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I'm in a nasty frame of mind right now, and this is what my 'tism brain decided to laser focus on for several hours. I'm mad that my light bulbs cost 10x more than they used to, and don't last any longer, and my power bill is higher than ever.
Yeah yeah, I know, it's probably just capitalism shitting it up on purpose for profit. And bulb science is probably solid, I guess. I'm just pissed off that I just barely managed to scrape through this pay period with $2.78 left in the bank before I default on my mortgage.
Anyway, any lightbulb science comrades got any info?
The bulbs generally contain around 10 LEDs arranged in series, so if any one of them fails, the bulb no longer works. Also they are generally not cooled well, and the heat leads to faster failures.
If you have a dead one around, pry it open and you'll likely see some slightly charred or discolored plastic and also one LED with a tiny charred spot.
Seems like it would be easy enough to mitigate both of those problems with basic design improvements, but cheap design causing early failure is sort of a win/win from the mfg perspective.