Incandescent light bulbs are officially banned in the U.S.::America’s ban on incandescent light bulbs, 16 years in the making, is finally a reality. Well, mostly.

  • @AndrewZabar
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    110 months ago

    How do high-end home LEDs get around this? Do they have a battery that caches the current between cycles?

    When my wife and I bought our place, we renovated and made all lights LED. The overheads in the living room and kitchen are quite bright and steady, so they must avoid this somehow.

    • @cerevant
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      610 months ago

      A bridge rectifier flips the negative current to positive, so instead of a sine wave you get a series of humps. Then a capacitor acts as a battery like you describe to smooth out the dip between humps.

      • @[email protected]
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        310 months ago

        There are half wave rectifiers and full wave rectifiers. The former only converts the positive AC to DC and shuts off for the negative half (causing flickering). The latter will convert both positive and negative halves to DC and don’t flicker.

        • @cerevant
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          110 months ago

          Well, LED lights are half-wave rectifiers that light up, so you wouldn’t add one. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a half wave rectifier referred to as a bridge rectifier.

      • @AndrewZabar
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        210 months ago

        Ok, I get the gist. Thanks!

      • @Aux
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        110 months ago

        FULL BRIDGE RECTIFIER!!!11