toroidalcore

Most of the #lights I put up for the holidays, or that I leave up all year round, are #LEDs. At one point I had more incandescent lights. Both types had problems with moisture. The first LED ones were built like the normal incandescent lights, as in you could remove the bulbs. The newer ones are sealed, and you can't replace an LED if it goes out. These seem to hold up a little better – with the non -sealed ones, the bulb leads could corrode away. The sealed ones, however, still had issues with moisture, even if they were more resilient.

I generally prefer the newer LED lights, but I still use incandescent here and there. If I'm not going to have them on a lot, the energy savings isn't an issue. And while modern LED lights look pretty nice, the incandescents have a different look. However, while corrosion afflicts both types, the incandescents, at least the ones I've been using, seem to have a lot of issues with bulbs going out.

The incandescent lights, the miniature ones that are run in series, have a small shunt filament that shorts them out if the bulb goes out so the whole string goes out. Sometimes, this fails, and all go out anyway, requiring more troubleshooting. I have a string of green lights I was going to put up for St. Patrick's Day, but found at least six or seven bulbs out – luckily they didn't take the whole string out. I usually handle this by cannibalizing an old string, basically taking one which is older and did go dead, and using it for replacement bulbs rather than trying to fix it. I did, and now it's up on my mantle and looks nice.

I've wondered what actually causes these bulbs to go out. Previously, this string had been up outside for one season. Really, just the month of March 2021. They're just inside now. I suspect it has something to do with a surge when they're turned on, but I'm not sure. This is a minor thing, but I'm curious about it nonetheless.

Find me at @toroidalcore@hackers.town