Quote:
Originally Posted by Rizla
So Western capitalism and technology could not produce a light-bulb that even approached the life-span of the one produced by Soviet Communism?
|
Could and did. An early Shelby Electric (Chaillet) bulb still burns in a firehouse in Livermore. It has been in continuous operation for 114 years. The thing is, the bulb is also relatively dim compared with modern bulbs.
One big reason light bulbs burn out so quickly is that the filaments are thin. They're thin because thinner filaments burn hotter (less surface area to dissipate power), and thus dissipate more of their power as visible light rather than as heat.
Additionally, that 114-year-old bulb is apparently dissipating much less power than it should. Nobody has studied it carefully enough to determine why this is the case, but apparently it has higher than expected resistance when at normal operating temperature. If I ran a current-generation 110 volt light bulb at 7 volts, it would last nearly forever, too.
Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
Are you seriously suggesting that LED lightbulbs - which last almost indefinitely - either draw more power or give off less light than incandescent bulbs?
|
Careful there. LEDs themselves do last almost indefinitely unless you abuse them. That doesn't necessarily mean that the circuitry needed to drop the voltage down to ~3.5VDC will last forever.
