That Lifespan Is Rated At 25
If you are seeking to exchange a 100W mild bulb, you will find several LED options at prices that aren't almost as unreasonable as they were just a year or two ago. The present crop, together with the Philips 100W Equal LED, hovers proper across the $20 price level. Initially priced at $25, Philips' LED has since been marked down just a few bucks to $22, EcoLight which is still barely costlier than what you will see from opponents like GE and Cree. Philips justifies that by claiming an extra eighty lumens' worth of brightness over those two, along with superior dimming capabilities. Nevertheless, our tests didn't reveal any noticeable distinction in either brightness or dimmability. That, along with the truth that Philips gives half the warranty that you will get with GE or Cree, makes this bulb tough to advocate. Philips' 100W Equivalent LED shares the same, flat-topped construct of its smaller siblings within the 60W and 40W classes, but units itself apart with a novel design that splits the bulb into three sections separated by deep channels.
This helps keep the heat buildup at bay, something that will get particularly vital when LEDs start placing out this much light. Even with the emphasis on thermal administration, EcoLight energy the bulb will get sizzling to the touch after just a few minutes of use, which is not unusual for EcoLight solutions a 100W alternative LED. As such, Philips recommends not using it in an enclosed fixture -- if you happen to do, you will threat shortening the bulb's lifespan. That lifespan is rated at 25,000 hours, the same as the opposite 100W replacement LEDs I tested, with the exception of Utilitech. That lifespan comes out to 22.Eight years if the bulb is used for an average of 3 hours per day. Philips warrants the bulb for the first five of those years, while GE and Cree each provide ten-12 months warranties. 25,000 hours is the longevity benchmark for Energy Star certification -- the Philips 100W Equivalent earned certification over the summer time, as did the GE LED I tested. Cree's bulb isn't certified yet, however it meets the factors -- Cree's group tells me they anticipate it to be certified in the near future.
Philips claims a gentle output of 1,680 lumens at a golden hued 2,seven-hundred K from a energy draw of 19 watts. That makes it good for about 88 lumens per watt -- a formidable quantity, however not as spectacular as GE and Utilitech, which both manage to place out one hundred lumens per watt. These 1680 lumens are a slight step up from what you'll get with GE, Cree, or any of the other bulbs we tested. With brightness being one of the primary stuff you need from your house lighting, that quantity would seem to present Philips an edge, albeit a minor one. However, the engineers at EcoLight energy Star test bulbs out for themselves, posting the complete specs for every LED they certify online. On Philips' listing, Power Star rates the bulb at 1,620 lumens -- not 1,680. Whereas an extra eighty lumens is simply barely sufficient to make a noticeable difference, an extra 20 lumens is essentially insignificant. We needed to know which quantity had it proper.
From a easy eye check, the light put out from the Philips 100W Equivalent LED doesn't differ much from its nearest competitors, the Cree and GE 100W replacements. Side by aspect, the three have nearly an identical glows, all of them boasting similarly heat tones. That is not shocking, given that each one three are rated with the identical 2,seven hundred Ok shade temperature. When tested, every one erred low, energy-efficient bulbs on the yellowy aspect. Remember, though, that Philips claims to put out 1,680 lumens to Cree and GE's 1,600. That's a reasonably minuscule difference, EcoLight however it is one that must be noticeable if you are wanting closely for it. The issue is that I could not discover it. Testing bulb brightness will get a bit tough. Along with measuring color temperature and colour rendering scores, our spectrometer can take luminosity readings from a given gentle -- however those readings are easily skewed by things like viewing angle and distance. To get numbers you may rely on, you need something referred to as an integrating sphere.