Philips Award Winning LED Bulb Review

[EngrPaul]

It's a walk-in closet used by the family, and utilizes three bulbs in the single fixture.

I haven't calculated the payback going from 120W to 20W. Sometimes the payback is more than direct reduction in energy consumption.

BOT...

Why would you be using LED in your closet?? It will take a long long time for that LED bulb to pay for itself, especially since you already have it on a motion activated switch! I am guessing it probably gets used less than 10 minutes each day. Just use a standard halogen replacement bulb.

[Anders Hoveland]

But be careful about the electrical code requirements on luminaries installed in clothes closets. Particularly given the high temperature of a halogen bulb.

Common halogen replacement bulb (double enveloped) can be used like any other incandescent bulb. The hot inner halogen capsule is inside a protective outer glass bulb. These have become very common now. Perhaps you have not noticed?
http://www.connox.com/m/100030/15002...-E27-frei2.jpg (230v)
http://image.lampsplus.com/is/image/...i=460&fmt=jpeg (USA)

Sometimes the payback is more than direct reduction in energy consumption.

If you are referring to lifespan, I can not remember the last time I have had to change the bulbs in any place in the house where it does not get left on for long. If the light is on less than 20 minutes per day, I doubt you will have to worry about it.

I have some 2000 and 2250 hour medium base halogen bulbs, both in regular (A19) bulb form and pear shaped (BT15). These longer life halogens may be difficult to find, depending on your region, but they cost less than third of the cheapest LED bulb. http://www.elightbulbs.com/catpics/philips/60054lg.jpg (230v)
http://www.lighting-gallery.net/gall...l_SANY3047.JPG (USA)

It will be a long long time before one of these bulbs burns out if it is just being used in a closet, and will never get left on and forgotten about (because of the motion switch). I doubt you would live to see it. There is a bunch of energy saving hype going around, and not all of it makes economical sense in every situation. But if you just want the latest cool technology, go ahead. You said yourself you wanted good color rendering. Newer is not always better.

In case you have not noticed, I am a bit of a halogen fan. The point of this thread is that, if you were thinking about getting the L-prize just because of the CRI and longer life, a good halogen may make more sense. Especially if you would have to resort to a Y adapter otherwise.

[EngrPaul]

I thought halogen bulbs need to be run for a while so they perform their self-cleaning function? Isn't constant on/off cycling hard on the filament life? I have a few unused 60W halogen bulbs I might just try for CRI comparison sake.

There is payback in electrical savings, reduced A/C usage, and less usage of resources. LED's are safer to people, especially kids: You won't get burned on them, won't have one explode/implode on you, won't have skin or eye problems from UV radiation, nor mercury or other chemical poisoning.

Just got a couple more of these L-Prize bulbs for under $24 each shipped... if the halogen thing doesn't work out, I might upgrade my motion sensor.

[PhotonWrangler]

Where did you find it for $24?

[EngrPaul]

The last two I got from LightingSupply.com with a free shipping coupon code. I ordered 3 but they only had 2 left.

I found them there by searching the description and the word "closeout," then sorting by most recent date.

The previous sub-$24 I bought on ebay.

I like to buy the 423244 code number because you get a sealed clamshell package.

[frank70]

For anyone in NJ:

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Philips-1...0#.UagJc9iHMVQ

Go to top left and change "Your Store" to the one in zip code 08201, then go back and re-load the page.

1 bulb left in Absecon, NJ (08201)
1 bulb left in Newark, NJ (07103)

Otherwise, NJ is pretty much cleaned out of these. At this price, is it any wonder?

[EngrPaul]

I found another place with closeout pricing.

Pegasus Lighting currently has them for $27.90 - before coupon code, and it's a reasonable thre$hold to qualify to free shipping.

http://www.pegasuslighting.com/phili...-dimmable.html

The coupons are listed on their site:

http://www.pegasuslighting.com/coupons-discounts.html

They ship quickly and give great notices about the order progress.

The item they shipped me is the sealed "card" style SKU 423244

[PhotonWrangler]

Snagged one from Pegasus. Thanks EngrPaul!

[frank70]

Home Depot just raised the price of literally the last 2 bulbs in New Jersey from $14.98 to $29.98. That makes a lot of sense after they've sold hundreds, perhaps thousands there at the lower price over the past few months.

[N8N]

Was in HD this morning and saw that they are now starting to phase out all but the "100W" Alien Heads as well in favor of the newer all white Philips dimmable bulbs.

Oddly, I was there for something else but having taken an interest in lighting since it seems that interesting progress is being made in LED retrofits, pot lights, etc. I stopped by the lighting display and the associate that was stocking the shelves seemed reasonably knowledgeable about the products I was admiring. I wanted to start busting him on CRI and ask about the "Cree flicker" (I couldn't see it in their display, as it was a table lamp with a cloth shade, and they didn't have a dimmer on it either so I couldn't check smooth dimming) but I didn't feel like being a jerk (or maybe he would have actually understood, who knows?)

[PhotonWrangler]

Jut got my L-Prize bulb today. The first thing I did was pry up the lenses and look at the LEDs while they're operating (oww, my eyes!) to make sure all of them were working. I'm happy to report that all three red and blue LEDs in each of the three sectors were working fine.

Next I placed it next to an existing Philips 'alien head' bulb with a similar reflector and I compared color rendering. The L-Prize bulb was somewhat richer in the red-orange area, producing a slightly more pleasing (and brighter) response on my hand as well as some printed graphics that had a lot of red-orange content in it.

The bottom line so far is that I like this bulb.