bigclivedotcom
5 HN recommenders · recommended in 13 months, 2021–2026
32:17 · 6.6M views · Jan 13, 2021
Big Clive tears down the Dubai lamp, a Philips LED bulb developed with Dubai's ruler for maximum efficiency and long life. He examines its construction and circuitry, including underrun LEDs and many filament strips.
HN points to it as proof that efficient, long-lived LED bulbs can be built and as an example of well-designed lamps.
15 comments from Hacker News
I love my incandescent bulbs. It is a threat to remove them. The heat they produce is amazing in the winter. I use a 100 watt bulb to keep me warm at my desk. Heat bodies not buildings. I've been practicing this since a child and I'm 36 now. To heat yourself, check out: [LINK] For actual good LED lamps (not the crap they push in USA) check out: this video TLDR most LED lamp are running over spec which cause them to fail and become a commodity rather than infra. I had a rear projection DLP LED TV which ran its red LED over spec and it burned out at least 3 times as fast as the green and blue. [LINK] The heat is not always just a byproduct, sometimes you need or want the heat. Compare this 100 watt bulb to a tiny space heater and you will see the difference in your electricity bill. Buy a "kill a watt" meter to start testing you appliances rather assuming incandescent is evil.
There are a lot of cheap, poorly designed LED bulbs that put heat stress on critical components. Technology Connections : A troubling trend in lighting? - [LINK] (It goes into how a number of LED bulb failures are because the lamp wasn't able to dissipate heat from the electronic components. It also shows how some higher quality LED bulbs are made so that they dissipate heat better - they don't make as much heat as an incandescent bulb, but there is still some and that is the cause of a lot of failures.) The lamps you're not allowed to have. Exploring the Dubai lamps - this video is also interesting. They have a different design and it gets into the electronics.
I think this one here appeared because it's been featured on hackaday recently[1], which got featured there because Youtube channel "bigclivedotcom" made a video about them[2], which blew through the roof because of some Youtube-algorithm-doodads? Compared to his recent other videos, this really stands out in terms of views. (Although I can really recommend the channel). Anyways, the main thing is that these lamps use more filament-strips than usual led bulb, thus allowing them to run cooler and last longer. Unfortunately, they are only available in Dubai (afaik). [1]: [LINK] [2]: this video
although it certainly is true these days, that the average LED based bulb is pushing those LEDs hard, which incidentally also makes them less efficient, rather than just using more of them at the same wattage. Check out the dubai lamp to see a lamp designed to be efficient and last: this video
2021, cited source material comes from the always awesome Big Clive YouTube Channel. bigclivedotcom: The lamps you're not allowed to have. Exploring the Dubai lamps: this video