Sylvania 8w Edison base LED at Lowe's

My Lowe's just started carrying Sylvania's line of home LED bulbs (yay!) including the 6-chip 8w lamp previously spotted at Menard's. Just snagged one for $29.95.

My first impression is that it seems to be heavily regulated! When I first turned it on I got nothing, and for an instant I thought it was broken, then poof! Full brightness. After I turned it off the 6 LEDs continued to glow dimly for almost 30 seconds as the capacitors discharged. Nice!

I aimed a 395nm NUV LED at the frosted dome of the bulb and I saw the familiar orange glow of the LED phosphors inside, six little orange dots arranged around the perimeter of the circuit board.

The runtime is only spec'd at 25,000 hours, making it a little pricey in terms of runtime per dollar compared to a standard CFL, but it will be interesting to see how this holds up during actual use. I'm looking forward to using this as a small reading lamp, knowing that there's almost no UV output compared to a CFL.

Can we get some pictures?

PhotonWrangler said:

I'm looking forward to using this as a small reading lamp, knowing that there's almost no UV output compared to a CFL.

Click to expand...

Are you wanting less UV light in order to protect your vision? What about blue light hazard?

How bright are the bulbs? I bought some other white Edison base LED bulbs and they were a joke.

Apollo Cree said:

Are you wanting less UV light in order to protect your vision? What about blue light hazard?

How bright are the bulbs? I bought some other white Edison base LED bulbs and they were a joke.

Click to expand...

It's fairly bright and the color temp is a pleasant 3000k. The light is semi-directional so it's probably best used in a reflector assembly for downlighting.

Yes, I'm interested in protecting my vision as well as generally reducing that annoying blue haze. BTW the model number of this lamp is an LED8A/F/830/350/HVP. Here's a picture of it.

Thanks for the link! I think I might have to pick one up and test it out for myself.

PhotonWrangler said:

Yes, I'm interested in protecting my vision as well as generally reducing that annoying blue haze.

Click to expand...

I'm not real paranoid, but I do worry a bit about long term effects of blue light hazard. Macular degeneration is a problem we're all going to have and it MAY be influenced by blue light hazard.

If we're going to replace our incandescent bulbs with blue/white LED's, we're going to be exposed to the bright blue spectral spike for a large part of the day, so there may be some additional worries there.

Of course, many of the same concerns probably apply to fluorescent lights, too.

I suspect even an avid flashaholic won't get enough LED exposure from flashlights to be of significant concern.

Interesting. Lowe's up here (at least the one that just opened) don't
seem to carry these (yet). All they had were some Sylvania coloured
deco-type bulbs.

My Sylvania 2W A19/E26 bulb has a single emitter, rated 2W. Spots
rated 4W have three emitters. Since this is consumed power, not that
delivered to the LEDs I'm wondering if these bulbs all use the same
1W LED:. Could it be that:

- 2W bulb is 1x1W plus 1W ballast loss
- 4W bulb is 3x1W plus 1W ballast loss
- 8W bulb is 6x1W plus 2W ballast loss.

The emitter in mine is mounted on a long thin substrate held down
on each end by a screw. I can't quite read the marking on it through
the bulb, which appears to be hard plastic.

Mine also has a turn-on delay of about a second, no ramp-up, but
no after-glow on power off.

What strikes me about the 8W bulb is the collar doesn't look like
a very good heatsink, for that power level.

Dave

PhotonWrangler said:

I aimed a 395nm NUV LED at the frosted dome of the bulb and I saw the familiar orange glow of the LED phosphors inside, six little orange dots arranged around the perimeter of the circuit board.

Click to expand...

I shone my 12-LED UV flashlight (from Ledshoppe) into my bulb
a saw the weak yellow-orange glow from the LED die. Tried the same
with my old UVS-11 short-wavelength UV light (253.7nm) but it
just caused a purplish haze, could not see anything.

Dave

Dave_H said:

I shone my 12-LED UV flashlight (from Ledshoppe) into my bulb
a saw the weak yellow-orange glow from the LED die. Tried the same
with my old UVS-11 short-wavelength UV light (253.7nm) but it
just caused a purplish haze, could not see anything.

Dave

Click to expand...

The 253.7 wavelength will not penetrate the globe but might cause it to fluoresce, so the results of your test make sense.

Apollo Cree said:

I'm not real paranoid, but I do worry a bit about long term effects of blue light hazard. Macular degeneration is a problem we're all going to have and it MAY be influenced by blue light hazard.

If we're going to replace our incandescent bulbs with blue/white LED's, we're going to be exposed to the bright blue spectral spike for a large part of the day, so there may be some additional worries there.

Of course, many of the same concerns probably apply to fluorescent lights, too.

I suspect even an avid flashaholic won't get enough LED exposure from flashlights to be of significant concern.

Click to expand...

The 1st generation of LED bulbs use blueish LEDs. 6000+° colour temperatue. Here is a typical spectrogram. Notice the big blue spike.


Most outdoor flashaholics are tired of the blue. So they are now buying neutral white flashlights. 4500° colour temperature. Here is a spectrogram. Notice how small the blue spike has become.


Warm white LEDs are in the 2700° to 3500° range. The OP stated his bulb is 3000°. I do not have a spectrograph but I do expect the blue spike to be even smaller than the one above. (6000° > 4500° > 3000°)
A 3500° LED should have the same % blue as a 3500° incandescent.
A 3000° LED should have the same % blue as a 3000° incandescent.
A 2700° LED should have the same % blue as a 2700° incandescent.
When buying an LED bulb make sure you buy the WARM WHITE version instead of the cool white version if you are worried about blue light hazard.

The blue light hazard warning is to warn people not to look DIRECTLY at the LED. Similar to not to look directly at the sun. Stuff illuminated by the LED or the sun is fine.
Don't look at the sun. Look at the paper the sun lights up.
Don't look at the LED bulb. Look at the paper the bulb lights up. (That is what the shades in desk lamps, table lamps, floor lamps etc. is for.)

Fluorescent bulbs are slightly different. They use UV to light up the phosphor. (There are UV based LEDs too.) A very small amount of the UV escapes as does some X-rays. Normally this is not a problem as the tubes are up in the ceiling far away. With CFLs in desk lamps close up there is greater danger.
Quote "The United Kingdom's Health Protection Agency now recommends people should not be closer than 30 centimetres from an energy-saving light bulb for more than one hour per day, since it is like exposing bare skin to direct sunlight." from
http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=1201797

Looking at the blue white LEDs or the sun damages your eyes.
UV from the sun and maybe too close CFLs give you skin cancer.
Different illness - like comparing apples to oranges.

Spectrographs courtesy The_LED_Museum.

LEDninja said:

Fluorescent bulbs are slightly different. They use UV to light up the phosphor. (There are UV based LEDs too.) A very small amount of the UV escapes as does some X-rays. Normally this is not a problem as the tubes are up in the ceiling far away. With CFLs in desk lamps close up there is greater danger.
Quote "The United Kingdom's Health Protection Agency now recommends people should not be closer than 30 centimetres from an energy-saving light bulb for more than one hour per day, since it is like exposing bare skin to direct sunlight." from
http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=1201797

Click to expand...

Glass (which fluorescent tubes are made out of) absorbs UV light. About what the UK HPA said, it is probably a bit... conservative. They are a bit health and safety crazy over there.

Random Guy said:

Glass (which fluorescent tubes are made out of) absorbs UV light. About what the UK HPA said, it is probably a bit... conservative. They are a bit health and safety crazy over there.

Click to expand...

The glass envelope absorbs virutually all of the shorter UV wavelengths and some of the longer wavelengths, but not all of it. That's why fluorescent lamps will still cause keyboards and certain other plastics to turn yellow over time.

I'm can't be too concerned about the blue immissions from a LED light. The spectrum of a blue LED diminishes in power down to very small levels outside of the visible spectrum. Remember many of us spend much time outside in the sun which is many times more intense and its spectrum is full of UV down to UVB that can burn skin, fade some plastics and paper in a matter of days. At its color temp, it's blue spectrum is intense.