Photos by the author

According to the package for the LED bulbs I installed when I bought my house three years ago, I shouldn’t have to change a lightbulb until my kids are grown, college-educated — and perhaps even married and having kids of their own.

That’s because today’s LED bulbs claim a lifespan of up to 91 years. Install a bulb today, the packaging suggests, and you might be passing it on to multiple generations of descendants.

The reality, in most cases, is completely different. Despite their outrageous claims, many LED bulbs last only 4–6 years in real-world use.

Half of the fancy LED bulbs I bought three years ago have already burned out. Even more annoyingly, many of the expensive LED bulbs I bought for track lights on my 18-foot ceiling have died as well.

Today’s LEDs often fail to deliver on their promises. This harms consumers and the planet. And it’s about to get worse. A new Federal law went into effect on August 1st that requires bulbs to emit at least 45 lumens per watt of power used. Although it’s not officially an incandescent ban, the law makes efficient lightbulbs like LEDs a de-facto requirement in the United States, and most incandescent bulbs will no longer be eligible for sale.

Why the huge discrepancy between advertised lifespans and reality? There are several factors at play. Understanding them is key to navigating the LED transition in a way that makes use of potentially world-changing LED technology without leaving consumers angry — or damaging the planet.

The Claim

Today’s top-of-the-line LEDs have an advertised lifespan of up to 100,000 hours. If you use the bulb for 8 hours per day (say, you put the bulbs in an often-used lamp in your living room), that works out to 12,500 days or 34 years of use.

For less-used bulbs, the claimed lifespan could be even longer. Imagine that you use new LED bulbs in your bathroom for 3 hours per day, and they have a lifespan of 100,000 hours. That’s about 91 years of use.