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60W equivalent LED bulb uses 9.5W and costs $13

designingwithleds.com

101–110 of 189 posts

Re: 60W equivalent LED bulb uses 9.5W and costs $13

#101
post #87

This is Spam. There are a few dozen of these with better economics on Amazon. And if you want to light a house on the cheap, the LED "ropes" are more efficient, and will last longer. Also a CFT would be 12W and cost $2 ($1.25 if you look around). Over 10 years in most markets that would be cheaper. PS: My Home is almost 100% LED's. I love them. But that doesn't mean they are always the cheapest, the most efficient, o…

We use CFT in our house for a number of places (kitchen lamp, etc). For other places, we use LED... specifically in places where, when I flip the switch, I want full light output immediately like my office. CFTs are horrible at taking too long to get to a useful state of light output.

If a bulb slowly becomes brighter, it's easier on the eyes.

Re: 60W equivalent LED bulb uses 9.5W and costs $13

#102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please tell me you're using CFLs as the very least. Yes the upfront price is higher, but these bulbs actually pay for themselves in approximately two years and they start saving you money after that and not to mention time from not having to buy and install new bulbs.

Problem is, the CFLs don't last. They usually don't last even a single year. My story: I got the faith: I replaced every incandescent in our condominium association with CFL. After one year, most all the CFLs had failed, despite having 3- to 5-year warranties. Also noticed another peculiarity: CFLs are stolen more often! Apparently our condominium parking lot has become a CFL bank for individuals who want to lower th…

I just replace my CFLs under warranty. As you said,most have 3-5 year warranties, so I just go back to the shop and get a brand new one. I always put the receipt in the box and the box in a safe place so I can always find it.

Re: 60W equivalent LED bulb uses 9.5W and costs $13

#103
post #19

So I'm wondering how well this bulb would do in the L-Prize competition[1]. It looks like they have a number of testing requirements, but their primary goal is to have a good lumen output and lumen/watt ratio. It's run by the US Department Of Energy. Consumer Reports[2] started testing the previous winner[3] of the L-Prize competition. [1] http://www.lightingprize.org/ [2] http://news.consumerreports.org/home/2012/08…

It doesn't meet the requirements, so it can't enter.

The competition requires a CRI of at least 90, but this bulb only rates 80.

Re: 60W equivalent LED bulb uses 9.5W and costs $13

#104
post #87

This is Spam. There are a few dozen of these with better economics on Amazon. And if you want to light a house on the cheap, the LED "ropes" are more efficient, and will last longer. Also a CFT would be 12W and cost $2 ($1.25 if you look around). Over 10 years in most markets that would be cheaper. PS: My Home is almost 100% LED's. I love them. But that doesn't mean they are always the cheapest, the most efficient, o…

Home Depot has CFTs on sale for less than $3 for a pack of 4. A few months ago, they had a sale: 4 bulbs for $1 :D Needless to day, I bought a box full of them.

Re: 60W equivalent LED bulb uses 9.5W and costs $13

#106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please tell me you're using CFLs as the very least. Yes the upfront price is higher, but these bulbs actually pay for themselves in approximately two years and they start saving you money after that and not to mention time from not having to buy and install new bulbs.

Problem is, the CFLs don't last. They usually don't last even a single year. My story: I got the faith: I replaced every incandescent in our condominium association with CFL. After one year, most all the CFLs had failed, despite having 3- to 5-year warranties. Also noticed another peculiarity: CFLs are stolen more often! Apparently our condominium parking lot has become a CFL bank for individuals who want to lower th…

> Problem is, the CFLs don't last. They usually don't last even a single year. My story:

CFLs are very picky about the quality of the electricity supplied to them, and the cheaper CFLs save money by using a cheap ballast which ends up frying the bulb pretty early in its lifespan.

If you buy a name brand (such as Phillips) you will get a product that lasts 3+ years easily.

Now in theory LEDs can a bit over a decade if not driven really hard, but to get the current brightness you see out of home lighting LEDs the poor things are driven way past the point of living their optimal lifespan / lumen.

It doesn't help that LED bulbs are housed in super hot bulbs with heat sinks desperately working to keep the bulb from frying itself!

Re: 60W equivalent LED bulb uses 9.5W and costs $13

#107
post #20

We talked about this a month or two ago here. The amazing part of this bulb is not it's watts or it's cost. It's that a manufacturer finally put it's warranty where it's mouth is. With a 10 year warranty I will actually buy it compared to the Phillips. BTW I've yet to have a cheap chinese led 110v bulb last more than 3 years.

We talked about it here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5329732

And the biggest problem with this bulb is the CRI of 80. That's much worse than CFL's which are typically around 90.

Re: 60W equivalent LED bulb uses 9.5W and costs $13

#108
post #87

This is Spam. There are a few dozen of these with better economics on Amazon. And if you want to light a house on the cheap, the LED "ropes" are more efficient, and will last longer. Also a CFT would be 12W and cost $2 ($1.25 if you look around). Over 10 years in most markets that would be cheaper. PS: My Home is almost 100% LED's. I love them. But that doesn't mean they are always the cheapest, the most efficient, o…

I dislike the consistent color across dimming. The whole point of dimming lights is to lower the color temperature. It is impossible to get a candle like ambiance with LEDs. If you want less total light, it is easy to just turn fewer lights on.

Re: 60W equivalent LED bulb uses 9.5W and costs $13

#109
post #76

I am unimpressed by 60 watt equivalent bulbs. A 60 watt equivalent is about enough to be a desk lamp, if I need to provide light for even a small room it is a useless amount unless I get a large number of bulbs together. Unfortunately 60 watt equivalent has become some sort of benchmark for new light bulb technology. If you really want to replace lighting in some meaningful way, start quoting 100 watt equivalent numb…

This is kind of an obsolete way of thinking. Most people think of "X-watt equivalent" as the area illumination caused by an X-watt omnidirectional A19 incandescent. Industry expresses equivalency in terms of lumens, or total light output, but not total illumination of a specified area. This is only apples-to-apples for fully omnidirectional bulbs.

LED lighting is costly and complex enough that directional LED bulbs are more or less at cost parity with omnidirectional LED bulbs. In fact, true omnis are often more expensive just because LEDs are inherently directional. This is the first time in the history of lighting where omni wasn't significantly less expensive than directional.

Truth is, there are very few scenarios where a high-output omnidirectional lamp actually makes sense. We're used to omnis because they were much cheaper to purchase than their more efficient, directional brethren and because it's convenient to just slap a bright bulb in a socket and say "eh - good enough."

Since most people buy LED bulbs for the gains in efficiency, doesn't it make more sense to buy the lower-power directional lamps which are more fit for their application? How many fixtures do you have in your home that require a true omni-directional lamp? How many of those fixtures need a high-output omni? Now, how many fixtures do you have that could make good use of a directional bulb (either narrow or wide-beam)?

tl;dr: Talking about incandescent watt equivalency only benefits marketing people and confuses consumers - take a look at directional lamps and you'll be less disappointed.

Re: 60W equivalent LED bulb uses 9.5W and costs $13

#110
post #16
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not quite sure what you're saying... that the LED bulbs have a much higher energy and environmental "cost" in manufacturing, compared to a standard incandescent? That's quite likely true and has to be considered in the big picture (similar issues with electric vehicles, that their proponents like to ignore). For me the answer is simple: $13 is way too much to pay for a light bulb, I don't care how efficient it is…

OTOH, my entire house is fluorescent and LED. My monthly electricity bill is $65. For a house! I never have to replace burnt out bulbs. At $13 I'd guess the LED is actually about at break-even over the life of the bulb vs incandescent unless you're buying incandescent in the big packs of 30 bulbs for $10. The only gas in my house is my central heating, and my old water heater. I plan to replace that with point-of-use…

One of the most interesting parts of lighting energy efficiency to me is that once lighting uses so little power, you can use battery backup for power outages.

I'm surprised there isn't a push for low voltage LED lighting. Running low voltage cabling and electrical boxes is a lot easier and the LEDs run off of low voltage anyway. Outside of appliances, who needs 120VAC in most of their rooms?

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