Well, at least BETTER news. Spoke with Lumileds today and they said the Protable V white 5-watt Luxeons are being uprated to 1,000 hours life expectancy. See, I knew it, I knew they wouldn't rate a product right to the edge of its realistic life expectancy.
I also know that in other hardware products, like for example the smaller high-pressure air chambers (as in airguns), they test to 5/3 proof, meaning they test to 5000psi if it is supposed to be rated for 3000psi, etc. If this formula (which is for air pressure, not electrical life, don't know what that one would be) is applied to 1000 hours, you get 1667 hours (the "triple 6" was rounded up for the superstitious among us). Not bad, and quite a jump up from 500 hours.
And again this is all if the product is driven at spec. I would think that underdriving would yield even longer life expectancy.
I also know that in other hardware products, like for example the smaller high-pressure air chambers (as in airguns), they test to 5/3 proof, meaning they test to 5000psi if it is supposed to be rated for 3000psi, etc. If this formula (which is for air pressure, not electrical life, don't know what that one would be) is applied to 1000 hours, you get 1667 hours (the "triple 6" was rounded up for the superstitious among us). Not bad, and quite a jump up from 500 hours.
And again this is all if the product is driven at spec. I would think that underdriving would yield even longer life expectancy.