If you're trying to exchange a 100W gentle bulb, you may discover a number of LED choices at costs that aren't practically as unreasonable as they had been just a year or two ago. The present crop, including the Philips 100W Equal LED, hovers right across the $20 value level. Initially priced at $25, Philips' LED has since been marked down just a few bucks to $22, which remains to be slightly dearer than what you will see from competitors like GE and Cree. Philips justifies that by claiming an extra 80 lumens' worth of brightness over those two, together with superior dimming capabilities. Nonetheless, our tests did not reveal any noticeable distinction in both brightness or dimmability. That, along with the fact that Philips presents half the warranty that you'll get with GE or Cree, makes this bulb troublesome to suggest. Philips' 100W Equal LED shares the same, flat-topped construct of its smaller siblings in the 60W and 40W classes, but units 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 putting out this a lot light. Even with the emphasis on thermal management, the bulb will get hot to the contact after simply a couple of 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 may danger shortening the bulb's lifespan. That lifespan is rated at 25,000 hours, the same as the opposite 100W replacement LEDs I examined, with the exception of Utilitech. That lifespan comes out to 22.8 years if the bulb is used for an average of 3 hours per day. Philips warrants the bulb for the primary five of these years, while GE and Cree both supply 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 but, but it surely meets the criteria -- Cree's group 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 Ok from a energy draw of 19 watts. That makes it good for about 88 lumens per watt -- a powerful quantity, however not as spectacular as GE and Utilitech, which both handle to place 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 opposite bulbs we tested. With brightness being considered one of the first belongings you want from your property EcoLight lighting, that quantity would seem to offer Philips an edge, albeit a minor one. However, the engineers at Vitality Star check bulbs out for EcoLight themselves, posting the total 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 additional 80 lumens is just barely sufficient to make a noticeable difference, an additional 20 lumens is basically insignificant. We wished to know which number had it proper.
From a easy eye test, the sunshine put out from the Philips 100W Equal LED does not differ much from its nearest opponents, the Cree and GE 100W replacements. Aspect by facet, the three have almost identical glows, all of them boasting similarly warm tones. That is not surprising, given that every one three are rated with the same 2,seven-hundred Ok coloration temperature. When tested, every one erred low, on the yellowy aspect. Remember, though, that Philips claims to place out 1,680 lumens to Cree and GE's 1,600. That is a reasonably minuscule difference, however it is one that must be noticeable if you are trying carefully for it. The problem is that I couldn't notice it. Testing bulb brightness gets a bit tricky. In addition to measuring color EcoLight temperature and coloration rendering scores, our spectrometer can take luminosity readings from a given light -- however those readings are easily skewed by things like viewing angle and distance. To get numbers you'll be able to depend on, you need one thing called an integrating sphere.