Incandescent / LED life-expectancies

[currygoat11]

Given 12V Incandescent and 12V LED light, lit 24/7, about how long (estimation) would each last?  Please provide me some idea of the lifespan difference - thanks!

[rdagger]

LED's usually have lifespans measured in years as opposed to incandescent bulbs which are measured in hours.  As long as you use the correct resistor, an LED will last many years.

[DrewKaree]

Ya, everything I've ever read on incandescent packages speak of 1,00'0's of hours, while any LED ALWAYS touts several hundreds of thousands of hours.

[currygoat11]

As long as you use the correct resistor

well I had mentioned this in another thread, but I now have two 12V LEDs (purchased from superbrightleds.com) wired in PARALLEL to a 12V molex from my PC power supply.

[RayB]

Resistors, as the name implies, "resists" voltage. So If you have a 12v source and your LEDs are 5v, then you need a resistor to "step down" the voltage to one that a 5v bulb can tolerate.

So in your case, 12v to 12v is just fine. It's exactly what the LED "wants". You COULD in theory add resistors, but then you'd be making your LED dimmer.

~Ray B.

[currygoat11]

Awesome!  Thanks for the info.  From the web site above:

"however, I wanted to use LED lamps instead of incandescent lamps - with a rated life of about 50 years, you won't ever need to replace an LED lamp, while the #161 lamp is rated for only about 3,000 hours"

50 years!?!  Holy moly!