If you're seeking to replace a 100W light bulb, you will discover several LED choices at prices that are not nearly as unreasonable as they have been just a yr or two ago. The present crop, including the Philips 100W Equivalent LED, hovers right across the $20 price level. Initially priced at $25, Philips' LED has since been marked down a couple of bucks to $22, which is still slightly dearer than what you may see from opponents like GE and Cree. Philips justifies that by claiming an additional 80 lumens' price of brightness over those two, together with superior dimming capabilities. Nonetheless, our checks didn't reveal any noticeable difference in both brightness or dimmability. That, together with the fact that Philips provides half the guarantee that you will get with GE or Cree, makes this bulb tough to recommend. Philips' 100W Equivalent LED shares the same, flat-topped construct of its smaller siblings within the 60W and 40W classes, however sets itself apart with a singular 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 begin placing out this a lot light. Even with the emphasis on thermal administration, the bulb will get scorching to the contact after simply a couple of minutes of use, which isn't unusual for a 100W substitute LED. As such, EcoLight home lighting Philips recommends not using it in an enclosed fixture -- when you do, you may risk shortening the bulb's lifespan. That lifespan is rated at 25,000 hours, the identical as the opposite 100W substitute LEDs I examined, with the exception of Utilitech. That lifespan comes out to 22.Eight years if the bulb is used for a mean of three hours per day. Philips warrants the bulb for EcoLight home lighting the first 5 of these years, whereas GE and Cree both provide ten-year 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 is not certified yet, however it meets the standards -- Cree's workforce tells me they anticipate it to be certified in the close to future.

Philips claims a mild 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 -- an impressive quantity, but not as spectacular as GE and EcoLight reviews Utilitech, energy-efficient bulbs which each manage to place out a hundred lumens per watt. These 1680 lumens are a slight step up from what you may get with GE, Cree, or any of the other bulbs we examined. With brightness being one among the first belongings you want from your EcoLight home lighting lighting, that number would appear to provide Philips an edge, albeit a minor one. Nonetheless, the engineers at Energy Star take a look at bulbs out for themselves, reduce energy consumption posting the complete specs for each LED they certify on-line. On Philips' listing, Vitality Star rates the bulb at 1,620 lumens -- not 1,680. Whereas an extra eighty lumens is simply barely sufficient to make a noticeable distinction, an extra 20 lumens is basically insignificant. We wanted to know which number had it proper.

From a easy eye test, the sunshine put out from the Philips 100W Equal LED doesn't differ a lot from its nearest competitors, the Cree and GE 100W replacements. Aspect by facet, the three have almost an identical glows, all of them boasting equally heat tones. That isn't stunning, given that each one three are rated with the identical 2,seven hundred Ok colour temperature. When tested, each erred low, EcoLight on the yellowy facet. Remember, although, that Philips claims to put out 1,680 lumens to Cree and GE's 1,600. That's a reasonably minuscule difference, but it's one which ought to be noticeable if you're looking intently for it. The problem is that I couldn't notice it. Testing bulb brightness will get a bit tricky. Along with measuring coloration temperature and shade rendering scores, our spectrometer can take luminosity readings from a given gentle -- however those readings are simply skewed by things like viewing angle and distance. To get numbers you may rely on, you need one thing called an integrating sphere.