What to do after they burn out?

Seeing as the next great thing is LED lighting, and I have one myself (a PAR 38 light), what does everyone do when their fixture burns out? Is there a way to replace the LEDs without having to scrap the fixture? It seems like there is a decent amount of money in the fixtures and bulbs, take for instance the heat sinks and other parts on the PAR 38 bulbs, to just throw them away. Idk if it would be cost effective or not to send the fixture back in and have the manufacturer replace the diodes. Maybe I missed something but could someone clear this up for me.

 

i would assume that individual parts could be replaced. maybe at that point, however many years away that is you could order new leds and try and install them yourself, since it mostly likely wouldnt have a warranty that would be voided.. that way you dont need to send it in. I would contact whoever you bought the bulb from and see what they suggest.

 

ya know that is a good quetion. I know that the US govt. pays people to recycle as a business, but I have no idea how this obvious up and comming new technology will be handled.

 

Anyone else have any thoughts?

 

bump for the morning crowd

 

well the heatsinks would be fine but it is not just the diode that would need replacing, the housings and drivers would need replacing too probably. Cuz if you average 10 years for a led life span then i would assume after ten years the drivers and such would need replacement too.

 

I was thinking if someone went the LED route, then a DIY would be the way to go. That way you can replace the components and not have to worry about the entire fixture.

 

I know with the PAR bulbs, you can replace the individual diodes. Rapid sells the diode and reflector together as well.

 

I don't think the drivers would necessarily need replacing if they still work...

I can't imagine most hobbyists would have the wherewithal to replace the individual LED's. It could be done, but you'd first have to locate the individual part, then you'd have to desolder and resolder each one... it's also a bit of downtime for your tank... are you going to get this all done in one day, or several days or weeks even?

The other thing I find somewhat funny is the "lasts more than 10 years" bit. These fixtures haven't even been out for five years. How does anyone know that they will last ten? Typically, low power LED's will last many, many years. I have my doubts about the lifetime of these first generation high power LED's. I believe the plastics used in the individual LED will start to degrade sooner or later... whose to say that the color spectrum won't shift because of this after say, 7 years...

I think LED tech is great, don't get me wrong, but there are too many unknowns for me to invest a ton of money into one at this point...

 

We have a bunch of server in our server room. You can clearly tell the order in which we purchased them year after year just by glancing at them. Of course the newer ones have brighter leds. We don't have any servers that are more than 4 years old. After 1 year of being turned on 24x7, they lose a lot of their brightness.