If you are trying to exchange a 100W light bulb, you'll find several LED choices at costs that aren't practically as unreasonable as they were only a yr or two ago. The present crop, together with the Philips 100W Equal LED, hovers right around the $20 value level. Initially priced at $25, Philips' LED has since been marked down a couple of bucks to $22, which is still barely costlier than what you'll see from opponents like GE and Cree. Philips justifies that by claiming an additional eighty lumens' value of brightness over these two, together with superior dimming capabilities. However, our exams did not reveal any noticeable distinction in either brightness or dimmability. That, together with the truth that Philips affords half the guarantee that you're going to get with GE or EcoLight reviews Cree, makes this bulb troublesome to advocate. Philips' 100W Equivalent LED shares the identical, flat-topped construct of its smaller siblings in the 60W and 40W categories, but sets 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, one thing that will get particularly essential when LEDs start putting out this much mild. Even with the emphasis on thermal administration, the bulb gets hot to the contact after just a few minutes of use, which is not unusual for a 100W alternative LED. As such, Philips recommends not utilizing it in an enclosed fixture -- if you happen to do, EcoLight you may risk shortening the bulb's lifespan. That lifespan is rated at 25,000 hours, the same as the other 100W replacement LEDs I tested, with the exception of Utilitech. That lifespan comes out to 22.8 years if the bulb is used for a median of 3 hours per day. Philips warrants the bulb for the first five of these years, while GE and EcoLight Cree both offer ten-yr warranties. 25,000 hours is the longevity benchmark for Power Star certification -- the Philips 100W Equivalent earned certification over the summer season, as did the GE LED I tested. Cree's bulb isn't certified but, however it meets the criteria -- Cree's staff tells me they count on it to be certified in the close to 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 EcoLight LED Utilitech, which each manage to put out a hundred lumens per watt. Those 1680 lumens are a slight step up from what you may get with GE, Cree, or any of the opposite bulbs we tested. With brightness being one in all the first things you want from your house lighting, that number would seem to offer Philips an edge, albeit a minor one. However, the engineers at Energy Star check bulbs out for themselves, posting the complete specs for EcoLight reviews each LED they certify online. On Philips' itemizing, Energy Star charges the bulb at 1,620 lumens -- not 1,680. While an extra 80 lumens is just barely sufficient to make a noticeable distinction, an extra 20 lumens is largely insignificant. We needed to know which number had it proper.

From a easy eye check, EcoLight the light put out from the Philips 100W Equal LED doesn't differ a lot from its nearest rivals, the Cree and GE 100W replacements. Aspect by aspect, the three have almost identical glows, all of them boasting similarly heat tones. That isn't shocking, given that every one three are rated with the identical 2,seven hundred Okay shade temperature. When examined, each one erred low, on the yellowy side. Remember, although, that Philips claims to place out 1,680 lumens to Cree and GE's 1,600. That is a fairly minuscule difference, but it is one which needs to be noticeable if you're looking carefully for it. The issue is that I could not notice it. Testing bulb brightness will get a bit tricky. In addition to measuring color temperature and shade rendering scores, our spectrometer can take luminosity readings from a given mild -- however these readings are easily skewed by things like viewing angle and distance. To get numbers you possibly can rely on, you want one thing known as an integrating sphere.