On one of my recent shopping trips, I bought an LED light bulb to replace one of the lights that recently failed in my home.

I didn't pay too much attention to the lamp in the store, but once I got back home, I noticed an interesting warning on the side of the lamp packaging. The warning had an icon of 24 hours that was crossed with an asterisk next to it. After a closer inspection, I found a printed warning that said that the light should not be run for more than 10-12 hours a day and that running it for 24 hours straight will void its warranty.

This left me intrigued so I decided to open up the lamp and explore its circuit so I can possibly understand why that warning is there and if we can do something to fix it.

The light bulb uses a chip that I see for the first time in a very interesting circuit and it was very worthwhile to look inside and explore.

Light bulb PCB with its circuit diagram.

Since I did not have the full datasheet to understand how the resistor values affect the current through the LED in the light bulb, I used another LED light bulb to demonstrate how you can reduce the power consumption of an LED light bulb in a more typical configuration with to resistors in parallel.

Removing one of the resistors with a pair of snips

With this approach, we've reduced the power consumption of the LED bulb from 11 to just 6 watts and that will make the bulb run for much longer without too much of a loss in light output.

Check out the video above for more details!

If you want to buy LED lights for yourself, or some tools for your workbench, then please check out the links below!

• E27 LED Light bulbs - https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_DmxNF2T
• E14 LED lIght bulbs - https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_DC8Pa2B
• Smart RGB lamp - https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_DCKX3jV
• LED light with motion sensor - https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_Dlg3ti7
• Recessed ceiling panel - https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_DBfOlnz
• Thin light panel - https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_DDrg1Dh
• Downlight cob light - https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_DFvosDH
• Multimeter - https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_DEDjWU7
• Precision screwdriver set - https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_DEDjWU7
• Spudger - https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_DEDjWU7
• Soldering kit - https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_DEWF7Xl