If you're trying to replace a 100W gentle bulb, you will find a number of LED choices at prices that are not practically as unreasonable as they have been only a year or two ago. The present crop, including the Philips 100W Equal LED, hovers right around the $20 value point. Initially priced at $25, Philips' LED has since been marked down a number of bucks to $22, which is still slightly costlier than what you may see from competitors like GE and Cree. Philips justifies that by claiming an extra 80 lumens' price of brightness over those two, together with superior dimming capabilities. However, our assessments did not reveal any noticeable difference in either brightness or dimmability. That, together with the fact that Philips provides half the warranty that you will get with GE or Cree, makes this bulb tough to advocate. Philips' 100W Equal LED shares the identical, flat-topped build of its smaller siblings within the 60W and 40W classes, but units 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, EcoLight solar bulbs one thing that will get particularly vital when LEDs begin putting out this a lot mild. Even with the emphasis on thermal management, the bulb will get hot to the touch after simply a couple of minutes of use, which is not unusual for a 100W alternative LED. As such, Philips recommends not using it in an enclosed fixture -- should you do, EcoLight you may threat shortening the bulb's lifespan. That lifespan is rated at 25,000 hours, the same as the other 100W alternative LEDs I tested, EcoLight solar bulbs with the exception of Utilitech. That lifespan comes out to 22.Eight years if the bulb is used for a mean of 3 hours per day. Philips warrants the bulb for the primary 5 of these years, whereas GE and Cree each supply ten-12 months warranties. 25,000 hours is the longevity benchmark for EcoLight Energy Star certification -- the Philips 100W Equal earned certification over the summer time, as did the GE LED I examined. Cree's bulb isn't certified but, nevertheless it meets the criteria -- Cree's staff tells me they anticipate it to be certified within the near future.

Philips claims a gentle output of 1,680 lumens at a golden hued 2,700 K from a energy draw of 19 watts. That makes it good for about 88 lumens per watt -- a formidable number, however not as impressive as GE and Utilitech, which both manage to place out a hundred 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 one among the first stuff you want from your own home lighting, that number would seem to present Philips an edge, albeit a minor one. Nonetheless, the engineers at Power Star take a look at EcoLight solar bulbs out for themselves, posting the full specs for each LED they certify online. On Philips' listing, Power Star rates the bulb at 1,620 lumens -- not 1,680. While an additional eighty lumens is just 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 simple eye check, the sunshine put out from the Philips 100W Equal LED does not differ much from its nearest competitors, the Cree and GE 100W replacements. Facet by aspect, the three have practically an identical glows, EcoLight solar bulbs all of them boasting similarly warm tones. That isn't surprising, given that every one three are rated with the identical 2,seven-hundred Ok coloration temperature. When examined, every one erred low, on the yellowy side. Remember, although, EcoLight solar bulbs that Philips claims to place out 1,680 lumens to Cree and GE's 1,600. That is a reasonably minuscule distinction, however it is one which must be noticeable if you are trying carefully for it. The problem is that I couldn't discover it. Testing bulb brightness gets a bit tough. Along with measuring shade temperature and EcoLight solar bulbs shade rendering scores, our spectrometer can take luminosity readings from a given gentle -- however these readings are easily skewed by things like viewing angle and distance. To get numbers you possibly can rely on, you need something known as an integrating sphere.