<story><title>Phoebus Cartel</title><url>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoebus_cartel</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>klondike_</author><text>The planned obsolescence of incandescent light bulbs is largely a myth. While there are plenty of real examples of planned obsolescence, with incandescent light bulbs there are engineering tradeoffs between longevity and efficiency. Basically, the longer lasting a bulb is, the dimmer and less efficient it is. If you&amp;#x27;ve ever seen any of the supposed 100 year old bulbs, you&amp;#x27;ll notice that they&amp;#x27;re extremely dim. Before, during, and after the Phoebus cartel incandescent light bulbs were (and still are!) standardized to 1000 hours. Why? Because that happens to be a good trade off between longevity and efficiency. It just doesn&amp;#x27;t make sense to waste an extra $5 on electricity to make a $1 light bulb last longer.&lt;p&gt;You have always been able to buy long life incandescent light bulbs, and still can to this day. They&amp;#x27;re called rough service bulbs, made for ovens and closets and areas used infrequently. People just never used them for general purpose lighting because they&amp;#x27;re dim and power hungry.&lt;p&gt;If you read the report by the British monopolies commission quoted in this article, you&amp;#x27;ll notice that they came to the same conclusion [1]. Pop science articles and Reddit love to bring out the Phoebus cartel over and over as an example of planned obsolescence, but always completely ignore the factors that go into making a good incandescent light bulb.&lt;p&gt;[1]&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;assets.publishing.service.gov.uk&amp;#x2F;government&amp;#x2F;uploads&amp;#x2F;system&amp;#x2F;uploads&amp;#x2F;attachment_data&amp;#x2F;file&amp;#x2F;235313&amp;#x2F;0287.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;assets.publishing.service.gov.uk&amp;#x2F;government&amp;#x2F;uploads&amp;#x2F;...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>Phoebus Cartel</title><url>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoebus_cartel</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>syncsynchalt</author><text>In a bit of synchronicity, Dubai has sponsored development of more efficient and longer lived (via underdriving) LED lamps, and exclusivity enforcement means that you are prevented from being able to buy these longer-lived lamps: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;hackaday.com&amp;#x2F;2021&amp;#x2F;01&amp;#x2F;17&amp;#x2F;leds-from-dubai-the-royal-lights-you-cant-buy&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;hackaday.com&amp;#x2F;2021&amp;#x2F;01&amp;#x2F;17&amp;#x2F;leds-from-dubai-the-royal-li...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>