Philips ups ante on LEDs with 60-watt bulb replacement

[msirach]

Phillips 60 moves ahead of the GE 40 watt replacement

Camille Ricketts - VENTUREBEAT - April 13, 2010

The wattage replacement keeps raising, but the cost is still high. Hopefully, the light quality is improving too. --Ed.

Just a week after General Electric unveiled its light-emitting diode bulb capable of replacing 40-watt incandescents, Philips has already one-upped it, announcing that it will start selling an LED equivalent of 60-watt incandescents by the end of the year.

Philips may be the biggest lighting manufacturer in the world, but don’t count General Electric out quite yet. The latter claims that its 9-watt bulb has a lifespan of 17 years — meaning it could literally light your child’s bedroom from birth until he or she goes off to college. The Philips bulb, which runs on 12-watts, has a shorter lifespan.

As federal regulations move in the direction of outlawing wasteful incandescent bulbs completely, LEDs will undoubtedly become more popular. They last longer and save much more energy than the current substitute, compact fluorescent bulbs. The only real hurdle left — and it’s a high one — is price.... [Read More]

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

It's all good. Light accounts for a lot of electricity consumption. Even if it's only a 10% energy saving over CFL it's still significant: wouldn't everybody here like to save another 10% on their gas consumption? And lights are used in the daytime at offices and at night time on the streets and at home. So there are savings to be had both on peak (helpful for renewables) and off-peak consumption (helpful for EV charging).

[saturnsc2]

One thing I haven't understood about the fluorescent bulbs that have been out a few years now, is why it always seems to only be 60, or 100, or maybe 40 equivalent available. In alot of areas, such as bedside lamp etc I would love to have a replacement that was equivalent to 25 watts, or even 15 watts. I have searched long and hard and found these a time or two at places like home depot but when I do they are always wrapped individually and super high dollar. This was never a problem back when regular bulbs were available...This seems counter productive to helping people save energy.

[msirach]

Check stores now. Stores such as Menards, Lowes, and Home Depot have large displays. The best buys that I have found have been at Sam's Club. I have some 7 watt standard and candelabra base. If you want some dim LED, Sams Club have some 1 watt LED that are about like a 20 watt incandescent.

[PaleMelanesian]

I'm with you on the low-powered CFL's. I've stocked up when I can find a few. It's funny, though. The "25w" ones I found are actually brighter than the "40w" ones. Much too bright for the application, too.

Of course, once the power level is that low, it doesn't really use that much power in the first place. All the lights in my house can't match even one tenth of what my heat/AC gobbles.

[msirach]

There is a difference in brands too. The GE bulbs are superior in output and consistency. Lights of America (LOA) fail quicker and a 11 watt in one design does not match output of another design.

The LOA LED's that I have gotten from Sam's Club and Walmart are dim. The output of a 1 watt LOA LED that I installed in a decorative lamp and left on 30 days straight withered away to less light than a birthday candle! I had 1 of 7 of the candelabra fail also.

[saturnsc2]

I feel the led lights are too new of a tech to embrace just yet. I have read numerous reports of the light being too small to do much good, and the price is super high. I have seen them at sams and just two or three bulbs will be 20 some dollars...

It's not completely about the energy savings to me. I agree if you are talking about consuming 11 watts, or 5 it's not a huge difference, but my thing is I just don't want that much light alot of places. I too am ready to see some prettier bulbs that might could be used in a chandelier or ceiling fan type setup. The corkscrew bulbs look ugly for this use, and most of these lights have around 5 bulbs so at 40 or 60 watts apiece they are really sucking down some power.

Anyway in alot of instances in my house I am still having to run 15 watt incand. bulbs simply because I cannot find a suitable alternative for a decent cost. I'm sure eventually the led bulbs will get stronger and come down in price some.

[Shiba3420]

CFLs do loose brightness over their lifetime (LEDs can to), so you may find that that super bright 15/25 watt will get considerably less bright in just a few months of use.

I like the LEDs because of the quality and their resistance to vibration/etc. Some of the original CFLs were very good too, but as they have gotten cheaper$ they have also gotten cheaper

LEDs are necessarily hands down winner in efficency. They really only got better at a demonstration level about 3/4 years ago, and only the newer/better ones on the market use LEDs which are more efficient than CFLs. That said, even if they were only equally efficient, the reduction of toxins and the increased real world life of LEDs still makes them a good bet.

The only problem on the LED is cheaper than CFL argument is that it assumes that over the next X years, you would only be using CFLs. At some point, LEDs will be cheap enough that CFLs will be pointless. Do you really want to buy an LED bulb now when you can but another CFL and 5 to 10% of the cost and then replace it when it blows with an LED bulb which will only cost 20% of what they do now? The math is easy, but the assumptions are just that.

All that said, I have replaced almost every bulb in my house with LEDs. I primary did it to support an industry that represents the next better thing. Plus now I can put away the ladder and forget about it for a while.

[msirach]

Originally Posted by Shiba3420

CFLs do loose brightness over their lifetime (LEDs can to), so you may find that that super bright 15/25 watt will get considerably less bright in just a few months of use.

I like the LEDs because of the quality and their resistance to vibration/etc. Some of the original CFLs were very good too, but as they have gotten cheaper$ they have also gotten cheaper

LEDs are necessarily hands down winner in efficency. They really only got better at a demonstration level about 3/4 years ago, and only the newer/better ones on the market use LEDs which are more efficient than CFLs. That said, even if they were only equally efficient, the reduction of toxins and the increased real world life of LEDs still makes them a good bet.

The only problem on the LED is cheaper than CFL argument is that it assumes that over the next X years, you would only be using CFLs. At some point, LEDs will be cheap enough that CFLs will be pointless. Do you really want to buy an LED bulb now when you can but another CFL and 5 to 10% of the cost and then replace it when it blows with an LED bulb which will only cost 20% of what they do now? The math is easy, but the assumptions are just that.

All that said, I have replaced almost every bulb in my house with LEDs. I primary did it to support an industry that represents the next better thing. Plus now I can put away the ladder and forget about it for a while.

I tried all the LED's that Sam's has a some from Walmart. I paid almost $50 for one and it had the garish blue light. The 2 for $20 at Sam's are pretty good but only about 20 watt equivalent light output. I have 4 of those and 4 of the LOA's in a couple of crystal ceiling lamps. Almost everything in the house is cfl or LED now. As soon as I set some scaffold up in the living room, I will change the recessed cans and install 23 watt cfl floods that are 120 watt equivalents.

[atlaw4u]

I hope the price drops in the next few years. I looked into LED lighting for our home and the current price difference of LED & CFL is a multiple of 10.