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by eternityforest 1038 days ago
It's not the wall power, it's the heat from the LEDs as far as I know, plus the fact consumer power conversion electronics just aren't as reliable in general as other things.

Maybe one of these HN startup people will make the first modular light fixture with separate "ballast", LED, and "Smart Element", if desired. There's not really any technical barriers to making 10 or 20 year fixtures (I suspect a large number of cheap LED desk lights today will be around in a few decades if not tossed while perfectly good).
1 comments
jaclaz 1038 days ago
From experience, led lights with a separate driver (like those spots for ceilings) are very long lasting, the thing that breaks and needs to be replaced is usually just the driver, the actual leds almost never fail.

That (separate led and driver, or hoewever make the driver replaceable) should be the norm even for common bulbs, surely there would stil be some issues with the heat, but we would save lots of money (besides reducing the amount of electronic waste).

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eternityforest 1038 days ago
LEDs do get dimmer over time, so they should still be replaceable if possible.

A lot of fixtures are big enough to hide a recessed but still accessible box with a USB charger.

USB powered lights would solve a lot of this, they are more durable by far than led bulbs it seems, and the bulb itself would only need to request a specific current via PPS.

No new standards created, all parts reusable in other things, nothing intimidating for a consumer that would require professional service, if it breaks you probably already have a spare, if you want to get more compact than USB C wall outlets already exist.

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jaclaz 1038 days ago
It could well be (for common threaded bulbs) a sort of socket adapter, the base containing the driver and a connector to the actual bulb/led.

The 5V choice might not be the best one, but 12 or 24 V (like commonly led strip are powered) could be fine.

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eternityforest 1038 days ago
USB isn't just 5V, PPS actually lets you request a specific voltage and current, so you wouldn't need driver electronics at all in the actual light, as long as all you want is just regular on/off control, so the light part can be just a bare LED and a communication chip.

A socket adapter might be the best for getting it out there though, you'd need more new electronics but no new construction work. But with a new electrical interface you could cover RGBW too.

I wonder if it would be possible to make the heat sink a separate part too without needing paste or degrading performance, since heatsinks don't wear out

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