
Lament HN: Light Bulbs - gorgoiler
Are light bulbs representative of life?<p>I have a lamp that takes G9 capsule-lightbulbs.  These have two little legs made of wire loops that push&#x2F;click into sockets — about the size of a large bean.<p>I have two 30W halogen bulbs made by GE.  A known brand, known technology, radiating across the spectrum in warm colors with stable light.<p>They are also far too hot.  I want to replace them with LEDs.  Searching Amazon for a minute felt as comfortable as buying in a black market at 4am.  All brands I’ve never heard of.  Most have bad reviews focusing mostly on either unwanted flicker, wrong color, or high failure rates.<p>I went to the website of a bricks-and-mortar store I trust.  They have a Philips bulb and two other brands.  Philips is a brand I recognize.  The bulb is not omnidirectional.  The other two have some reviews.  One off-brand has multiple reviews saying the bulbs flicker and have odd color profiles.<p>The other off-brand has fewer bad reviews.  I load up my cart with two bulbs for $12.  There is a ~$2 fee to click and collect from the local branch of this bricks-and-mortar store.<p>I go back to Amazon.  No handling fee but the price for is higher by ~50%.  I go back to the bricks-and-mortar store and take the fee-hit, mostly because I don’t want to be wandering around the shelves in store for too long <i>in these trying times</i>.<p>I will pick the bulbs up on Saturday.  The technology change will save me energy and save my lamp heating up too much.<p>LEDs are a wonder of the modern world.  What’s not a wonder is this <i>late stage capitalism</i> shopping experience.  I lament it as much as I am no longer surprised by it.  This little experience encapsulated everything that’s awful about light bulb shopping online, and if I think too hard about it, quite a lot of other things in the modern world too.<p>Thank you for reading.  Sorry if you decided you didn’t want to.  [x] Uncheck this box if you don’t want to be emailed about reviewing your purchase.
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bigiain
> They are also far too hot. I want to replace them with LEDs.

You probably really don't.

I have hot hot QH globes in my desk lamps, my bedside lamps, my workbench
lamps, and my dinner table lighting.

While I have lots of highly efficient LED lighting all round the house, the
"radiating across the spectrum in warm colors with stable light" is _so_ much
better for my eyes for so many of the things I do using those lamps. A ~5W LED
replacement in any/all of those lamps would without doubt be "brighter" and
cooler, but I really don't want to read by LED light or decode resistor values
by LED light. Not even expensive "brand spectrum" LED light. I'm totally happy
with using an extra ~25W and needing suitably heat shielded lamp fixtures to
have those QH globes burning there...

