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?

  • Brad Ganley@toad.work
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    1 year ago

    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.

    • Russianranger@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      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.

  • damnYouSun@sh.itjust.works
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    1 year ago

    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.

  • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
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    1 year ago

    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?

    The gradual spread of light pollution has gotten crazy, and people still don’t really notice it. We’re at the point that it’s actually driving insects to extinction. If you look somewhere rural vs. urban the difference in what constitutes “night” is mindblowing, and rural areas are getting brighter all the time themselves.

    • Wahots@pawb.social
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      1 year ago

      I’m honestly a bit surprised that we don’t have mandatory dimmers installed in all major buildings that turn off the lights after X hour or x number of hours without any movement.

      That, and motion sensors and dimmers on street lights with shades on them to prevent light from being blasted into people’s homes and apartments.

      This much light pollution can’t be healthy.

      • Darkassassin07@lemmy.ca
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        1 year ago

        I usually just remove it and leave the space empty/open circuit.

        It’s very very rare that a missing/nonfunctional led will effect the rest of the device. In those rare cases, swap the light emitting diode for a regular diode (though a resistor would probably do fine too).