Comments on: Home LEDs starting to look more normal

By: Joshua Mark

Joshua Mark — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 19:08:09 +0000

If these last the advertised age, they might be worthwhile. I still find $100 for 5 bulbs off-putting but I haven’t had a single CFL last longer than 3 years and they’re supposed to last 7.

By: CMK

CMK — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 00:15:45 +0000

Picked up a few of these new Philips bulbs a couple weeks ago at the local Home Depot– so looks like they were released earlier than expected (late 2012 instead of 2013). They are very bright white (about ~5k) but nice for laundry rooms or pastel colored or bluish colored rooms. In addition, I picked up some Switch bulbs at our local Batteries Plus — beautiful bulbs, but rather heavy. I also ordered a few Switch bulbs (75 watt equiv) from Earthled dot com.

By: fyngyrz

fyngyrz — Sun, 09 Dec 2012 23:15:36 +0000

Hmm. Feeling pretty burned by compact fluorescents. I have a large home (converted church), and we went with (many) CFs. A lot of them died young; perhaps as many as half. Any savings we might have made were pushed way, way back by those early deaths. They seem to hate being turned on and off even more than incandescents do; that’s when they die. Cheap components, I presume, but whatever the reason, they just didn’t hold up.

At $25/pop, I they need to come with a warranty and free shipping to go back to, and return from, the manufacturer. Otherwise… not happening.

By: Lestra

Lestra — Sun, 09 Dec 2012 22:47:17 +0000

The traditional bulb shape is rather absurd for LEDs. All that wasted vertical space. It’s time to transition to a new form factor.

By: Katie Fehrenbacher

Katie Fehrenbacher — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 16:44:32 +0000

I know at one point they had them here: http://www.batteriesplus.com/store_details/438.aspx

By: EricE

EricE — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 16:36:32 +0000

Where did you get your Switch bulb? I still can’t find them and they only seem to be shipping to commercial customers now? Their tech is one of the most interesting to me and I would love to try it for myself.

By: farski

farski — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 23:15:31 +0000

It was never entirely clear why the yellow gel couldn’t have been on the interior of the bulb (just covering the LEDs themselves), with a neutral outer glass. Either that’s now an option with the better cooling, or they have ~3k LEDs that are efficient enough now that they don’t need to gel at all. Though if they’re giving up known efficiency for the sake of a better looking bulb, I think I’d sacrifice the looks personally. The whole point here is to use as little energy as possible.

By: Jason

Jason — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 19:24:50 +0000

Since the remove the yellow film does this mean the bulb will produce a harsh white/blue color? I still use incandescent because I like the warm yellow light and will continue to use it after the ban (been buying bulbs from china on ebay).

By: Katie Fehrenbacher

Katie Fehrenbacher — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 19:13:05 +0000

Yep! Dimmable.

By: Jim Doree

Jim Doree — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 18:06:47 +0000

Dimmable?