Philips' LED Lightbulb Uses 17-watts as 75-watt Replacement

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dalta centauri

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The always problematic, "Why get this when there's a cheaper priced model for me?"
It's a great step down in wattage consumption, but when you spend 500$+ just to replace 10 lightbulbs it'll seem to be a hard hit on most people.
 

stingstang

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That's always the catch; it always costs more than what they're replacing, so only very few people would bother buying it. I'm also willing to bet that you'll need a special socket, or socket wattage to safely hold the bulb.
 

wiyosaya

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In theory, the price is not that bad for a light that stands a chance of outliving its owner. However, prices on these will drop as production, sales, and efficiency go up. This is not much more efficient than a CFL that costs far less. Its primary advantage over CFL is its lifetime.

That said, I would not run out and buy a bunch of these for my home. Most of my lights are already daylight CFLs, and they last a long time.
 

Silmarunya

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[citation][nom]stingstang[/nom]That's always the catch; it always costs more than what they're replacing, so only very few people would bother buying it. I'm also willing to bet that you'll need a special socket, or socket wattage to safely hold the bulb.[/citation]

No. To all of your points.

- Cost? If you take into account energy saving and the longer lifespan, the total cost of ownership is lower for LED's. Besides, they keep dropping in price. If you have half a brain, you look at what a product will cost you per year rather than upfront.

- Special socket? Not anymore, modern LED's use the same screw-in design that outdated lightbulbs use. Several brand offer drop-in replacement LED's already. On the other hand, I don't see why they should maintain that design for new homes: LED's can use smaller, prettier sockets too if needed.
 

deadduck

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Anyone knows whatever happened to VU1 ESL lights? Anyone actually tried it or reviews etc? It sounded pretty good on paper : http://www.vu1corporation.com/about/
 

masterbinky

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OK, so how many people know that when CFL's fail, they EXPLODE. It's all in the mercury and stepping up the voltage yadda yadaa...Yeah... I don't like them much. In fact, many major home insurance policies have a part that say if you have cfl's installed, they won't cover your house being burned down. Lots of local agents don't know this until they do paperwork and there's a simple question for it, and tada! not covered. I'm being honest and not out to bash CFL's since I love lower electric bills, but they are honestly dangerous and very specific to where you should use them(it requires venting at the base where they get hot, unlike typical bulbs where the heat is in the filiment near typical openings), just google it.

Anyways. I use the bulb pictured above and two other LED bulbs in my house. They are in the fixtures that are turned on the most. My wife loves lamps, so her favorite lamp to just have turned on all day (I try... honest) has one, as well as two overheads that have a tendancy to get left on..(rolls eyes). LED bulbs are worth it, just be reasonable and pick your most used lights.
 

masterbinky

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Oh, since LED bulbs step down the voltage instead of step it up, they're alot safer than CFLs, that's where the first part of my comment was heading.
 

masterbinky

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I agree with marco that i prefer high temperature (blue tinted) lights versus the low temperature yellow ones. If I need light, I want a nice bright light that keeps my mind active. Also, the better the CRI the better. A quick check on what colors your light is producing, take a cd/dvd and look at the "rainbow" pattern on it, The missing colors are the colors the lightbulb isn't making, fun stuff. Some lights only make bands or stripes, some miss out on alot of the red, etc. It is slightly entertaining to see what you have.
 

warezme

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pricing is ridiculous and there is no guarantee the thing will actually last 25 times longer and they count on the fact most people will forget when they purchased the thing by then or the company may be long gone. High tech BS at its best.
 
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cookoy 05/18/2011 4:23 PM
i'll wait a little longer for the Chinese to figure out something cheaper and better

These are already made (assembled) in China. LED bulbs are much more complex than CFL or incadescents where you need light source (LED), driver (control voltage and current), optics (control beam angle), phosphor (control color temperature) and heat sink (for LEDs). There is a lot of IP on LED technology so even they could replicate it, they will not be able to sell it here without getting their own IP or licensing it. The most expensive part of the LED bulb is most likely the driver which are made by semiconductor companies.

All that said, they should be significantly cheaper next year since this is relatively "new" and manufacturers figure out how to make it cheaper.
 

ProDigit10

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There are many variants, including remote controlled LED lights like this one, that have an RGB pattern in them, 5-7W for $25!

Other led lights like this are sold from other brands for $40 in costco today!
They are white but nothing a yellowish cap could not do.
 

Ransom22

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LEDs are definitely better than CFLs but I'm waiting for ESL to hit the market. Lower power usage, better light quality, no mercury, you don't have to wait for the light to warm up to get the full brightness, you get full range of dimming, and the color of the light doesn't change over time like LEDs.
 

nezzymighty

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May be a good time to purchase Philips company stock, especially if the rumors are true that the US is going to mandate consumers to change use to LEDs (I thought this was a free country)...
 

reggieray

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LED is much preferred over the toxic (mercury) compact fluorescent. I have nice little led strip light hidden up under my cabinets over my kitchen sink, has 3 little lights spaced out over 12", never turn it off, uses about as much as night light. My coffee pot sucks up more juice for one pot than it does running for over a month.
 
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