If you are seeking to replace a 100W light bulb, you may find a number of LED choices at prices that are not almost as unreasonable as they were just a yr or two ago. The current crop, including the Philips 100W Equivalent LED, hovers right across the $20 price level. Initially priced at $25, Philips' LED has since been marked down a number of bucks to $22, which remains to be slightly costlier than what you may see from opponents like GE and Cree. Philips justifies that by claiming an extra eighty lumens' price of brightness over those two, together with superior dimming capabilities. Nevertheless, LED bulbs for home our tests didn't reveal any noticeable difference in both brightness or dimmability. That, together with the truth that Philips gives half the guarantee that you will get with GE or Cree, EcoLight dimmable makes this bulb tough to suggest. Philips' 100W Equal LED shares the same, flat-topped build of its smaller siblings within the 60W and 40W classes, but units itself apart with a unique design that splits the bulb into three sections separated by deep channels.

This helps keep the heat buildup at bay, something that will get especially important when LEDs start placing out this a lot light. Even with the emphasis on thermal management, the bulb will get scorching to the touch after just a few minutes of use, which isn't unusual for a 100W alternative LED. As such, Philips recommends not utilizing it in an enclosed fixture -- when you do, you will threat shortening the bulb's lifespan. That lifespan is rated at 25,000 hours, the identical as the opposite 100W substitute LEDs I tested, with the exception of Utilitech. That lifespan comes out to 22.Eight years if the bulb is used for a mean of three hours per day. Philips warrants the bulb for EcoLight LED the first five of those years, EcoLight outdoor whereas GE and Cree each supply ten-yr warranties. 25,000 hours is the longevity benchmark for Vitality Star certification -- the Philips 100W Equivalent earned certification over the summer season, as did the GE LED I examined. Cree's bulb is not certified yet, but it meets the factors -- Cree's crew tells me they expect it to be certified in the near future.

Philips claims a light output of 1,680 lumens at a golden hued 2,seven-hundred Okay from a energy draw of 19 watts. That makes it good for about 88 lumens per watt -- a powerful number, however not as impressive as GE and Utilitech, which each manage to put out 100 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 every of the primary things you need from your own home EcoLight lighting, that quantity would appear to offer Philips an edge, albeit a minor one. Nonetheless, the engineers at Power Star test bulbs out for themselves, posting the total specs for every LED they certify online. On Philips' listing, Power Star rates the bulb at 1,620 lumens -- not 1,680. While an extra eighty lumens is simply barely sufficient to make a noticeable difference, an extra 20 lumens is basically insignificant. We needed to know which quantity had it right.

From a easy eye check, the sunshine put out from the Philips 100W Equivalent LED does not differ a lot from its nearest opponents, the Cree and GE 100W replacements. Aspect by aspect, the three have almost identical glows, all of them boasting equally heat tones. That is not stunning, given that every one three are rated with the same 2,700 Okay shade temperature. When examined, each one erred low, EcoLight lighting on the yellowy facet. Remember, though, that Philips claims to place out 1,680 lumens to Cree and GE's 1,600. That is a fairly minuscule difference, however it is one that needs to be noticeable if you're looking closely for it. The problem is that I could not notice it. Testing bulb brightness will get a bit tricky. In addition to measuring shade temperature and coloration rendering scores, our spectrometer can take luminosity readings from a given gentle -- but those readings are simply skewed by things like viewing angle and distance. To get numbers you possibly can depend on, EcoLight energy you want one thing referred to as an integrating sphere.