New lamp post(s)

[DITTRICH]

The lamp posts in out village are now all LED but very bright!

I always over specify LEDs as they get dimmer with time.

 

[markjay]

Surely it would better if the cable exited the plug at right angles, just like a domestic plug, rather than at 45 degrees as now. That would mean the cable went straight down in parallel to the post. The other end could be the same although I suppose being at an angle keeps it away from the cars bodywork.

It gets worse, because some cars have the charging port in the grille, Teslas have them on either side of the car, BUT on some cars the charging port is on the right side of the car, and when parked in the street the connector can pose a hazard for absent minded cyclists. In these circumstances, a 90⁰ connector would have worked well in both sides of the cable.

 

[markjay]

With these street charging points, whats to stop the charging cables either being pinched or having them superglued in place.

Indeed there was a report on the IONIQ 5 forum of cable theft, though it's not clear if the charging cable was stolen to be flogged on eBay, or by metal thieves. The locking mechanism is based on a plastic pin that (apparently) will yield if pulled or manipulated with sufficient force.

As for superglue, I wouldn't worry too much about that, ultimately vandalism is a problem and you just have to accept that you can't really protect your car from it when It's parked in street, e.g. someone could just key it or smash the wing mirror (luckily there are no more radio antennas to break....).

 

[markjay]

These are the new lamposts bases:

The pavement is retiled now, I estimate the dig to have been around 5' by 5' (or thereabouts).

 

[Deleted member 126251]

I always over specify LEDs as they get dimmer with time.

I’ve been using LEDs in all sorts of variations for many years now & never noticed that. Never thought of a “diode” (which has been in use for a long time) getting “weaker". What time period are we talking about?

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

With these street charging points, whats to stop the charging cables either being pinched or having them superglued in place.

The charging ports automatically lock the cable in place whilst charging cable is in use, similar to how fuel filler flaps automatically lock to stop someone stealing your fuel filler cap, or siphoning your fuel on an ICE car.

There’s nothing stopping charging cables being superglued in place whilst you’re not present, similar to how there is nothing to stop your fuel filler flap being superglued in place when you’re not present. Not heard of it happening much.

 

[DITTRICH]

I’ve been using LEDs in all sorts of variations for many years now & never noticed that. Never thought of a “diode” (which has been in use for a long time) getting “weaker". What time period are we talking about?

Being a bit lazy, I cut and pasted. For a luminaire (light) that is on 6 hours a day, L70 after 50,000 hours is 23 years. However, many lights are sold with L70 = 25,000 hours (just browse the bulbs at screwfix). That's 11.5 years. The longer it is on, the faster it degrades. The higher the temperature of operation, the faster it degrades. LEDs driven by external DC drivers (rather than bulbs which need the driver to be in the bulb fitting as they are driven by AC) are better because temperatures likely to be lower. Then we have to contend with the manufacturer "claims" as to lifetime. As an unscientific rule of thumb, I always over specify external DC drivers at 70% of their rated wattage, and I overspecify the lumens by around 30%, particularly on non serviceable panels/luminaires which are relatively expensive to replace a whole unit. Less stress, longer life. The main point is LEDs DO become dimmer with use.​

How long do LED lamps and fixtures actually last? ​

The lighting industry has standardized the lifetime of an LED fixture at L70 = minimum 50000 hours.
The lifespan of LED bulbs does however depend on several key factors and LED luminaire lifetime tends to vary from 10,000 up to 50,000 hours.

What applications might the L70 default failure level differ? ​

The L70 (70%) minimum threshold used to define a “standard” lifetime does not fit every situation. For instance, in some safety situations, depreciation of this level may be unacceptable.
Conversely, within some situations, usually within cost-sensitive, non-critical cases, higher levels of depreciation are allowed. For instance, another common industry benchmark is L50, referring to when a lumen output has depreciated by 50% compared to what it was originally.

What factors affect LED lifespan?​

Several factors influence the useful LED lifetime, or ‘lumen maintenance’ time. These variables include the operating cycle, the ambient temperature, material defects, electrical overstress etc.

 

[Deleted member 126251]

Being a bit lazy, I cut and pasted. For a luminaire (light) that is on 6 hours a day, L70 after 50,000 hours is 23 years. However, many lights are sold with L70 = 25,000 hours (just browse the bulbs at screwfix). That's 11.5 years. The longer it is on, the faster it degrades. The higher the temperature of operation, the faster it degrades. LEDs driven by external DC drivers (rather than bulbs which need the driver to be in the bulb fitting as they are driven by AC) are better because temperatures likely to be lower. Then we have to contend with the manufacturer "claims" as to lifetime. As an unscientific rule of thumb, I always over specify external DC drivers at 70% of their rated wattage, and I overspecify the lumens by around 30%, particularly on non serviceable panels/luminaires which are relatively expensive to replace a whole unit. Less stress, longer life. The main point is LEDs DO become dimmer with use.​

How long do LED lamps and fixtures actually last? ​

The lighting industry has standardized the lifetime of an LED fixture at L70 = minimum 50000 hours.
The lifespan of LED bulbs does however depend on several key factors and LED luminaire lifetime tends to vary from 10,000 up to 50,000 hours.

What applications might the L70 default failure level differ? ​

The L70 (70%) minimum threshold used to define a “standard” lifetime does not fit every situation. For instance, in some safety situations, depreciation of this level may be unacceptable.
Conversely, within some situations, usually within cost-sensitive, non-critical cases, higher levels of depreciation are allowed. For instance, another common industry benchmark is L50, referring to when a lumen output has depreciated by 50% compared to what it was originally.

What factors affect LED lifespan?​

Several factors influence the useful LED lifetime, or ‘lumen maintenance’ time. These variables include the operating cycle, the ambient temperature, material defects, electrical overstress etc.

^^ Interesting.

However, taking an average lifespan (10k to 50k hours) of 30k hours @ 6 hours a day, = ~13.7 years probably not of any significance (or noticeable (dimming) ) to the man in the street (pun intended) and and certainly an improvement on incandescent. However I can see the relevance for long term installations & safety requirements.

I installed a series of led (WRGB) strips in my kitchen (correctly powered etc). But the white went yellow after a couple of years. However they had IP65 protection and without a heatsink, the clear waterproofing had yellowed. I’d registered my purchase and got a free 5 year warranty so the supplier replaced them at no charge about 4 years after my purchase.

I kept the old strips and use them for hobby projects after peeling off the thick layer of waterproofing.

 

[DITTRICH]

^^ Interesting.

However, taking an average lifespan (10k to 50k hours) of 30k hours @ 6 hours a day, = ~13.7 years probably not of any significance (or noticeable (dimming) ) to the man in the street (pun intended) and and certainly an improvement on incandescent. However I can see the relevance for long term installations & safety requirements.

I installed a series of led (WRGB) strips in my kitchen (correctly powered etc). But the white went yellow after a couple of years. However they had IP65 protection and without a heatsink, the clear waterproofing had yellowed. I’d registered my purchase and got a free 5 year warranty so the supplier replaced them at no charge about 4 years after my purchase.

I kept the old strips and use them for hobby projects after peeling off the thick layer of waterproofing.

Sounds good - personally I am not a fan of RGB LEDs as I prefer the simple white variety. My kitchen LED downlight strips and drivers have been in for 10 years without any failure or noticeable change in brightness. As ever, with LED stuff, I keep all the e-receipts as the guarantee is useful - like when I had a driver fail on me and the company mailed me a new driver for my 30cm x 30cm ceiling LED panel free of charge. I think they are happy that I had tested the panel and wasn't trying to pull a fast one on them.

 

[Deleted member 126251]

Sounds good - personally I am not a fan of RGB LEDs as I prefer the simple white variety. My kitchen LED downlight strips and drivers have been in for 10 years without any failure or noticeable change in brightness. As ever, with LED stuff, I keep all the e-receipts as the guarantee is useful - like when I had a driver fail on me and the company mailed me a new driver for my 30cm x 30cm ceiling LED panel free of charge. I think they are happy that I had tested the panel and wasn't trying to pull a fast one on them.

Oh we never use the RGB. When they replaced it I asked for plain white but that insisted of replacing like for like. However my grandsons have fun with all the colour “features”. Between that and the Phillips HUE in other parts of the house they have a great time & I get a headache.

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

Oh we never use the RGB. When they replaced it I asked for plain white but that insisted of replacing like for like. However my grandsons have fun with all the colour “features”. Between that and the Phillips HUE in other parts of the house they have a great time & I get a headache.

So do RGB LED have the ability to change colour and if so do they fail in different colours of white?

The reason I ask is that we have some LED lighting in a property we recently bought, and it’s casting different shades from warm to cool white. The estate agent told us that it was possible to change the colour of the LEDs using a remote control but as we’ve never found one we thought perhaps he was mistaken.

Comments in this thread are making me think that they are RGB (colour changing?) LEDs. Unfortunately they’re more than 4 metres up and I currently have no safe or easy way to reach them. Being different shades of white will be irritating though unless we fix or replace them!

 

[HappytalkAgain]

So do RGB LED have the ability to change colour and if so do they fail in different colours of white?

The reason I ask is that we have some LED lighting in a property we recently bought, and it’s casting different shades from warm to cool white. The estate agent told us that it was possible to change the colour of the LEDs using a remote control but as we’ve never found one we thought perhaps he was mistaken.

Comments in this thread are making me think that they are RGB (colour changing?) LEDs. Unfortunately they’re more than 4 metres up and I currently have no safe or easy way to reach them. Being different shades of white will be irritating though unless we fix or replace them!

Are said bulbs GU10 size Rob? If so I've a lot of spare remotes that you could try.

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

Are said bulbs GU10 size Rob? If so I've a lot of spare remotes that you could try.

It’s two long strips Ant, probably 8 meters each. If you can picture the kitchen then they run along the bottom edge of the vaulted ceiling, at the height where the gutters would be on the outside.

 

[DITTRICH]

So do RGB LED have the ability to change colour and if so do they fail in different colours of white?

The reason I ask is that we have some LED lighting in a property we recently bought, and it’s casting different shades from warm to cool white. The estate agent told us that it was possible to change the colour of the LEDs using a remote control but as we’ve never found one we thought perhaps he was mistaken.

Comments in this thread are making me think that they are RGB (colour changing?) LEDs. Unfortunately they’re more than 4 metres up and I currently have no safe or easy way to reach them. Being different shades of white will be irritating though unless we fix or replace them!

The RGB ones tend to come with remotes to change colour for certain. A drone or a bullet camera on a long pole... The LED driver / receiver needs to be looked at to determine what sort of controller you need. It also depends on where the manufacturer /model number etc is printed as it might be on the underneath side!

 

[BigJase88]

There are 3 different colours of white

Warm white [yellow tinge]
White
Cool white [blue tinge]

 

[Deleted member 126251]

There are 3 different colours of white

Warm white [yellow tinge]
White
Cool white [blue tinge]

Those are the “target white colours” that manufacturers aim for but, they all vary across a range. White light is measured in Kelvin.

From the Digikey site.

Manufacturers produce white LEDs with outputs classed as “warm white” (2600 to 3700 K CCT), “neutral white” (3700 to 5000 K CCT) and “cool white” (5000-to-8300 K). It is impossible to reliably manufacture LEDs of exactly the same color. Even devices from the same batch have slightly different spectra. Instead, manufacturers group devices with similar CIE color coordinates into “bins.” The groupings are determined by small quadrilaterals on the CIE color space with vertical sets of these quadrilaterals having the same CCT. Figure 4 illustrates the binning principle. (See the TechZone article “Decoding LED Bin Labels”.)

 

[Deleted member 126251]

1) So do RGB LED have the ability to change colour and if so do they fail in different colours of white?

The reason I ask is that we have some LED lighting in a property we recently bought, and it’s casting different shades from warm to cool white. The estate agent told us that it was possible to change the colour of the LEDs using a remote control but as we’ve never found one we thought perhaps he was mistaken.

Comments in this thread are making me think that they are RGB (colour changing?) LEDs. Unfortunately they’re more than 4 metres up and I currently have no safe or easy way to reach them. Being different shades of white will be irritating though unless we fix or replace them!

1) Yes. If they are RGB, it could simply be the RGB mix giving different "warmth". If they are RGBW (W being a white element) it could be different temperatures on the white element of each strip. Otherwise it could be two white strips with different colour temperatures.

For the RGB/ RGBW, you would need a remote control and there would be a little receiver (between the power supply & the strip). If you could identify the receiver, you could (probably) order a matching remote. Alternatively you could replace the receivers and remote. You can ususlly “pair” 1 remote to more than 1 receiver.

FWIW the lights at my garage are whiter than the light at my front door. It annoyed me at first but I’m now used to it.

 

[merc estate]

This is like going to buy a bulb in B+Q

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

For the RGB/ RGBW, you would need a remote control and there would be a little receiver (between the power supply & the strip). If you could identify the receiver, you could (probably) order a matching remote. Alternatively you could replace the receivers and remote. You can ususlly “pair” 1 remote to more than 1 receiver.

That’s really useful, thank you. I think I can see the receivers, I’ll try to get a photo.

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

For the RGB/ RGBW, you would need a remote control and there would be a little receiver (between the power supply & the strip). If you could identify the receiver, you could (probably) order a matching remote. Alternatively you could replace the receivers and remote. You can ususlly “pair” 1 remote to more than 1 receiver.

Duplicated