs to be housed in a blast proof room. Thery normally apply the 45 atmospheres of gas pressure over the melt by floating a layer of transparent Boric Oxide on top of the melt, so you can see through it, and watch the crystal grow (by remote TV you dummy ! ) You do not want to be near a GaP crystal puller, when it is operating.
What if we tell these researchers about all the toxic chemicals in the semiconductors in their laptops? Perhaps then they would stay away from computers and quit inflicting such drivel on the rest of us.
bubbagyro says:
February 11, 2011 at 10:56 am
From Wiki:
White LEDs can also be made by coating near ultraviolet (NUV) emitting LEDs with a mixture of high efficiency europium-based red and blue emitting phosphors plus green emitting copper and aluminium doped zinc sulfide (ZnS:Cu, Al).
Gasp!
One small positive indicator: Artistic types, who are generally solid left and solid green, absolutely HATE the CFLs for optical reasons. Having to live and work in a bad spectrum overcomes all the political considerations!
http://www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/showthread.php?thread_id=2813184
I think CodeTech meant “Phosphors” not Phosphorous in his post above.
If you look at the better designs of white LED lamps, you will normally see a yellow or orange looking domw somewhere inside the “bulb”.
For example, the 40 Watt equivalent Philips lamp, which uses about seven Watts of electricity, has a frosted white glass bulb same size and shape as a 40 Watt Incandescent; except it has a heavy metal heat sink around the neck area. But inside that frosted globe you can clearly see a yellowish globe about 1/2-2/3 of the diameter of the frosted case. That is the actual cerium doped Yag phosphor, and that is what really lights up when you turn it on; and those ones are instant on.
Inside that yellow dome is the actual blue 460 nm LED chip, near the centre of that dome. The early ones used to coat the LED chip with the phosphor, but blue light from the chip, that scattered off the phosphor without being absorbed, ended up going back to the chip and getting reabsorbed, since the diode can function as a photodiode for the same wavelength photons. The absorbed blue light creates an opposing current that shuts off part of the forward drive current so you can’t drive it as hard. That’s simply Le Chatalier’s principle in action.
By putting the phosphor remote from the die, the scattered blue photons still go back right across the dome, but now most of them miss the much smaller chip in the middle of the dome, so they simply go past it, until they hit the phosphor on the opposite side of the dome, and generate more yellow light.
These are the structural enhancements, that are slowly making white LEDs ever brighter. If you look in your while LED when it is off, and you don’t see anything that is yellow around the central region where the light would be coming from, then you are probably looking at a brain dead LED design.
Unfortunately most of the makers so far have concentrated on making more spot lamp types rather than spherically radiating “light bulbs like we are used to.
Both Cree and Phillips do make spherical lamp types, and you can get them in warm whites, that have been red goosed, or 6500 K daylight white.
And as codetech correctly observed it is the presnce of that phospher that leads to the life degradation. But these problems have been dealt with before in LCD displays and other situations. Poisoning of the phosphors by impurities tends to be the failure mechanisms. These should become less troublesome as time goes on. Of course you still can get the infant mortality failures, as you can see in LED traffic signals; but if they last a year, they usually will last forever; well within the 3:1 climatism fudge factor.
Damn, George E. Smith, where do you find this stuff, my head hurts now! Just joking, it’s all good info.
We have been using a CFL in our shed ever since last summer. They do work fine but when it comes to a cold Minnesota winter, they don’ t like to light! I replaced it with an old trusty incandescent bulb. I have also had a CFL blow out instantly when turned on! I pulled a new one right from the package, put it in the lamp and turned it on, it instantly “popped” and smelled of burning electronics…
I have lived here in Minnesota all my life and never heard anyone call regular light bulbs “heat globes”.