If you are seeking to replace a 100W light bulb, you will discover several LED choices at costs that are not almost as unreasonable as they were just 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 number of bucks to $22, which remains to be slightly more expensive than what you will see from competitors like GE and Cree. Philips justifies that by claiming an additional 80 lumens' worth of brightness over those two, along with superior dimming capabilities. Nevertheless, our tests didn't reveal any noticeable distinction in both brightness or dimmability. That, along with the truth that Philips gives half the warranty that you'll get with GE or Cree, EcoLight makes this bulb difficult to advocate. Philips' 100W Equal LED shares the same, flat-topped construct of its smaller siblings within the 60W and 40W categories, however 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, something that will get especially vital when LEDs start placing out this much mild. Even with the emphasis on thermal administration, the bulb gets scorching to the contact after simply a couple of minutes of use, EcoLight which isn't unusual for a 100W alternative LED. As such, Philips recommends not using it in an enclosed fixture -- for those who do, you may threat shortening the bulb's lifespan. That lifespan is rated at 25,000 hours, the identical as the opposite 100W alternative LEDs I examined, 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 dimmable LED bulbs the first five of these years, whereas GE and Cree each provide ten-yr warranties. 25,000 hours is the longevity benchmark for Vitality Star certification -- the Philips 100W Equivalent earned certification over the summer time, as did the GE LED I tested. Cree's bulb is not certified but, however it meets the factors -- Cree's group tells me they anticipate it to be certified within the close to future.

Philips claims a light output of 1,680 lumens at a golden hued 2,700 Ok from a energy draw of 19 watts. That makes it good for about 88 lumens per watt -- an impressive number, however not as spectacular as GE and Utilitech, which both manage to place 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 other bulbs we tested. With brightness being certainly one of the first things you need from your home lighting, that quantity would seem to provide Philips an edge, EcoLight albeit a minor one. Nonetheless, the engineers at Power Star take a look at bulbs out for themselves, posting the complete specs for each LED they certify on-line. On Philips' itemizing, Vitality Star charges the bulb at 1,620 lumens -- not 1,680. Whereas an extra 80 lumens is just 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 simple eye take a look at, the sunshine put out from the Philips 100W Equivalent LED doesn't differ much from its nearest competitors, the Cree and GE 100W replacements. Facet by side, the three have nearly identical glows, all of them boasting equally warm tones. That is not stunning, given that every one three are rated with the same 2,700 Okay color temperature. When examined, every one erred low, on the yellowy facet. Remember, although, that Philips claims to put out 1,680 lumens to Cree and GE's 1,600. That is a reasonably minuscule distinction, but it is one that should be noticeable if you're wanting carefully for it. The issue is that I couldn't notice it. Testing bulb brightness gets a bit difficult. Along with measuring color temperature and coloration rendering scores, our spectrometer can take luminosity readings from a given mild -- however those readings are easily skewed by issues like viewing angle and distance. To get numbers you may rely on, you want one thing referred to as an integrating sphere.