AssholeDesign

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This is a community for designs specifically crafted to make the experience worse for the user. This can be due to greed, apathy, laziness or just downright scumbaggery.

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Why the 1000-hour light bulb Phoebus Cartel story IS NOT an example of planned obsolescence. (www.youtube.com)

submitted 1 year ago by TestZero to c/assholedesign

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TLDW: The Phoebus Cartel established 1000 hours as a baseline to get maximum efficiency. longer lasting bulbs would require WAY more power per hour to operate while producing less light.

Planned obsolescence is indeed a thing, but using this as an example of it is incorrect and discredits the overall argument. It's better to focus your attention on right-to-repair laws for your $2000 laptops and $40,000 tractors than on your $2 light bulbs.

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[–] [email protected] 38 points 1 year ago (3 children)

#NUANCE NEEDED.

Alec is making a point specifically about the 1000 hour maximum which was for INCANDESCENT lightbulbs. You know, the ones that aren't used anymore.

However, modern LED lightbulbs are typically over-driven and under-cooled. This drastically shortens their lifespan and worsens efficiency. But this might just be because it's harder to sell a $20 light that lasts for 20 years than it is to sell a $5 light that lasts for 5-10.

[–] TestZero 11 points 1 year ago

TBF, I don't think anyone expects a TLDR to contain the same nuance or detail as a 30 minute video.

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