Over the years I have watched countless YouTube videos on LED light bulbs from the likes of Big Clive, DiodeGoneWild and ElectroBOOM since the early days of LED lighting. In the early days when good quality LED bulbs were expensive, there were countless cheaper poor quality LED bulbs sold through eBay, AliExpress, even Amazon and so on that cut so many corners. Besides having a short life span or poor illumination, many that were outright dangerous, such as posing an electrocution or fire hazard.
It is also surprising just how many unofficial meanings that came to mind that abbreviate to LED, so I thought I will post all the ones I can think of.
LED officially refers to Light-emitting Diode.
Here is what LED can also stand for. Unsurprisingly, many of these refer to the dodgy LED bulbs and lamps that were featured in the videos.
Light Eventually Dwindles - Poorly manufactured LEDs often rapidly fade over time, such as with mass produced fairly light strings.
Lighting Ecological Disaster - Many modern light fixtures have non replaceable bulbs, such as most lit bathroom mirrors, bulk head ceiling lights and even street lights. When the lamp fails, the whole unit must be replaced, resulting in a lot more eWaste than just replacing a part, i.e. the failed light bulb.
Lamp Explosion Deathtrap - Many cheaply made LED lamps particularly in the early days used a capacitive dropper based circuit. Poor quality capacitors were likely to fail spectacularly or go short circuit, leading to the lamp exploding or catching fire.
Low Expectation Device - LED lamps and light bulbs generally do not perform as well as they should or claim, such as early failure rates, uneven illumination, poor colour rendering and perceived flicker. So most consumers who had bad experience particularly with early or poorly made LED lamps have low expectations on new or replacement LED lamps.
Live Electrocution Deathtrap - Poor quality lamps with metal casing or exposed individual LEDs such as corn-cob bulbs often have no or minimal isolation from mains power. This can lead to the body of the lamp becoming live, even if the bulb appears to be working. This can be deadly in situations where bulb is exposed within reach, such as a desk lamp.
Light-emitting Deathbeam - In the early days of 5G mobile deployment, there was misinformation being spread that newly upgraded LED street lights were discreetly operating as 5G transmitters. Some conspirators claimed that these “5G” street lights emit deathbeam radiation due to the use of a high voltage capacitor in its power supply. In fact all switch mode supplies have a high voltage capacitor, not just in street lights. Big Clive usually points out this capacitor as he reverse engineers its power supply.
Lamp Erratically Dies - While the old incandescent light bulbs generally fail abruptly, LED bulbs and lamps often go erratic at the end of life, randomly flickering, fluctuating in intensity or going stroboscopic. Some LED street lights even change colour such as purple as they fail.
Least Exciting Device - This is particularly the case with lamp collectors and street light fanatics who much prefer non-LED lighting technology, particularly the quirks. For example, while LEDs generally light up instantly, discharge lamps have interesting warm up periods that can last several minutes, particularly the case with low pressure sodium lamps.
It is also surprising just how many unofficial meanings that came to mind that abbreviate to LED, so I thought I will post all the ones I can think of.
LED officially refers to Light-emitting Diode.
Here is what LED can also stand for. Unsurprisingly, many of these refer to the dodgy LED bulbs and lamps that were featured in the videos.
Light Eventually Dwindles - Poorly manufactured LEDs often rapidly fade over time, such as with mass produced fairly light strings.
Lighting Ecological Disaster - Many modern light fixtures have non replaceable bulbs, such as most lit bathroom mirrors, bulk head ceiling lights and even street lights. When the lamp fails, the whole unit must be replaced, resulting in a lot more eWaste than just replacing a part, i.e. the failed light bulb.
Lamp Explosion Deathtrap - Many cheaply made LED lamps particularly in the early days used a capacitive dropper based circuit. Poor quality capacitors were likely to fail spectacularly or go short circuit, leading to the lamp exploding or catching fire.
Low Expectation Device - LED lamps and light bulbs generally do not perform as well as they should or claim, such as early failure rates, uneven illumination, poor colour rendering and perceived flicker. So most consumers who had bad experience particularly with early or poorly made LED lamps have low expectations on new or replacement LED lamps.
Live Electrocution Deathtrap - Poor quality lamps with metal casing or exposed individual LEDs such as corn-cob bulbs often have no or minimal isolation from mains power. This can lead to the body of the lamp becoming live, even if the bulb appears to be working. This can be deadly in situations where bulb is exposed within reach, such as a desk lamp.
Light-emitting Deathbeam - In the early days of 5G mobile deployment, there was misinformation being spread that newly upgraded LED street lights were discreetly operating as 5G transmitters. Some conspirators claimed that these “5G” street lights emit deathbeam radiation due to the use of a high voltage capacitor in its power supply. In fact all switch mode supplies have a high voltage capacitor, not just in street lights. Big Clive usually points out this capacitor as he reverse engineers its power supply.
Lamp Erratically Dies - While the old incandescent light bulbs generally fail abruptly, LED bulbs and lamps often go erratic at the end of life, randomly flickering, fluctuating in intensity or going stroboscopic. Some LED street lights even change colour such as purple as they fail.
Least Exciting Device - This is particularly the case with lamp collectors and street light fanatics who much prefer non-LED lighting technology, particularly the quirks. For example, while LEDs generally light up instantly, discharge lamps have interesting warm up periods that can last several minutes, particularly the case with low pressure sodium lamps.