8 ms·

Philips wins $10M L Prize for LED-based 60W replacement bulb

57 points by lwhi 15y ago

ars 15y ago
I am most impressed by the 900 lumens. This is a true 60 watt replacement, unlike the LEDs that claim to be 60 watt replacements, but actually output far less lumens, and claim "it's OK, the light is directional, so it counts for more". And the 10 watt is impressive too - that's better than CFLs (13 watt), which is not something I've seen before in an LED. Most commercial LEDs in the market today (and by market I mean physical stores, not specialty online places) are worse than CFLs in a lumens/watt measure. (And they rarely actually tell you the true lumens.) I'm not personally willing to pay more than about $5 for such a bulb, but the price will come down. (Since I can get 10,000 hour CFLs for $2.) Edit: Maybe I will pay more - those 3 watts in savings add up to about $11 over the 25,000 hour life of the bulb.
- simonsarris 15y ago
  You can definitely find smaller CFLs. My house is old and has a lot of places where there used to be gas lamps and instead tiny electric lamps have been put in, so I have several 8, 10, and 13 watt CFLs in my house. I think I got almost all of them at either Lowes or Costco. Here is a GE one: http://www.amazon.com/Lighting-Compfluo-85382-Compact-Fluorescent/dp/B0044UOU44 http://www.amazon.com/Lighting-Compfluo-85382-Compact-Fluore... Though of all the ones I tested the Sylvania seem to have the most pleasant color temperature, and online I can only find their 13W ones.
  - Someone 15y ago
    I think the impressive in "And the 10 watt is impressive too - that's better than CFLs (13 watt)" is in reference to the lumen/Watt measure of the lightbulb, not to its wattage alone.
noibl 15y ago
This seems to be an iteration on an 800lm/12.5W version which they examined in [detail][]. There is an incredible amount of electronics packed into these things but they seem to do a better job than CFLs of replacing ye olde tungsten-filament-in-argon-filled-flask. [detail]: http://www.edn.com/blog/PowerSource/40511-Philips_LED_bulb_Tear_down_Part_I_light_patterns_.php http://www.edn.com/blog/PowerSource/40511-Philips_LED_bulb_T... The yellow plastic of the Philips bulb not just a bulb-like cover over the LEDs, but the phosphor itself. ... The bulb is able to make use of the remote phosphor’s characteristic of emitting light omni-directionally and uniformly, rather than as a point source such as in a standard white LED.
kerridge0 15y ago
Analysis of presumably an earlier model http://sevengens.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/independent_ambientled_analysis020111.pdf http://sevengens.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/ind...
samgranger 15y ago
They're the only company to even submit an entry :)
ashmud 15y ago
Do this bulb flicker at [50/60hz] like (consumer grade) LED Christmas tree lights?
- sbierwagen 15y ago
  I don't actually own one, but the datasheet[1] for the dimming circuit uses a 120 kilohertz flyback transformer. 1: http://www.cypress.com/?docID=25961 http://www.cypress.com/?docID=25961
- chaostheory 15y ago
  I own a similar model that looks the same with a little less lumen output (860 I believe). I don't notice flickering.
ck2 15y ago
The question is how much and how long will it last in reality. My last "forever" led bulb just died, it lasted 3 years. I'm not buying a $40 bulb, even from Philips, unless it has a 20 year warranty. I think I am going to try this one next, $15 but available in soft-while intead of just pure white and it's assembled in the USA supposedly: http://www.goldengadgets.com/gt-7d-7-watt-led-globe-light-bulb.html http://www.goldengadgets.com/gt-7d-7-watt-led-globe-light-bu... Note the helpful chart on that page halfway to the bottom (should be near the top!)
- samgranger 15y ago
  What brand did you buy, out of interest?
  - ck2 15y ago
    It's not printed on the bulb unfortunately but it was like $7-$8 at walmart. I suspect it's not the leds that failed but the regulating electronics - I'm saving it to try to re-use the leds someday, maybe for direct-drive off a battery. The $15 one above looks like much better quality and 1/3rd the price of the philips. I'm not dropping $40 ever on a led bulb.
- jerhewet 15y ago
  > The question is how much and how long will it last in reality. Same goes for the CFL bulbs. For me the failure rate was so high that I started writing the date on the base of the CFL every time I install a new one(1). Average lifetime of a CFL bulb so far: 9 months. A very far cry from the promised lifetime. (1) I don't buy the cheap knock-offs at the local Big Box Store. I get top-of-the-line Sylvanias and Phillips CFL's. No difference -- they die just as fast as the cheap ones do.
  - simcop2387 15y ago
    That would make me start to wonder about the quality of the power in my house. I've seen the power here at my house in the Atlanta area actually drop below 100V for extended periods of time and I could see that causing stress on the ballasts in our CFLs. Our bulbs that have gone out always seem to be shortly after one of those events. (This is incidentally why we also have UPSs all over the house on anything even mildly sensitive)
gamble 15y ago
Good for them! I have one of these at home, and of the various LED bulbs I've tried this is the only one that worked well enough to be a true incandescent replacement.
- dmd 15y ago
  How do you have one of these at home? I was under the impression that they haven't even started production yet.
  - epochwolf 15y ago
    http://www.amazon.com/Philips-Ambient-Dimmable-Replacement-Light/dp/B004IUMGV4 http://www.amazon.com/Philips-Ambient-Dimmable-Replacement-L...
    - dmd 15y ago
      Wow. Thanks! *edit - this is NOT the same product. The one for sale has a CRI of 80, and looks different too.
      - ars 15y ago
        This one has 800 lumens instead of 900, and uses 12.5watts instead of 10.
  - gamble 15y ago
    Technically, this is a slightly newer version of a very similar bulb Phillips has been selling for a while now. You can usually find the original model at Home Depot for around $50.
MikeCapone 15y ago
I have two LED bulbs like this by Philips. The 12.5w (60w replacement) and the 17w (75w replacement). I like them both a lot, and think both brightness and light quality are good enough for everyday use. Bonus: They apparently don't attract bugs because they produce less UV light than incandescents.
- MikeCapone 15y ago
  See here: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2011/03/philips-ambientled-led-light-bulb-12-watts-review-shop-price.php http://www.treehugger.com/files/2011/03/philips-ambientled-l...
chaostheory 15y ago
I'm using their 860 lumens version which looks very similar. It works great

57 points by lwhi 15y ago

ars 15y ago

I am most impressed by the 900 lumens. This is a true 60 watt replacement, unlike the LEDs that claim to be 60 watt replacements, but actually output far less lumens, and claim "it's OK, the light is directional, so it counts for more". And the 10 watt is impressive too - that's better than CFLs (13 watt), which is not something I've seen before in an LED. Most commercial LEDs in the market today (and by market I mean physical stores, not specialty online places) are worse than CFLs in a lumens/watt measure. (And they rarely actually tell you the true lumens.) I'm not personally willing to pay more than about $5 for such a bulb, but the price will come down. (Since I can get 10,000 hour CFLs for $2.) Edit: Maybe I will pay more - those 3 watts in savings add up to about $11 over the 25,000 hour life of the bulb.

simonsarris 15y ago
You can definitely find smaller CFLs. My house is old and has a lot of places where there used to be gas lamps and instead tiny electric lamps have been put in, so I have several 8, 10, and 13 watt CFLs in my house. I think I got almost all of them at either Lowes or Costco. Here is a GE one: http://www.amazon.com/Lighting-Compfluo-85382-Compact-Fluorescent/dp/B0044UOU44 http://www.amazon.com/Lighting-Compfluo-85382-Compact-Fluore... Though of all the ones I tested the Sylvania seem to have the most pleasant color temperature, and online I can only find their 13W ones.
- Someone 15y ago
  I think the impressive in "And the 10 watt is impressive too - that's better than CFLs (13 watt)" is in reference to the lumen/Watt measure of the lightbulb, not to its wattage alone.

noibl 15y ago

This seems to be an iteration on an 800lm/12.5W version which they examined in [detail][]. There is an incredible amount of electronics packed into these things but they seem to do a better job than CFLs of replacing ye olde tungsten-filament-in-argon-filled-flask. [detail]: http://www.edn.com/blog/PowerSource/40511-Philips_LED_bulb_Tear_down_Part_I_light_patterns_.php http://www.edn.com/blog/PowerSource/40511-Philips_LED_bulb_T... The yellow plastic of the Philips bulb not just a bulb-like cover over the LEDs, but the phosphor itself. ... The bulb is able to make use of the remote phosphor’s characteristic of emitting light omni-directionally and uniformly, rather than as a point source such as in a standard white LED.

kerridge0 15y ago

Analysis of presumably an earlier model http://sevengens.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/independent_ambientled_analysis020111.pdf http://sevengens.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/ind...

samgranger 15y ago

They're the only company to even submit an entry :)

ashmud 15y ago

Do this bulb flicker at [50/60hz] like (consumer grade) LED Christmas tree lights?

sbierwagen 15y ago
I don't actually own one, but the datasheet[1] for the dimming circuit uses a 120 kilohertz flyback transformer. 1: http://www.cypress.com/?docID=25961 http://www.cypress.com/?docID=25961
chaostheory 15y ago
I own a similar model that looks the same with a little less lumen output (860 I believe). I don't notice flickering.

ck2 15y ago

The question is how much and how long will it last in reality. My last "forever" led bulb just died, it lasted 3 years. I'm not buying a $40 bulb, even from Philips, unless it has a 20 year warranty. I think I am going to try this one next, $15 but available in soft-while intead of just pure white and it's assembled in the USA supposedly: http://www.goldengadgets.com/gt-7d-7-watt-led-globe-light-bulb.html http://www.goldengadgets.com/gt-7d-7-watt-led-globe-light-bu... Note the helpful chart on that page halfway to the bottom (should be near the top!)

samgranger 15y ago
What brand did you buy, out of interest?
- ck2 15y ago
  It's not printed on the bulb unfortunately but it was like $7-$8 at walmart. I suspect it's not the leds that failed but the regulating electronics - I'm saving it to try to re-use the leds someday, maybe for direct-drive off a battery. The $15 one above looks like much better quality and 1/3rd the price of the philips. I'm not dropping $40 ever on a led bulb.
jerhewet 15y ago
> The question is how much and how long will it last in reality. Same goes for the CFL bulbs. For me the failure rate was so high that I started writing the date on the base of the CFL every time I install a new one(1). Average lifetime of a CFL bulb so far: 9 months. A very far cry from the promised lifetime. (1) I don't buy the cheap knock-offs at the local Big Box Store. I get top-of-the-line Sylvanias and Phillips CFL's. No difference -- they die just as fast as the cheap ones do.
- simcop2387 15y ago
  That would make me start to wonder about the quality of the power in my house. I've seen the power here at my house in the Atlanta area actually drop below 100V for extended periods of time and I could see that causing stress on the ballasts in our CFLs. Our bulbs that have gone out always seem to be shortly after one of those events. (This is incidentally why we also have UPSs all over the house on anything even mildly sensitive)

gamble 15y ago

Good for them! I have one of these at home, and of the various LED bulbs I've tried this is the only one that worked well enough to be a true incandescent replacement.

dmd 15y ago
How do you have one of these at home? I was under the impression that they haven't even started production yet.
- epochwolf 15y ago
  http://www.amazon.com/Philips-Ambient-Dimmable-Replacement-Light/dp/B004IUMGV4 http://www.amazon.com/Philips-Ambient-Dimmable-Replacement-L...
  - dmd 15y ago
    Wow. Thanks! *edit - this is NOT the same product. The one for sale has a CRI of 80, and looks different too.
    - ars 15y ago
      This one has 800 lumens instead of 900, and uses 12.5watts instead of 10.
- gamble 15y ago
  Technically, this is a slightly newer version of a very similar bulb Phillips has been selling for a while now. You can usually find the original model at Home Depot for around $50.

MikeCapone 15y ago

I have two LED bulbs like this by Philips. The 12.5w (60w replacement) and the 17w (75w replacement). I like them both a lot, and think both brightness and light quality are good enough for everyday use. Bonus: They apparently don't attract bugs because they produce less UV light than incandescents.

MikeCapone 15y ago
See here: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2011/03/philips-ambientled-led-light-bulb-12-watts-review-shop-price.php http://www.treehugger.com/files/2011/03/philips-ambientled-l...

chaostheory 15y ago

I'm using their 860 lumens version which looks very similar. It works great