New Philips clear LED bulb

Just noticed this new Philips bulb on Gizmodo. It includes a lens that mimics the pattern of an incandescent filament. Not sure what I think of this yet. Honestly I prefer frosted bulbs because I don't like the point-source glare of a bare filament, but that's just me.

I got a stockpile of ol edison filament bulbs. Screw power bills, i want my light purdy

Dont get me wrong, i love LEDs but mainly for what they have done to portable lighting systems. Ive tried all kinds of power saving TL and LED bulbs in my home but have yet to find the first one that is going to stay in any lamp for over an hour before it pisses me off to the point where it has to say goodbye.

This pictures make it look very cool white. but I'm sure in person they should be pretty close to an incandescent if that was the entire goal.

Light guides. Why didn't else anyone think of this (other than 3M, whose design seems to be an exercise in complexity for complexity's sake)?

skyled said:

This pictures make it look very cool white. but I'm sure in person they should be pretty close to an incandescent if that was the entire goal.

Click to expand...

I was struck by this as well. Perhaps it's a strange oversight involving a prototype unit with cooler LED's or the white balance on their photo got all wonkey.

PhotonWrangler said:

Just noticed this new Philips bulb on Gizmodo. It includes a lens that mimics the pattern of an incandescent filament. Not sure what I think of this yet. Honestly I prefer frosted bulbs because I don't like the point-source glare of a bare filament, but that's just me.

Click to expand...

I wonder how much this Philips bulb is losing in the optic? Nice look if you like naked bulbs. It might go over well in Europe. I hear some country there did not allow a frost coating on incandescents, due to the energy loss associated with it.
I'd be what they are used to.


Here is one that uses more of the filament look:



Search Google images using "led filament" ...



I'd love to see this one, and test for dimability.

RepProdigious said:

Ive tried all kinds of power saving TL and LED bulbs in my home but have yet to find...
i want my light purdy

Click to expand...

You ain't tried the L-Prize? It bees purdy!

Interesting bulb to replace the clear incandescent types. I'd guess the light pipe is made out of some type of polymer such as PMMA (acrylic). If so, about 8% is lost due to surface reflection and material absorption. Could be more from other factors. If they used a proper optical interface on the LED side and an AR coating on the opposite side where the light escapes, loss could be as low as 2% (give or take).

The bulbs in the previous post would seem to have thermal issues considering current available LED efficacy unless the wattage is low. The first one appears to be a computer rendering.

I made my own clear bulb out of a Cree TW 60 watt from Home Depot. While removing one from its package, I accidentally scratched a chunk off the rubber coating they put on the glass and noticed it was transparent underneath versus frosted as with the regular Cree LED bulbs. Decided to peel the rest off.

BTW Philips is a bit late to this party. Utilitech has been producing several variations on this theme for awhile. I've had one of these bulbs in my hallway for awhile and it looks surprisingly like an incandescent filament when it's lit.

Here in the UK, the manufacture or import of pearl or opal filament lamps is restricted in the interests of energy saving.
Existing stocks may be sold and used without concern, and there are a number of exemptions for special purpose lamps.

Contary to popular belief, this regulation is NOT due to the light loss in the pearly coating, this loss is very small and of little consequence in practice.
The idea was to encourage the use of compact fluorescent lamps, the reasoning being that a coated incandescent could be replaced with a CFL and a similar lighting effect obtained at much lower energy cost.
A CFL would not be a suitable replacement for a clear incandescent lamp in a crystal chandelier, hence the policy of allowing them for now at least, and in the lower wattages.
When the rules were drafted, LED lamps for general lighting were not viable. Now that LED lamps are widely available, including clear ones for sparkling effects, I expect that the present restrictions on pearl lamps will be extended to clear lamps.
I have installed a number of clear LED candle lamps in chandeliers and been very impressed.

I see one of these 4w led filament lamps on fleabay for $10 with free shipping--I just might have to get one.
Just how are they incorporating leds the little yellow pipes? I think it's pretty neat idea, bein's a look alike vintage "Edison carbon filament" is 19 times less efficient than my L-Prize. For those of us that like the vintage retro look, it's nice to see they've ALMOST got an Edison look alike. Perhaps if dimmed this could look almost like the carbon filament lamp.

I think ONE of my neighbors 40 watt carbon filament lamps represent more than ALL of the energy I draw for of my whole house worth of dimmed LED's. His 2 carbon filament lamps over his kitchen island are for looks only, and has many recessed can incandescents to light the rest of the room. I use two 2w led's in the kitchen for the most part, and flick on an overhead fluorescent occasionally when needed.

Cooling might be a problem, but I usually underdrive all my led's anyway. I 90% of the time have my L-Prize's and Cree 60w equiv's running at the 10-20v range off of an autotransformer.

Yes I'm wondering about those yellow sleeves on this lamp also. What's inside of them?

BTW HD and Lowes have replica vintage Edison incandescent bulbs. They look really nice.

those lights with the yellow sleeves (or whatever they are) are rather intriguing. Does anyone have a link for them?

It appears to me that all of the yellow segments (i.e. each yellow piece that we see) could be wired in series. Either that, or they are all wired in parallel. Hard to tell from the photo. I'm voting for "wired in series".

I'm assuming that each of the yellow segments is a small board with a lot of LED dies connected in series, or maybe two strings wired in parallel, but in opposite polarity from each other. Think of it as being like a lot of the LED modules sold by Bridgelux or Cree, but in a very different form factor.

Pretty cool, and would be a lot of fun in the right lamp.

I did a google image search on "LED filament" and came up with a number of sites. Here's one of them.

RepProdigious said:

I got a stockpile of ol edison filament bulbs. Screw power bills, i want my light purdy

Dont get me wrong, i love LEDs but mainly for what they have done to portable lighting systems. Ive tried all kinds of power saving TL and LED bulbs in my home but have yet to find the first one that is going to stay in any lamp for over an hour before it pisses me off to the point where it has to say goodbye.

Click to expand...

Have you tried the CREE TW series? I felt the same way as you until these. CRI 93 @2700K. Very nice light (though I did leave the frosted coating on mine

Ken

Steve K said:

I'm assuming that each of the yellow segments is a small board with a lot of LED dies connected in series, or maybe two strings wired in parallel, but in opposite polarity from each other.

Click to expand...

Yep with 80v as operating voltage, prob in parallel with a dropping resistor? Well, nah, that wouldn't get the 123lum/watt stated below. But I did think also about parallel opposite polarity too. A dropping resister would be SO SIMPLE, but a flicker monster

I guess China's Filabulb holds the patents. http://www.ledfilamentbulb.cn/

This site sells the filaments. Some specs there. 10mA @ 75-85 input voltage with 125 lm/w & 90-95 CRI
http://www.runlite.cn/en/product-detail-145.html. I forget the site now, but someone said it was a cob chip.

Pretty cool! And can be found as cheap as $10 on fleabay w free shipping. Might be knockoff or a licenced mfgr tho.

edit...
these guys have the enclosure down RIGHT!
http://www.volkerhaug.com/shop/lamps/led-lamps/l095-led-filament-edison.html
(but at 5X the cost!)

Someone should let Filabulb know how important the enclosure is in many applications! Perhaps they could supply lamps to directly to the "Edison carbon filament" market directly. They would probably crap their pants if they knew they could get $60 (US equiv) in an Edison looking enclosure.

They are prob a young company that doesn't understand the market. Or they just don't care, and want to push volume.