Am I misreading this leaflet from Lidl (text box, bottom left) or are you expected to throw the whole light fitting away when the LEDs fail?
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I know 30,000 hrs is a long time but it still seems wasteful to chuck the whole fitting, and I saw ceiling spotlight bars in store yesterday (which presumably would get much more use than a security light) with the same warning.
It applies to all LED lamps, except retrofits. It's because the LED needs to be thermally coupled to the heatsink (case) sufficiently well that heat sink paste and tools are needed to change it, and that's not considered a user replaceable part.
Retrofit LED lamps have much lower light output, because they cannot be designed with the same heat sinking capacity.
Some of the large industrial ones are designed as replaceable modules with the LED and sometimes the phosphour too separately replaceable, but that isn't safe in untrained hands from damaging your eyesight.
Spend a few minutes by the Light Bulb rack in a shed and you will see that just choosing the right bulb is beyond many people. I helped someone a few days ago who was looking at those long filament tube lights. Sometimes used in Vanity Units. I commented that they are not stocked in many shops - It turned out he needed a fluorescent tube but hadm't a clue what length.
I doubt whether such a PIR activated security lamp would clock more than 3 or 4 hours worth per day in the winter months and very much less the rest of the year. My feeling is that it's more likely only going to clock up some 900 hours per year.
Assuming as much as 1000 hours per year, you'd be looking at a lifetime of about 35 years. It would need to be clocking up over 2000 hours a year to get the lifetime down to the 15 year mark. At this sort of endurance period, other failure factors will predominate.
Sealing the LED assembly into the housing, foregoing the pleasure of 'lamp replacement' considerably eases the problems involved in achieving long endurance reliability under the harsher environmental conditions of an exterior location (in particular, the IP44 rating).
In this case, when the LED array has such a long life, sacrificing replacability in the interests of overall reliability is a tiny price well worth paying. It's just a question of keeping things in proportion. At a penny shy of 12 quid, you're likely to see better than a year per pound's worth of investment over its lifetime.
Any component that relies upon a mechanically remakable connector is subject to the reliability issues such interconnects introduce to the product's overall reliability. In this case. LED arrays are even more prone to the effects of contact resistance variations. When the light source device has a lifetime rating some 50 times longer than its predecessor (300 to 500 W linear tungsten filament halogen lamp), it would be foolish to compromise this with use of a connector just so you can replace the 'lamp' once every 20 years or so.
The only problem I have with that lamp, at the moment, is a total absence of any data relating to its operating parameters. My best guess is that it's likely to be anywhere from 10 to 30 watt rating judging by the picture and the 12 LED array.
As to its Lumens output, that's anyone's guess. I'm surprised at the total lack of these vital stats (wattage, colour temperature and Lumen output). Presumably this information will on the packaging and instruction leaflet enclosed thus necessitating an actual visit to the shop to see whether it would be a viable replacement for our current
This is all assuming 30k hours is actually accurate. I take those figures with a pinch of salt.
I've had preassembled LED fittings (lots of LEDs type) blow LEDs in fairly short order - so I have absolutely no trust of these things and I'm still sticking to "I'd rather have a serviceable device".
I have several. You don't want the majority of people changing the LEDS as they would bugger up the heat sinking and kill the new leds. As the cost of the unit is going to be less than the cost of the LEDs and the necessary packaging it will never make sense to change the LEDs for most people
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