Why does every small appliance or useful home electronics item have the BRIGHTEST LEDs in them?
I bought a new fan for our bedroom Sunday. It has 4 speed settings, and LEDs to display which setting you’re on.
Just like every other electrical device in our bedroom, I had to cover the LEDs with electrical tape because they are TOO DAMM BRIGHT. That one light was more than bright enough for me to see in the room with all the lights off.
I can’t sleep well if there’s a lot of light like that, especially blue light, and it’s like every fucking electronics manufacturer used the same extra bright blue LEDs.
All of our power strips have them. Same brightness.
The fans have them.
Don’t even get me started on digital clocks and the plague of bright LEDs that they bring about
Many charging plugs have them built into the plug itself.
Even some fucking light switches have them now!
I have about 6 different things in our bedroom that have electrical tape over their completely unnecessary LEDs.
Why has this become such a common thing? Is this really something most people want? To have a room that is never actually dark even with the lights turned off?
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I get to be that guy! I’m so excited!
In power strips, the lights are (in the overwhelming majority of cases) actually a neon bulb! They’re cheaper for that specific purpose because they can be powered directly off of the mains power with a single resistor.
Your point is entirely valid and I bear the same cross, this is just a fun fact you can use to impress colleagues, strangers, and potential lovers, dazzling them with your deep esoteric knowledge of and passion for illuminators in power strips.
Hah, this is what I liked the most about reddit - learning random bits of knowledge about things I knew nothing about. I’m glad to see this happen here too!
Hell yes me too. And it was the top comment.
What’s a reddit?
It was a website from the old times of the internet, where people behind pseudonyms could freely discuss links and texts inside thematic communities.
Sounds kind of like usenet…
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It’ll never work.
sounds weird
I don’t know what those things are either, but I’m not into antiques.
Better off you never learn.
This is also why those power strip lights can sometimes flicker in the dark. They are sometimes over-driven for extra brightness; this does cut their lifespan, but they usually still last for many years regardless. However, towards the end of that shortened lifespan, the accumulated damage to the electrodes leads to flickering as it struggles to keep the neon excited. However, incoming photons can give just a little extra nudge, which sometimes is enough to keep the neon excited and glowing.
Electrical tape to black it out.
Painters tape to dim it.
You can actually buy tinted tape to dim them without completely blacking them out. So you can take your clock from “bright enough to keep your entire bedroom lit” to “just bright enough to read in the dark.”
Found out while watching Technology Connections. Bright blue monochromatic LEDs are one of his biggest pet peeves, and he mentioned the tinted tape off-hand in one of his videos.
I bought some pre-cut led dimming stickers on a sheet. Any new electronics that come into my house get one. As someone who likes to sleep in near complete darkness it’s a must have.
Bingo, there it is. Thanks!
Yep I have a pack of various shapes and sizes for dimming LEDs. You just stick it over the light. Works great
I literally travel with a roll of black electric tape for this exact reason.
No officer, I use it to cover the lights on electronics in my hotel room. Honest!
I mean, just carry a small roll of it, not one that’s like an inch or two wide…
Thanks for reminding me. Gotta pack that for my next holiday.
The electrical tape approach is what I did and it did wonders. Went from having a myriad of green and blue LEDs on my fans/portable AC/etc to complete wonderful darkness when I retired for the night. Made a distinct difference in my ability to fall asleep faster at night. I hate having lights when going to bed. Darkness or bust.
…or one or more layers of nail polish.
I have a black pen that can write on plastic. I’ve used that to dim the insanely bright LED on a smoke detector. If you are careful (I wasn’t) then this method looks nicer than putting some tape on a device.
Use cut pieces of sticky notes. It’s the correct width and doesnt look as jank
Didn’t think about the painters tape for just dimming the light, great idea.
I use tiny balls of patafix/blutac to cover exactly the LED surface.
Do this and never look back
May the LED’s I tape not light the way
With the tape over the LEDs you can look back though. You won’t be blinded. It’ll be OK.
Car headlight are too fucking bright nowadays
People driving around like they’re trying to spot kangaroos in the suburbs
Depending where you are, the bright bulbs help spot deer. Though if you are in the suburbs that might not be really much of a problem
Even the auto dimming ones are too much
Especially when they’re in one of those God-ugly American Pickup Trucks with headlights that are right at eye level for anyone in a normal car. Even being followed by a forty year old Mack semi isn’t nearly as bad, because they’ve at least got sealed beam headlights.
“… one of those God-ugly American Pickup Trucks …”
Why’d you say American Pickup Trucks twice?
I kid, but really those things are hideous. The front end looks like a Baleen whale feeding.
Seriously, I swear I get temporarily blinded at night sometimes.
Might be some solace in the near future. Pixel Light is becoming a thing, where the car will selectively black out part of the headlight beam for oncoming traffic.
Electrical tape can be used to black them out.
lmao
Agreed. I can’t tell when people are driving with their high beams on anymore.
My pet peeve is not just the brightness, but the blueness. These things are fucking blue raspberry slurpee blue. Paired with a very reddish orange turn signal they come up behind me and indicate and I think I’m getting pulled over for a sec.
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This is why I always have the high beans on when driving my 90’s car. I’ve got to fit in with the cool kids (oh and be able to see the road despite the blinding lights coming at me.)
Not sure if you are joking or not. But at times that’s actually what I think about and sometimes even do. If there is a car with too bright lights coming down the road I’ll turn on the high beams because it reduces my ability to see the road otherwise.
Thank you! I’m not the only one!
They installed LEDs in the road lights near me and they had a faulty film cover that turned purple 😆 now they whole highway is light up purple at night!
I don’t seem to find it mentioned: LEDs at night are terrible for your sleep, especially the blue ones. Among other things they suppress the melatonin release.
An article that goes into more detail and provides a citations for further research.
Yep, its part of why this drives me crazy. I notice a big difference in my sleep when I’m in, say, a hotel that has any of these LEDs in it.
I have a lamp and that has an LED that is on all the time.
Why would a lamp have a permanently on LED? That’s what I get for getting cheap crap from China, rather than premium crap from China.
I can understand for things that don’t look obviously on, but a fan? C’mon. If the fan starts spinning, I know it’s working. I don’t need a light telling me it’s on.
Last night I learned the one I bought actually has two. It had one on the fan itself, and ONE IN THE FUCKING PLUG
WHO NEEDS AN LED IN A PLUG
Because they’re cheap and look “modern/futuristic” so shit manufacturers love them. I have also used electrical tape on power strips, chargers, smoke detectors, etc
That and your average electrical engineer will consider an LED useful that signals the device has power.
Most probably then don’t consider where the device is actually used. In a well-lit office space that LED doesn’t annoy anyone.
I installed a heated/lighted medicine cabinet in my master bathroom without realizing the blue LED touch controls would be bright enough to light up the bathroom and bedroom. Now I regret spending so much money on it.
Alec Watson enters the chat
This kind of low effort comment should have stayed on Reddit.
I guess people here is not familiar with Technology Connections and Alec’s despise of blue LEDs.
A better comment would have been like “this reminds me of Technology Connections’ Alec Watson, he talks a lot about how much he hates blue LEDs. Here’s a video [link]”
It makes the same reference, but provides more context, more content, and a new point of discussion.
not everyone needs to be spoon fed, comments like the one i made start conversations, like it just did
Don’t even get me started on VEHICLE HEADLIGHTS ! >:(
I have a similar complaint about almost all “gamer gear” having RGB lighting. Why would I want that? I’m not even opposed to the “gamer” aesthetic of a lot of sharp lines and strong colors, I think that can look really good, but when my mousepad has RGB it’s time to blow the whistle and stop all manufacturing until we can figure out what’s going on.
I’ve taken too darkening them with a sharpie.
Agreed. Everything I’ve bought in the last few years has a layer of electrical tape covering the lights.
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I work from home in my room and I know the struggle. I have electrical tape over several useless LEDs on my office equipment.
