A troubling trend in lighting? 

Well, _I_ might have taken a break but my hair sure didn’t. Editor’s note: you may have noticed that I didn’t really come to a firm position on this topic. That’s because, well, I don’t really have one. Certainly some of the items I featured I think should be avoided, but the more basic thingamabobs I’m holding through much of the video? I still kinda like them. Time will tell how good these really are, I suppose, but they have the right stuff. Whether that’s worth axing the bulb socket? I’ll leave that up to you.

I’d love a history of batteries and how they were standardized video.

Let's apreciate the fact that this man actually goes through the trouble of putting subtitles on his videos (not the crappy auto-generated ones). THANK YOU!

When my mom had her kitchen remodeled, she was talked into one of these fixtures, and was extremely angry when it stopped working within a few months and she couldn't replace it herself.

What we really need is a new standard for connecting flat LED lights (with circuitry) to fixtures. That would provide a lot more flexibility for the consumers, while still being possible to sell in a pre-mounted package so it's just as convenient as these disposable fixtures.

You take stuff that seems like it should be soul-crushingly boring and make it fascinating in the most midwestern way and this Michigander trying to learn home maintenance skills truly appreciates it

“I have feelings about this - which you are all about to hear!” Truly the tagline of Technology Connections.

Interesting side note: Some LED bulb drivers are known to interfere with garage door opener radio frequencies. Happened to me. Bought this great LED flood for the front of the garage and couldn't open the door. Took about a half a day of head scratching and googling but I just wanted to share 🙃

It's terrifying to think that someone with epilepsy could be hurt (or worse) in their own home when they enter a room and find the LED fixture is strobing.

Oh man, that digression on "planned obsolescence" could be a video all on its own! I'd love to watch it!

Recently took over an office building where the previous owner had put 6000+K PAR replacements in the can lights in the corridors. Everything looked purple, dingy and gross. Wound up replacing around 80x 3000K and the tenants' response was universally positive.

I really appreciate how often you brought up how comfortable someone is replacing the fixture. I think that's a super important and often overlooked safety factor!

I really want a standardized driver/chip format for these so that just the failed component can be replaced.

Great video, Just a comment! I'm an LED Engineer. In fact i was involved with designing some of the first Direct-AC Drive systems that you showed on the video. Seoul Semiconductor boards are pretty (just like the ones you showed :D) Everything is pretty accurate; but the ONLY comment i have to make is that the long, squiggly filament style bulbs are NOT driven by a driver. They're using a cheap trick which is, four diodes in a normal bridge; and then using 120VDc LEDs. That's what those filaments are: 120V voltage LED strings that are just powered at 120Hz by the dual waveform rectifier. You can validate this using a camera to see the shutter and the 60/120hz flicker. That's why they last so long: There's no switchmode driver, just a couple of diodes.

The obvious solution would be a standard "flat bulb" design that can slot into any of these.

As a lighting designer I’m so impressed by how well you covered the topic in just 30mins! Though when I read the title “disposable”, I was hoping that you would cover the environmental impact of producing LEDs too. Everyone is using LEDs these days but rarely people think about the environmental consequences of it (carbon footprint in manufacturing, end of life recycling, etc). LED fixtures that includes many components made of plastic, silicone, metal, etc is much more difficult to take apart and recycle properly compare to traditional light bulbs including mostly glass and metal. Commercial projects have a massive demand on fixtures that you can’t really just “change the lamp” when the fixture dies or switch brand without take off the whole thing, because each manufacturer has their own standard. Yet we are all still jumping on it because it’s convenient, cheaper, and efficient. Sometimes I worry this is the new invention that would end up like plastic bags-because it’s so convenient, we overlook the long term consequences it brings, ending up overuse it and only to realize the trouble in the future. It would be great if you could make another video in the future covering this topic too, and raise some awareness to people.

I can confirm, I was plagued with dead led bulb, I always bought the cheapest that had the plastic base/plastic cap design. After I switched to the filament/glass design, I had much better longevity. I still get defective bulbs, but the defective bulbs normally show issues nearly immediately.

The thing I like most about the “disposable” LED light fixtures is that the light diodes are evenly spaced, causing a nice even glow through the transparent casing. With traditional fixtures, you can always see where the bulb(s) are underneath and I think it looks much worse in actual usage.

The tough thing for me is trying to find replacements for all in one led fixtures because by the time the light starts to fail, the company doesn't even make them anymore in that style, in fact it's so old it not even on their discontinued list anymore. So then I go down the rabbit hole of trying to find a chip that can safely work for that driver but the specifications for the driver are extremely confusing and I just give up. And when it's a commercial building you can't just replace on light fixture in a room full of them without having to change them all so I'm not entirely keen on them for commercial use when you have 20 of them and the product is sold a unit that no longer exists.

I was shocked recently when I went to get a new light fitting. The hardware store was almost entirely disposal fittings. I could only find 2 with actual light bulb sockets. Its insane.

Probably not the best idea to watch this at 2 AM while laying in bed in a completely dark room, but interesting nonetheless! In the future, maybe we'll have lightplates or lightdiscs that slot into fixtures instead of lightbulbs.

I really love that when my friends tell me I'm a grumpy old man stuck inside the body of a 25yo when I talk about how new design ist not always better in all cases, it usually only takes a couple of months for a Technology Connections video to come out on the exact same topic. Hats off to you, good Sir

They're selling desk and floor lamps now with these integrated, unreplaceable LED panels. So when the LED fails you have to toss out the whole lamp. Huge amount of additional e-waste.

I love hearing how you explain lighting to laymen. Being in the lighting industry, we don't really focus on consumer grade lights so it's interesting to see where things are technology wise compared to the architectural grade products I'm used to. My graduate school is working on trying to come up with some solutions for the disposability of LEDs though.

Not sure if it was mentioned, but another problem is that you probably have to drill new holes in your ceiling when it's time to replace the fixture (don't count on the same model being available in a few years). That's especially bad in a bathroom because of the moisture in the air, and unfortunately most of the light fixtures rated for bathrooms nowadays are LED fixtures... I went with a traditional ceramic fixture.

i just wanna take a second to thank you for always taking the effort to have high quality captions on your videos. it seems like they must all be done by hand since they're not filled with the kind of mistakes and mis-hearings that crop up when people hire cheap subtitling sites where underpaid, overworked ✨independent contractors✨ are incentivized to slap out stuff that's barely passable and move on*, and they also don't have the inconsistencies and timing issues that tend to crop up when youtubers copy in their script for subtitles, but whatever the case, they're pretty much always accurate and well-timed and it's really nice as someone who often uses subtitles to help with comprehension but gets totally brain-twisted when the words on the screen clearly don't match up to the words i'm hearing. i know not every youtuber can afford the money or time for quality subtitles, and youtube's absolutely goddamn boneheaded move of removing community contributions has removed the best option a lot of people had, so i do really appreciate it when people go that extra mile to add captions that Don't Suck *side note, this is a dig at transcription companies and not those workers. i used to be one of them (until the hours of constant typing caused me chronic pain and nerve issues that still persist 5+ years later! with of course no unemployment or medical assistance because It's Gig Economy Baby and you're not considered an "employee"!) and frankly it's miserable work and if you try to be perfectionist like i was then you make a fraction of minimum wage, because the amount they pay their workers is simply not enough for the time it takes to thoroughly double-check a transcript

I can only imagine how much effort these videos take. The research, the footage you need to capture... oh my god. And then the fact that you're editing what amounts to a quarter of a feature-length movie. This channel is amazing.

"of course that doesn't always happen, because we can't have nice things". OMG that made me laugh 😁 .... Being from Chicagoland, I greatly appreciate the sarcasm and snide remarks.

I had one that lasted a few years and the ballast went, I just replaced the ballast and that was 3 years ago now. They should make the board that is held in with 3 screws with some contacts on the back that are standardized. You can have what ever you want on the board, even smart controls where you just leave the switch on and turn it off with a application or change the temperature and/or color of the light.

I'm here to provide the aforementioned inevitable wire nuts vs wagos argument. Integrated LED fixtures are a great application for wagos, because they're quick to remove when the fixture dies, easier to install correctly than wire nuts, and more easily handle the joining of solid wire with the stranded wire from the fixture.

I'd like to add that having any kind of microelectronics circuit hardwired into your house increases the relevance of a whole house surge suppressor. At my last house, electronic things would often get fried due to noise and swings in the mains power. I finally installed a monitor to prove my power quality was terrible. It doesn't take much to fry an LED board. And during a thunderstorm, even a strike a mile away can raise your voltage to levels unkind to electronics. At least with screw-in LED bulbs, you can CHANGE THEM when they fry.

they should make these fixtures but make the led bits a removable disc, it wouldn't really even need many changes to achieve, it would have two slots that would also be the power terminals on the disc and have two fixtures that drive the power that they lock into with a simple quarter twist, just have like a button in the middle of the disc that unlocked the power/mounting tabs safely and replace.

My wife had pediatric cataracts and had her eye lenses removed. The way this surgery was done in the 90s left her with an unfiltered view of light. Namely, she can see the blue light emitting from LED bulbs, regardless of light color or temperature. Lights like this would be a nightmare for us to deal with.

This is the exact reason that when shopping for ceiling fans for my house, I avoided models with built in led lights. No temperature control and I have to go through that manufacturer when the proprietary bulb they use eventually goes out.

Holy shit, thank you for showing a newer model of this style lamp. I bought a few of these early on in their mainstream marketing and the one I installed in my bedroom had no smoothing capacitor. I was sorely tempted to solder one in as shown as the stroboscopic effect would make me motion sick when moving about the room. Really nice to see they've at least attempted a fix and that my bodge would have worked.

Thank you for the comprehensive pros and cons. I particularly appreciate the discussion of cool vs warm light color.

TC is back! And honestly I feel like I’m with you on this. I’ve watched this happen, and it feels like we’re a bit quick going from “why, this LED lasts practically forever!“ to “we don’t need to consider replacing them“, I’ve seen it in car lighting and now it seems to move over into home lighting. It allows for some really neat designs you couldn’t have with bulbs, but it also creates more waste and makes it harder to fix stuff, which isn’t great. It’s a messy situation and I’m not sure what the best solution is, here.

I'm a commercial lighting engineer that specializes in retail and started in the field in 2012 just as it was coming into mass market. You hit a lot of the most important points and how it has been commoditized. A lot of those earlier projets are now being replaced again despite us assuming a 15 year life. For one, in commercial settings there are often "night lights" or certain fixtures that stay on constantly. We found that those fixtures became noticeable and color shifted over time compared to others so now we often designate separate (different) fixtures for that purpose. Also, what one manufacturer calls "3000K" varies from others. It shouldn't, but it does. Especially with the Chinese brands. A spectrometer confirms it and it's simple technology but... China labels things however they want. I think the biggest advancement has been in the optics, it has opened up a world of options we would have never dreamed of 20 years ago with different beam patterns and the like and the diode elements are powerful enough that we can afford to diffuse it. Earlier generations typically didn't. This is a big deal wth street lighting and glare. But yes, unfortunately in retail environments where we have defined a brand standard for our clients, if a few fixtures shift color, we need to replace EVERYTHING and that is becoming more and more common. Whereas in the past with 2x2 fluorescent fixtures with FB lamps we could just relamp one fixture and nobody would know, we often have to replace an entire sales floor of fixtures now and the store managers can't do that. It's great business for us (as we also do that work and service thousands of locations) but it's incredibly wasteful. We've recently started supplying tunable fixtures and have reverted from integrated track fixtures/lamps to track lampholders where the lamps can be changed out. Except, ironically, in California there are Title 21 requirements that still require us to replace entire fixtures as they require integrated lamps. Also, as you mentioned, Chicago (and NYC) are both oddballs and require all exit signs and emergency lighting to have metal housings and other special fixture requirements like "tenting" the fixtures in plenums, etc., the codes are well-intentioned but haven't caught up to the technology. Another huge benefit has been in emergency lighting, we can meet the 1/0.1fc requirement for an entire store on just a single inverter unit which greatly simplifies inspection and battery replacement compared to transfer switches or standalone "bugeyes"'. Also, it's worth noting that fluorescent fixtures can be just as "efficient" as LED. In the 1970s, it was common practice to route HVAC ducts _through_ the fixtures to pick up heat and deliver it to the occupied space below. But this only works in the heating season. But this could also be used with cooling, conceivably, to cool the LED fixtures and prolong their life (though it's not, in practice). But it's something we run into with our energy simulations when lighting is "too" efficient and the HVAC is inefficient, overall heating bills can increase and negate the lighting savings. Moreso in northern climates, obviously. It used to be that lighting contributed a substantial heat load to a building and we have simulation software that takes that into account.

I did maintenance work in nursing homes for over three years. Fixing burned out lights was part of it. Over time, replacing 2D fluorescent tubes in circular ‘saucer’ shaped ceiling fittings became replacing entire ceiling fittings with LED substitutes. The common problem with the 2D fluorescent fittings was age and heat had often damaged the plastics of the bulb holder, and sometimes also the insulation of the wire going to it. Crumbly plastics. Such were the magnitude of my maintenance duties with a limited time scale to do them in, that so long as I could ‘get away’ with just changing a 2D bulb and be able to pop the diffuser back on with no danger to residents, way out of reach of the ceiling fitting, I’d sometimes ignore a wobbly bulb holder where a bit of the plastic had broken away. However sometimes the whole thing crumbled, so then that meant going to the maintenance stores and getting an entire colour selectable LED bulkhead/ceiling light fitting, the stepladder, power drill, drill bits, screws, wall plugs and wiring tools like cutters and pliers, and spend upwards of an hour replacing the whole thing and clearing up the mess afterwards. Most times the existing ceiling wiring didn’t line up with the grommet in the new lamp body and I had to cut a new hole in it with a hole saw, and often the ceiling above the lamp I was taking down was like a piece of Swiss cheese, with many, many years of previous light fitting holes peppering the ceiling. This wouldn’t be so bad once the job was finished, we’re it not for the times previously installed LED ceiling lights failed, which, often being of a different design pattern to the ones I was supplied with at the time, meant that whole fitting including body, diffuser, board and driver, had to be scrapped and replaced with new - and making yet more holes in those plasterboard ceilings for different lamp mounting patterns. For the duration that I was employed in this role and was replacing lights, I tried to standardise the LED fitting I was supplied with, because that particular model (which was relatively cheap, but therefore probably not the longest lived) had a separate board and driver that clipped into the body attached to the ceiling. I found that if one failed, often I could replace the board and driver and keep the old body and diffuser, saving work and time - but also resulting in a brand new body and diffuser going in the bin, along with the cardboard box they came in. Which, seeing as LED lighting technology was supposed to be friendlier to the environment and saving the planet, struck me as a terrible waste of materials and manufacturing resources compared to just changing a ‘bulb’. I also found, with my choice of LED colour selectable light fitting, with ‘warm’, ‘daylight’ and ‘cool white’ settings, selectable from pin switches on the board, that some of the ones I’d installed myself failed early, not just ones that had been put up before my time. The ‘daylight’ setting was very bright and utilised all the LEDs on together, while ‘cool white’ used one row of LEDs and ‘warm white’ another. I learned when installing these fittings that if I put them in a bedroom I’d select the ‘warm’ LEDs and in a toilet, corridor or bathroom the ‘cool white’ LEDs. However, this became a ploy because, such was the pressure of work and the variety of tasks I was expected to pull in during an average day, that if one of these fittings began to strobe and was marked as a maintenance job on my job board, I’d get the stepladder, take off the diffuser, and using the pin switches on the board, turn off the defective row of LEDs and turn on the unused, previously undesirable coloured row, pop the diffuser back on and mark the job as ‘done’ and leave the second row of LEDs to live out their life span. And yes, such was the type of work it was, turnover of maintenance staff, and type of building and type of occupancy, that different colour tones of LED ceiling lamps, and different colour tones of CFL bulbs could often be seen in the same rooms and the same fittings. It just wasn’t the kind of job or the kind of company where you could worry about such things. A working light was a working light. However I finished with that kind of work - including the plumbing, painting, carpentry, inspection and record keeping - more than two years ago AND WILL NEVER GO BACK TO IT!

They can simply use the metal frame and plastic lens but have a control board that clips in place and has a simple plug so it would be easy to change out the flat board. They could also add the switch on the board to choose the type of output color.

your taste in lighting is beautiful. indoor lighting is so important and almost no one cares about things like colour temperature etc. The worst is when you move into a new apartment and the landlord just put in whatever cheap and mismatched bulbs they had lying around which cast the most ugly, sterile, and clinical looking light

"That's not gonna bother some folks but, it DEFINITELY would bother me." I feel this in my bones and everyone around me never understands my brand of perfect order.

As an electrician I cannot say how much I appreciate someone using the terms lamp, fixture, bulb, wire, conductor and light all correctly. Most people in the field cant even get lamp and fixture right. Light comes from the lamp that is in the fixture. It's all very simple.

I like that you mention renters not being able to change out the light fixture, even if they don't have the skill... In my last apartment I fully installed a light fixture in a closet, that already had a capped junction box. I doubt my landlord even noticed when I moved out.

Pro tip. When tryin to measure temperature on something that is thermally transparent, put a small piece of painters tape on it. It will heat to the surface and allow accurate measurement.

When I renovated my garage to make it into my "studio" I chose to put in 20 evenly spaced octagon boxes and bulb holders for the very reason of choice and future proofing. Had I installed 4 ft led fixtures, if one goes bad I had better have a spare or I'm f-ed. Not to mention the ever changing technology advancements in lighting, I figure the bulb holders are the smart way to go. Also helped that it was far and away the cheapest option.

The previous owners of my house put up a couple of these. There was an odd surge in one bedroom that fried the disposable fixture. I swapped the fixture and have had a couple more surges, but I can swap bulbs instead of fixtures!

I'm a General Class ham, but due to you I also have a GMRS license. I programmed the Roger beep on my Baofeng handheld, and used it on my usual 2M net. The net host congratula ted me for that . But lated on the net a "Sad Ham" told me I shouldn't use it, as he said it can cause "confusion" on repeaters. After the net, I asked the net host if I should take the Roger beep off. He said if you like it, keep it, and don't worry about what other people think. 😊

To get a good temperature reading on glass, you can just stick a square of electrical tape on the surface wherever you want to measure and measure from the tape.

This is EXACTLY what I ran into when shopping for a new ceiling fan. Lots of the expensive ones have an integrated LED light kit and their own "smart" features and stuff.... which is fine for people that want them, but I want to continue using my 'smart bulbs' because I have more control of them than what's possible with the integrated LED kits.

Best youtube channel! Hands down! Kudos from a big fan 😊

Great job 👏🏽 love your channel! Always excited for new videos 💯✌️😎😁

Pro lighting guy here. Thanks for calling the lamps "lamps" and the fixtures "fixtures." Well, much of the time. In addition to the lack of attention the average user pays to color temperature, one of my major gripes with consumer LED lighting is the lack of flexible, user-friendly control.

As a handyman that occasionally has to explain some of this to customers, standards would be really nice

Your outtakes are amazing.

I'm a service technician in the Lighting industry for 7 years. Great coverage of the topic.

Had a "disposable LED fixture" in my apartment. of course it failed after a two years and was left sitting in the dark. Replaced it with a timeless hanging Bulb socket from IKEA and a paper screen thingy, with a 100 watt LED bulb screwed in. I agree completely with this video. *I* know how to unmount, wire and replace fixtures safely and correctly because my Dad taught me how. but in this age of waste not everyone has those sort of handyman skills passed down in the family.

The obvious answer to the maintenance problem of these fittings would be for the industry to settle on a standard design of flush-fitting socket for wall and ceiling lights so that the fittings could just be twist-and-remove for householders not trusted with a screwdriver. You could also make a ceiling rose adapter for people that suddenly decide they need a pendant lamp in their life. The cost for these need not be any more than a normal lamp holder once economies of scale are taken into account.

I think you missed an advantage: They're sealed plates instead of permanent holes in the ceiling. Air migration through recessed fixtures is a major source of thermal losses in residential construction. If your have a ventilated attic and recessed lights on your top floor, it's like having a perforated roof in terms of air.

I'm happy to see that I'm not the only one to be obsessed with (non)-clashing color temperatures!

When I bought my house in 2013, I replaced all the bulbs with led bulbs. To date, I've only had one fail, and that was the yellow tinted bug light I had outside. Which was on 24/7 for about 5 years.

It seems like the answer to the "replacement" problem would be a standardized unit that clipped in and out of the basic fixture. Probably not a realistic thing to hope for, but oh well.

For applications where linear fluorescent fixtures would traditionally be used, you may want to consider led ready fixtures, which use type B led tubes. Some tubes have the same life as regular led fixtures because the leds are spread out over a large area instead of being crammed into a small spot, which allows them to dissipate heat better. Additionally, many led tubes have leds that point down, meaning almost all the light is directed downward .

I’m a lighting engineer who has looked into the filament style LED bulbs a fair bit. At first they look like they would have overheating issues. However there is something going on in these bulbs that people are unaware of. The glass capsule is filled with helium gas which is actually a great heat conductor. The helium gas effectively wicks the heat off the LED filaments and deposits transfers the heat to the glass Envelope. The light conversion efficiency is also very high on this style bulb some of which can achieve over 200lm/w because the phosphor is applied to both sides of the LED chip.

Surely there's a compromise where you can install fixtures like those but with the guts being self-contained and replaceable rather than needing to swap out the entire fixture. A 'lightplate' rather than a bulb.

As the lead tech at my University's auditorium, I can confirm that some people should never work with electricity. Even after numerous 1 on 1 training sessions, they won't get certain aspects, and that's ok. It just means their talents are elsewhere. But because of that, making sure there is a safe way for the average person who isn't inclined or able to work with custom electrical jobs is that more important. Certainly, I can teach a 5 y/o how to be an electrician and swap out fixtures, but I would argue it would be irresponsible of me to then ask that 5 y/o to go change said fixtures on their own. If you wouldn't ask a young child to do it, then it's not a user friendly task. That doesn't mean we can't have the freedom to do the more fun aspects of getting into the wires, rather that it shouldn't be a requirement for basic changing of the light XD

I still have about 5 of those twist style florescent lights that I bought in the late 90s. They are in my closets, front porch, and hallway still working. I'm switching everything to LED now. I like those flush mount lights. The ones in buying have a slider switch to select the light color. I like them a lot.

10:52 damn, he read my mind

Yes, this is one of those cases where "Situationally pretty good. Bad to have it forced on you" applies. Pretty sure the contractors that replaced the damaged (from water leakage) fixture in the house used one of these....Well, if all goes well it'll keep working for over a decade, so not really an issue, probably. Mind, it's really inconveniently located (It's on a landing, but the ceiling is for the floor above it, so you need a ladder that can go high enough in a narrow space), which would make an already nerve wracking situation (replacing a bulb in a precarious location) several times worse since you'd have to do rewiring and mounting.

Solution: Outlets in the ceiling boxes. Just plug in the new one, no more danger than the old Edison ones, and more flexible

I like listening to your videos to relax, you have a calm voice.

I've been getting my butt kicked by the flu but thank goodness I stumbled upon your channel. I love learning about stuff, electronics, history or just anything. Your presentation is excellent and beats 99% of what's on cable. I've had so much fun learning and discovering on your channel and has really helped ease the misery. As for lights, I'm very picky about lights and the variety of LEDs we have today is a blessing and a curse. Many quality products suprisingly, I haven't had many failures (maybe 2 in 5 years? 20+ bulbs or more). I must admit after stumbling on a stock pile of NOS filament bulbs there is a color, warmth and glow that I have yet to see LED nail.

I like the Japanese ceiling light sockets, 引掛シーリング The modern “rosette” ones are very flush, and they allow for all kinds of different lights while being completely plug and play (and earthquake safe). In fact, in Japan apartments don’t even usually come with ceiling lights, everyone moves with their own lights that they like since the socket is completely standardized. 🇯🇵

It would be super easy to redesign these things to separate "bulb" from "fixture" to make replacement as simple as a push-n-twist that provides a mechanical and electrical contact connection, as Edison bases do. Then you can choose your bulb and fixture independent of one another in a variety of hopefully-standardized sizes.

I love this topic, I feel this trend is very troubling especially with the introduction of can less recessed lights. Once they burn out, sometimes you cant find the same size, leaving a gigantic hole in the ceiling that needs to be patched. Since there isnt any can, the ceiling is just full of stray romex

I had a hand in bringing these “disc light” products to market. I’m one of a few inventors listed on the original patents from back in ~2010. That being said, I have none in my home. I prefer small diameter recessed downlights for that purpose.

Japanese ceiling mounted light fixture sockets are worth taking a look at also. As lighting has to be taken with you when you leave an apartment it's easy to swap fixtures and now they sell LED versions which I use in my apartment.

I got a bunch before this video was made and they clip into one of those boxes that have a little spring clip mounting holes, the same kind that are used to hold anything from light fixtures to vent fan covers, so they can easily be replaced physically, and they come with both a screw type connector and a removable two-prong plug. They were also much cheaper at about $5 a piece (got mine at a Menards sale, with a rebate as well, at the end of the day they were about a buck fifty a piece, got the last four boxes in the store), so a lot of the shortcomings listed in this video in terms of user serviceability and stuff like that have already been addressed.

"You've seen dying LED lighting, I'm sure" I've never known an LED to die. I have LEDs on appliances from the 70s that work fine.

I feel like something like the smoke detector brackets style things would be a decent solution for the replaceability problem. Naturally, that does require committing to that style of lamp instead of a bulb socket.

Never would I ever. I can see people having miss matched lights because they needed to replace one of these unfixable fixtures but couldn't but an exact replacement.

Another great video; thanks! I'd like to bring up a few things you might look into for future videos on the subject. Light fixtures were designed for a lamp which gave off more heat, but the source of that heat was the filament which was well away from the socket. I've opened light fixtures in which previous owners had installed CFLs to find the stickers and labels inside almost charred by the heat. It's better to use disposable led fixtures or modern socketed fixtures than to put CFLs or LEDs into these older fixtures, in my opinion. I hadn't heard of the LED lamps which move some of the heat dissipation to the bulb; that might be in response to the problem. On a separate subject, I have a tip for those people thinking of installing these disposable fixtures: install a short "pigtail" of wire to the house wiring and connect the fixture to that pigtail. House wiring is solid wire and is not meant to be moved very often. Pulling it in and out of the box to attach replacement fixtures over the years will cause the wires to become more resistive and to eventually fail. Whether the pigtail is stranded wire, which is much more tolerant of movement, or just solid wire which will be easier to replace than the house wiring when it fails, using a pigtail on these fixtures should eventually become code. Hopefully, though, the vendors will get together and design a standard recessed connector which can be mounted into the electrical box to allow consumers to replace these fixtures like the lamps they really are, but until then...

I actually found out about these years ago when I moved into a new house and put my (long throw) projector up in the living room.. which had a light fixture right in the middle of it. I was so glad to find something that was low profile that I could just replace the whole thing with. Thankfully I myself was competent enough to do it myself (it's not that hard but I get why someone wouldn't want to), and also don't have to worry about most of the other cons you listed because it's the only ceiling mounted light in the room. If it ever dies, I'll just buy a new one and the look won't matter compared to anything else. So for that reason I absolutely love them and wouldn't be putting a normal fixture in that spot again anytime soon anyway!

When LEDs started becoming useful in professional lighting (about 10 years ago) there was a push for ease of replacement through standardisation of modules - take a look at the zhaga consortium. It seems to have fallen by the wayside for the most part though, probably because the lifetime of a commercial lighting installation is about the same as an LED luminaire!

Another great example of why I love this channel so much! 👍👍

I have a few of these at home. I've tweeked the brightness down a bit by changing some component values, and now they run so cool I don't expect them to die for decades. 😊

This is an excellent video, and pertinent because I just bought a house and I am installing some. The issue you mention, about replacement when they die, is compounded in places like the province of Québec, in Canada, where the law states that all electrical work, including replacing a wired fixture, must be done by a certified electrician. I don't think anyone who is slightly capable will be calling on an electrician for this but it does add another layer of complexity to the issue, as well a liability with regards to insurance if you ever install one incorrectly and don't have proof of installation from an electrician. Thanks for this video, I just subscribed (thanks to the mention from Transport Evolved about your channel) 😎

I love when Alec says things like "Kelvin degrees" just to annoy people. 🤣 It's convenient.

Ability to change lightbulbs in our lamps is just too great comfort to give up on it. We just need some new kind of connector standard that does not need the light to be rotated to connect and then we can easily migrate from light*bulbs* to light*plates* which are much more suitable form factor for LED lighting.

It is amazing how many household skills I picked up from my 7th grade shop class about 40 years ago. I switched out a fluorescent fixture that kept failing with a flat led panel. The original fixture had just the romex sticking out of the ceiling, so I installed a ceiling box and put in the square panel. Sure it has the risk of failure and needing to replace the whole fixture, but in theory it should last 10-20 years.

I love your videos!, the content and information are excelent but what i love is that coments like in 7:27, with that face expresion!,love them. Here a follower from Buenos Aires, Argentina

Fun fact: Did you know that neither wire nuts nor wagos are common in UK and Ireland. Instead we use frustratingly awkward (and imho unreliable) screw terminal blocks. I have no idea why. I think they were so pleased with themselves for inventing the world's safest plug and socket that they decided not to bother putting any effort into wire connectors.

I found an interesting compromise on the flush-mount “boob” light. The make these led bulbs that look like flush-mount fixtures. They only require a simple screw fixture, and when you screw these bulbs in, they stick out a few inches (like boob lamps) and they are - depending on what design you’ve chosen - several inches wider with a valance that touches the ceiling when fully installed. They LOOK like a fixture, but they have the function of a screw type bulb and are easily replaced without rewiring.

I love, love, love, your videos. Thank you. 🤗

Your demo around 26:17 explains something I’ve been curious about. I replaced the bulb in my desk lamp with one of those fancy phillips led bulbs and while the light is quite pleasant I find there’s a considerable amount of heat coming off the top of it which surprised me. I’m surmising it has either that gas inside the glass or just very good heat dissipation.

Hey, I hope you see this, because I wanted to say thank you for inadvertently helping with my SAT. One of the science sections was over a radiometer, and I had watched your radiometer video prior. I'm proud to say I got a decent score of 1160, so thank you!

I love these videos. Interesting subject that I would never actually learn about on my own + soothing voice + dry humor = gain in knowledge. Thankful to be alive in this era.

I don't mind these, but I'm surprised that they don't have some kind of plug pigtail you can install on the 110 feed, so they are easy to replace.

Oh man, Flashbacks from my many failures in SimCity 2000. Nicely played!

I broke one of those fluorescent bulbs above my head once when trying to change it and I'm pretty sure I felt mercury vapor hit my face, so that's nice. Still waiting on my super power.