Sylvania PAR38 LEDs bulbs

I finally got tired of having very little light in my backyard. There wasn't any floodlights installed when I bought the house and there was one puny light by the back door. The flood bulbs I started with were 90w halogens since there wasn't any PAR38 LEDs I was interested in. Then I ran across these a couple weeks ago.



http://www.lowes.com/pd_352309-3-78...ht+Bulbs_4294801193__s?Ntt=sylvania&facetInfo=

Two of these light up quite a bit of my backyard. There are trees across the road behide my house that can easily been seen too. I wish I could remember how many lumens the halogens put out. There isn't enough info on the bulbs to find out exact specs. The only thing I don't like is the 30 dergree beam angle. Forty would've been nicer. I'd still give them a five star rating though.

Here's the PDF from the manufacturer.

http://assets.sylvania.com/assets/Documents/RETRO044 (3).cda4a10b-2f81-4eba-b34b-7eb9b5187ec3.pdf

A couple more things. I was able to get 10% off due to military discount. Do I think the price is still high? Sort of. Fluorescents use to cost more too. You also have to consider that a ~1000lm LED flashlight will cost just as much on the low end. I'm curious what they're using inside. It doesn't look like it will be easy to dismantle without breaking it. Maybe some of us can donate money to another member to do a full blown review.

Hi Dr. Evil, could you elaborate on the military discount? Does it apply to all LED lamps and which states?

You guys should also check out this PAR38:

http://www.homedepot.com/Electrical...splay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053

I purchased one a few weeks ago. 1300 lumens for $40 is not a bad deal. So far I'm pretty impressed with it.

jd_oc said:

You guys should also check out this PAR38:

http://www.homedepot.com/Electrical...splay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053

I purchased one a few weeks ago. 1300 lumens for $40 is not a bad deal. So far I'm pretty impressed with it.

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I second this recommendation. I put two of these in an outdoor fixture up quite high and they really light up the night. Color is neutral towards warm. My only caution is that they are heavy buggers. My fixture is quite heavy duty so it isn't a problem but a cheap fixture my have problems holding these up.

Tom

Those bulbs from HD look like they might be a better deal. Does the color seem to be close to what the box says? I bought a LED bulb that has a very noticable red tint. It is supposed to be around 3000k if I remember right.

BM_lol said:

Hi Dr. Evil, could you elaborate on the military discount? Does it apply to all LED lamps and which states?

Click to expand...

It is on everything as far as I know. They haven't told me no on any of the itmes I purchased yet. I know Advance Auto Parts and places like that won't give discounts on oil and some other items. I guess they don't make much, if anything, off of oil. I know thay give discouns in SC and AL for sure. I think they might in MS also. It might also depend on if you're near a military installation.

jd_oc said:

You guys should also check out this PAR38:

http://www.homedepot.com/Electrical...splay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053

I purchased one a few weeks ago. 1300 lumens for $40 is not a bad deal. So far I'm pretty impressed with it.

Click to expand...

Dragging up old thread. Anyone with personal experience with this bulb replacement, what would you estimate is the approximate and of the optic? By nature of the name "flood light" I would hope it is very wide, but I have a feeling it's bound to be much narrower than a standard halogen lamp with the reflective surface. For my application I want to light up a wide area, about 0-14 feet away from the lamp in distance, but it's about 50 feet wide. I don't expect the lamp will be able to light up the entire area, but I would hope as much of it as possible.

There are 120 degree PAR38 leds on the market.

So I just went and bought the 24 watt ecosmart. 3000K 1300 lumens. It's bright no doubt, and the color looks very nice, though I haven't actually tried to look at colors under it. But it does seem a tad narrower than what I wanted. I will play around with it some more and see if it's a keeper. Using it indoors right now so tonight will be the real test.
Funny though, it seemed as though it had to warm up and got brighter after a few seconds. That doesn't make any sense though so perhaps I was just having another black out.

Well, it's pretty darn impressive at night and outside. It is a tiny bit more directional than I had hoped, though less so than most any flashlight I own. It really is almost TOO bright. Would love to trade brightness for cost and get a few more of these, but the lower wattage versions are very nearly the same price.

1300lm could be too bright for me as well. I couldn't justify myself to buying the 24W lamp when Philips and Sylvania offer something of the same light output using less power.

They do? Which models would those be? At the top of this thread is the Sylvania offering that started this. AFAIK the only Philips model is the EnduraLED which is nowhere near as bright and is indoor only.

I am considering the Ecosmart 15 watt model, it claims 1100 lumens output. 73 lumens per watt vs 54 lumens per watt with the 24 watt model. But I see it's color temperature is listed at 4900K. I wouldn't much care about that for outside, but indoors I might.

Yeah I was referring to the Sylvania 21W 1100lm PAR38 at the top of page with CRI 95. Philips offers a 900lm PAR38 but price point of view is competitive against Ecosmart, and Sylvania being the most expensive one.

One thing that differs through the 3 of them is the beam spread: Sylvania @ 30D, Ecosmart @ 40D, and Philips @ 25D.
I tried all 3 and prefer the Philips one for its beam spread of using it just outside my roof. CRI doesn't make a huge difference, but the beam angle tweak seems to match the 'brightness' level that i want despite being 900lm compared to the 1100lm and 1300lm.