If you are trying to replace a 100W light bulb, you may discover several LED options at costs that aren't almost as unreasonable as they had been just a 12 months or two in the past. The present crop, together with the Philips 100W Equal LED, EcoLight LED bulbs hovers right across the $20 worth level. Initially priced at $25, Philips' LED has since been marked down a number of bucks to $22, which continues to be barely dearer than what you'll see from rivals like GE and Cree. Philips justifies that by claiming an additional 80 lumens' price of brightness over those two, EcoLight LED bulbs along with superior dimming capabilities. However, our assessments didn't reveal any noticeable difference in both brightness or dimmability. That, along with the fact that Philips gives half the warranty that you will get with GE or Cree, makes this bulb difficult to advocate. Philips' 100W Equivalent LED shares the identical, EcoLight LED bulbs flat-topped build of its smaller siblings within the 60W and 40W categories, but sets 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, EcoLight solutions something that will get particularly necessary when LEDs start putting out this much light. Even with the emphasis on thermal management, the bulb gets hot to the touch after simply a few minutes of use, which is not unusual for a 100W replacement LED. As such, Philips recommends not utilizing it in an enclosed fixture -- if you happen to do, you will risk shortening the bulb's lifespan. That lifespan is rated at 25,000 hours, the same as the opposite 100W alternative LEDs I tested, with the exception of Utilitech. That lifespan comes out to 22.8 years if the bulb is used for an average of three hours per day. Philips warrants the bulb for EcoLight solar bulbs the first five of those years, whereas GE and Cree each provide ten-year warranties. 25,000 hours is the longevity benchmark for Energy Star certification -- the Philips 100W Equal earned certification over the summer, as did the GE EcoLight LED bulbs I tested. Cree's bulb is not certified but, however it meets the standards -- Cree's staff tells me they expect it to be certified within the near future.

Philips claims a gentle 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 -- a powerful number, however not as spectacular as GE and Utilitech, which both handle to put out 100 lumens per watt. These 1680 lumens are a slight step up from what you will get with GE, Cree, or any of the other bulbs we examined. With brightness being one among the primary stuff you want from your home lighting, that quantity would seem to provide Philips an edge, albeit a minor one. However, EcoLight LED the engineers at Power Star check bulbs out for themselves, posting the full specs for EcoLight LED bulbs each LED they certify online. On Philips' listing, Power Star rates the bulb at 1,620 lumens -- not 1,680. Whereas an extra 80 lumens is just barely enough to make a noticeable distinction, an extra 20 lumens is largely insignificant. We wished to know which quantity had it proper.

From a easy eye test, the light put out from the Philips 100W Equal LED would not differ a lot from its nearest competitors, EcoLight smart bulbs the Cree and GE 100W replacements. Side by aspect, the three have practically similar glows, all of them boasting equally warm tones. That is not stunning, given that all three are rated with the identical 2,seven hundred Ok coloration temperature. When tested, each one erred low, on the yellowy aspect. Remember, though, that Philips claims to put out 1,680 lumens to Cree and EcoLight LED bulbs GE's 1,600. That's a reasonably minuscule distinction, however it is one that ought to be noticeable if you are wanting closely for it. The problem is that I could not notice it. Testing bulb brightness will get a bit tricky. Along with measuring color temperature and shade rendering scores, EcoLight our spectrometer can take luminosity readings from a given light -- but these readings are simply skewed by issues like viewing angle and distance. To get numbers you can depend on, you need something called an integrating sphere.