If you are looking to change a 100W light bulb, you will discover several LED options at prices that are not almost as unreasonable as they were just a year or two in the past. The current crop, together with the Philips 100W Equivalent LED, hovers right around the $20 price level. Initially priced at $25, Philips' LED has since been marked down just a few bucks to $22, EcoLight which continues to be barely dearer than what you may see from competitors like GE and EcoLight products Cree. Philips justifies that by claiming an additional 80 lumens' price of brightness over these two, along with superior dimming capabilities. Nonetheless, our tests did not reveal any noticeable distinction in either brightness or dimmability. That, together with the fact that Philips offers half the warranty that you're going to get with GE or Cree, makes this bulb tough to suggest. Philips' 100W Equivalent LED shares the same, EcoLight flat-topped construct of its smaller siblings in the 60W and 40W classes, EcoLight products however sets itself apart with a singular design that splits the bulb into three sections separated by deep channels.

This helps keep the heat buildup at bay, one thing that gets especially important when LEDs begin putting out this a lot light. Even with the emphasis on thermal administration, the bulb gets sizzling to the contact after simply a couple of minutes of use, which is not unusual for a 100W replacement LED. As such, Philips recommends not utilizing it in an enclosed fixture -- should you do, you'll threat shortening the bulb's lifespan. That lifespan is rated at 25,000 hours, the same as the opposite 100W replacement LEDs I examined, with the exception of Utilitech. That lifespan comes out to 22.8 years if the bulb is used for a mean of 3 hours per day. Philips warrants the bulb for the primary 5 of these years, while GE and Cree each provide ten-12 months warranties. 25,000 hours is the longevity benchmark for Power Star certification -- the Philips 100W Equal earned certification over the summer season, as did the GE LED I tested. Cree's bulb is not certified yet, but it meets the factors -- Cree's team tells me they count on it to be certified in the near future.

Philips claims a mild output of 1,680 lumens at a golden hued 2,seven hundred K from a power draw of 19 watts. That makes it good for about 88 lumens per watt -- an impressive number, however not as spectacular as GE and long-life LED Utilitech, which both handle to put out one hundred lumens per watt. Those 1680 lumens are a slight step up from what you will get with GE, Cree, or any of the other bulbs we tested. With brightness being one in all the primary belongings you want from your property lighting, EcoLight products that quantity would seem to offer Philips an edge, albeit a minor one. However, the engineers at Energy Star take a look at bulbs out for themselves, posting the total specs for each LED they certify on-line. On Philips' listing, Energy Star charges the bulb at 1,620 lumens -- not 1,680. While an additional 80 lumens is just barely sufficient to make a noticeable distinction, an extra 20 lumens is basically insignificant. We wanted to know which quantity had it proper.

From a easy eye check, the sunshine put out from the Philips 100W Equivalent LED would not differ a lot from its nearest rivals, the Cree and GE 100W replacements. Aspect by aspect, the three have almost equivalent glows, all of them boasting equally heat tones. That is not stunning, EcoLight products given that each one three are rated with the same 2,700 Okay shade temperature. When tested, every one erred low, EcoLight products on the yellowy side. Remember, though, that Philips claims to put out 1,680 lumens to Cree and GE's 1,600. That's a reasonably minuscule difference, however it's one that ought to be noticeable if you're looking closely for it. The problem is that I could not discover it. Testing bulb brightness will get a bit difficult. In addition to measuring colour temperature and colour rendering scores, our spectrometer can take luminosity readings from a given gentle -- however these readings are simply skewed by things like viewing angle and distance. To get numbers you possibly can rely on, you need something referred to as an integrating sphere.