LED lights are unfortunately a big marketing scam. Remember when they promised that the will last up to 20 years? Well, when I renovated my house 5 years ago I installed LED lights over my kitchen island - they were so bright that you couldn't look directly at them and it was too hard to see somebody on the other side of the island.. This is no longer true - they are visibly dimmer. In a few more years they will probably have to be replaced.. The problem is that since they don't use bulbs, I will have to replace the whole fixture.. and the current lamps will end up in the trash. We're not going to save our environment this way.
I've trashed over 30 flush-mount LED lights in my house and its 2018 construction. It wouldn't be so offensive if we didn't buy into our own marketing bullshit so much. Pretending like 20 years is a realistic timeframe for a semiconductor to survive in that kind of environment is fantasy, but then you go about constructing homes and businesses like it's true.
This kind of scam is getting really old for me. LED lighting isn't the only one being pushed on us.
I think LED lights will lose some of their brightness in the short term, but maintain a useful plateau much longer. At least, that's how LED projectors work, vs lamp projectors, which steadily decline until they're unusable.
However, I would always buy standard socket LEDs unless you're really committed to that lighting style.
OTOH, my original Cree retrofit can lights from about 2014 are still going strong. They seem to have the electronics separate from the LED itself which keeps the heat under control. I've definitely noticed that some less expensive designs don't bother with that, and it really lowers the longevity of the fixture.
