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LED bulbs are bit a more expensive than other types of light bulbs, but they claim to last a lot longer. But do LED bulbs actually last the 10 years that many manufacturers claim?
The 10-Year Lifespan Assumes a Lot About Your Usage
Even the cheapest LED light bulbs (Philips sells some for as low as $2 per bulb) claim to have a 10-year lifespan, but it's important to know that's actually based on some pretty modest assumptions. If you read the fine print (notice the asterisks next to the 10-year claim in the image above), a 10-year lifespan is based on only having the bulb on for three hours per day, every day. In some households, this can be accurate, but in others, that's laughable.
This particular 10-year claim means that the bulb can last for nearly 11,000 hours. So if we were to have the bulb on for eight hours every day (two hours in the morning and six hours in the evening, for instance---possibly longer on the weekends), this means that it would only last shy of three and a half years.
Compared to an incandescent light bulb that has an average 1,000-hour lifespan, 11,000 hours is still way better, but don't let the 10-year claims fool you. Plus, there are plenty of other factors to keep in mind.
LED Bulb Circuits Are the Biggest Problem
If you take a look at the circuitry of an incandescent bulb, you'll notice that it's pretty simple: There are two contact wires connected together by a filament. Power comes through one of the contact wires, lights up the filament, and exits out of the other contact wire. Simple right? After all, it's technology that's been around since the 1800s.
However, if you peek inside an LED bulb, it's much more complex. You'll find a handful of resistors, capacitors, and inductors on top of the several LEDs that actually provide the light.
It's true that LEDs (short for Light-Emitting Diode) can last a very long time, but the circuitry inside of an LED bulb is way more complex than anything ever seen in a light bulb before--- especially with dimmable LED bulbs, which require even more circuitry. And with more circuits comes the greater likelihood that something will fail. Put another way: The weakest link is the circuitry, not the LEDs themselves.
So if you notice that your LED light bulbs are burning up well before the 10,000-hour mark, it's likely that the bulb didn't actually reach the end of its natural life, but rather the complexity of the circuit got the best of itself in some way.
