Bright flat-panel LED bulbs: pricy but worthwhile, I hope
Several years ago, I bought a batch of inexpensive “warm white” LED bulbs online. (I use the outdated term “bulb” even though these are flat panels, not at all bulbous.) These were “no-name” bulbs from an unknown source, costing about $4.00 per bulb at that time.
Those bulbs used a lot less electricity than incandescents and gave off an adequate amount of light. Over the years, though, the bulbs seemed to be getting dimmer and yellower, and one was flickering a little. We decided that we had to find a better alternative than the typical “no name” bulbs.
After shopping around (and asking for advice on this forum), I decided to go with these bulbs, for $13.99 each – not cheap:
Link to bulbs -- hopefully this one works
(Original link was defective -- have tried to fix it on edit -- we'll see if it works.)
One of the reasons I chose this particular vendor is that they have an office in the USA (actually in the San Fernando Valley, north of LA), and their website included a lot of useful explanatory material.
According to the website, these particular bulbs are “natural white” and produce
about 1600 lumens, about as much as a 100 watt incandescent bulb. Also, they have an aluminum double plate “heat sink,” which should extend the life of the bulb. They supposedly use a little more than 220 milliamps.
I ordered the bulbs, which arrived the next day. When I opened the package, I was a little confused, because the adapter was not “wedge” shaped, as I had thought. It was a little metallic rectangle – this photo is from their website -- the dongle is on the left:
Click For Full-Size Image.
I emailed the company to ask if this was the correct adapter for my wedge sockets. The service tech answered my email within a few hours, explaining that the rectangle (a “T10”) sticks into the wedge socket securely. To me, having access to responsive technical support is a big plus, even for something as seemingly simple as a bulb.
Installation was actually easier than screwing in a lightbulb. (Humor.) I was very impressed with the pleasant color and the brightness of the bulbs. These photos are unedited “before and after” shots, taken with exactly the same camera settings (an eighth of a second at f 4.5, with an ISO of 100):
Click For Full-Size Image.
Click For Full-Size Image.
I then took a reading using my voltmeter, and sure enough, each bulb draws just 200 milliamps.
They had another similar product that was listed at $10.99 with half the brightness, but we really wanted to maximize the light: why not double the light for an extra three bucks? To put it another way, when you think about how often you need good lighting, the extra cost is less than a penny per use.
But we will see if these fancy new bulbs are really worth the money – it’s too soon to say for sure. There is no way to know how long they will last or whether the aluminum “heat sink” is just a gimmick. But assuming that they are reasonably durable, I would say that for our purposes, the cost is more than justified by the extra brightness.
Those bulbs used a lot less electricity than incandescents and gave off an adequate amount of light. Over the years, though, the bulbs seemed to be getting dimmer and yellower, and one was flickering a little. We decided that we had to find a better alternative than the typical “no name” bulbs.
After shopping around (and asking for advice on this forum), I decided to go with these bulbs, for $13.99 each – not cheap:
Link to bulbs -- hopefully this one works
(Original link was defective -- have tried to fix it on edit -- we'll see if it works.)
One of the reasons I chose this particular vendor is that they have an office in the USA (actually in the San Fernando Valley, north of LA), and their website included a lot of useful explanatory material.
According to the website, these particular bulbs are “natural white” and produce
about 1600 lumens, about as much as a 100 watt incandescent bulb. Also, they have an aluminum double plate “heat sink,” which should extend the life of the bulb. They supposedly use a little more than 220 milliamps.
I ordered the bulbs, which arrived the next day. When I opened the package, I was a little confused, because the adapter was not “wedge” shaped, as I had thought. It was a little metallic rectangle – this photo is from their website -- the dongle is on the left:
Click For Full-Size Image.I emailed the company to ask if this was the correct adapter for my wedge sockets. The service tech answered my email within a few hours, explaining that the rectangle (a “T10”) sticks into the wedge socket securely. To me, having access to responsive technical support is a big plus, even for something as seemingly simple as a bulb.
Installation was actually easier than screwing in a lightbulb. (Humor.) I was very impressed with the pleasant color and the brightness of the bulbs. These photos are unedited “before and after” shots, taken with exactly the same camera settings (an eighth of a second at f 4.5, with an ISO of 100):
Click For Full-Size Image.
Click For Full-Size Image.I then took a reading using my voltmeter, and sure enough, each bulb draws just 200 milliamps.
They had another similar product that was listed at $10.99 with half the brightness, but we really wanted to maximize the light: why not double the light for an extra three bucks? To put it another way, when you think about how often you need good lighting, the extra cost is less than a penny per use.
But we will see if these fancy new bulbs are really worth the money – it’s too soon to say for sure. There is no way to know how long they will last or whether the aluminum “heat sink” is just a gimmick. But assuming that they are reasonably durable, I would say that for our purposes, the cost is more than justified by the extra brightness.
