Cree has a new light bulb available now, the 4flow technology

http://www.creebulb.com/products/standard-type-a/the-new-60-watt-replacement-soft-white-led-bulb

Looks like they are utilizing a filament design with these. Cant wait to see more specs on it

Looks nice! Am I missing something other than aesthetics though? Specs look similar to the old style.

BTW I noticed they changed the packaging for the old style. No longer a "booklet"; just a single card with plastic and slightly new graphics. Still $10/ea in my area.

815 lumens / 11 watts = 74 lumens / watt

This doesn't seem like it is "on top" of the best efficiency. :-(

I will be interested in reading the reviews, and hearing about the failure rates, and how the reliability compares to previous
generations...

Oh I see. A little more output, but shorter warranty. $3 cheaper. Not a big deal for me.

And consumers are funny wanting something that looks exactly like an incandescent bulb. Where does anyone use exposed bulbs where aesthetics matter? A19s always seem to be under a shade, behind a diffuser, inside an outdoor lamp at least partially hidden by glass, etc. In a basic exposed, ceramic garage or basement bulb fixture, the old bulbs seem close enough so I don't get the need.

i think the look and feel of this is very similar to a standard bulb. They are very lightweight and look almost identical. With local energy rebates they are looking to sell these for about $5 each too, which is a very each change for a lot of people

I'd get some if they're $5. If they end up being $7 as my research indicates, I'd rather just pay the extra $2 for better performance and longer warranty.

If Im reading the specs right, the lumens per watt is worse than the old cree bulbs. Combine that with a smaller heatsink, and it seems like a worse bulb. I cant imagine cree keeping both bulbs in production, so I might pick up some of the old cree bulbs if Home Depot clearances them out.

That said, I think these will sell well with consumers if the price is right. Most of my LED bulbs are phillips just because they were 5.00 subsidized. These bulbs might be 2-3 dollars subsidized, and if so they will sell like hotcakes.

I only have about 6 incan lights left in my house, so there isnt much left for me to replace.

The CNet review states the bulb can be used within an enclosed fixture with the standard caveat that high temperatures may shorten the life of the bulb.

http://www.cnet.com/products/cree-11w-led-with-4flow-filament-design-soft-white/

Yeah, I gotta say, I'm not terribly impressed. Shorter warranty, same efficiency, and same color temperatures (Will someone make a 4000k bulb already?!).

I guess no LEDs for me anytime soon.

CoveAxe said:

Yeah, I gotta say, I'm not terribly impressed. Shorter warranty, same efficiency, and same color temperatures (Will someone make a 4000k bulb already?!).

I guess no LEDs for me anytime soon.

Click to expand...

Yeah, it's better to wait a bit instead of replacing your whole house at this time. Just my opinion and decision as of now.

Looks like the "race to the bottom" price-wise has resulted in a bulb that maybe has gone backwards in quality and therefor a much shorter warranty? 3 years vs the old 10 year warranty? If so,what a shame for such a respected brand.

And if you mount it horizontally? You aren't going to get any air'flow', and where is the 4000K at?

I don't get their strategy. Poor people will buy what ever is the cheapest CFL they can find. So it is the prosumer that is picking up LEDs, and they want quality, not the cheapest price. They are in it for the decade/decade+/last bulb they will ever purchase long haul.
Let disposable LED bulbs come out in the year 2020.

Note the new 60w equivalent is now 11w, thats an increase from the original 9.5w model. A step backwards in technology!

But but but at least the glass won't fall off with the new ones ... I mean, hopefully!

Following Philips' lead on cost-cutting?

I see they're also sticking to the usual extremes of too-yellow and too-blue. But I guess those sell. What I would give for tune-able white bulb that's not a smartphone accessory and priced to match.

markr6 said:

Looks nice! Am I missing something other than aesthetics though? Specs look similar to the old style.

Click to expand...

^I think this post wraps it up.

Guys - Cree does not design lamps for the light-bulb elite, such as ourselves. Calling it a race to the bottom is trite nonsense. They aim straight to the middle of the Joe Average consumer market.

This new lamp will hit that mark.

(Yes - Like all of you, I had wished for better CRI, efficacy, and more color temp choices. But I'm not surprised to see more of what Cree did very well with their first volley - a lamp that looks and lights like an incandescent.)

idleprocess said:

...What I would give for tune-able white bulb that's not a smartphone accessory and priced to match.

Click to expand...

I give up - what would you give? Really - say 800 lumens, tunable 2000K - 6000K, decent efficacy, how much?

If there is interest I am sure we could get a couple thousand UL listed 4000k high CRI bulbs .
. but what will you pay for them?

brickbat said:

I give up - what would you give? Really - say 800 lumens, tunable 2000K - 6000K, decent efficacy, how much?

Click to expand...

$30 a unit for something 60W incan equivalent, a bit less for 40W. If it uses a proprietary gateway, said device needs to be cheap (appreciably less than the bulb cost) and use ethernet rather than wifi (guess what's within easy reach of my home router? an electrical outlet). Needs decent (>80) CRI. I don't care about being able to belt out 16M colors - just a nice white spectrum. Also needs to be reasonably close to A19 mechanical envelope, be able to withstand semi-enclosed fixtures, and have a reasonably omnidirectional radiation pattern.

But much like my dislike for 2700K, I suspect I don't represent enough of a market to produce such a device.

I found a review with a picture of the bulb sort of disassembled here: http://www.geek.com/news/crees-next-generation-led-bulb-drops-the-glass-and-the-price-1607981/

Essentially it's just the Philips paddle except in two interlocking pieces instead of one.

Some thoughts:
-Maybe I'll be proven wrong, but I think this is about as cheap as a bulb can be manufactured. There's only about 7-8 parts here.
-I would expect that Cree is making a killing on these. This can't be more than $3 to produce. The margin on the older bulbs was much less.
-Now that the bulb is the same shape as an A19 and doesn't have a heatsink, it's unlikely Cree will have new designs that differ too much.
-This could be good later on, in that now the only thing Cree can do now to improve the design is to change the LEDs and electronics. Future revisions will have to focus on this because they simply can't cut costs anywhere else and they will have to focus on features when the other companies catch up on cost.
-The LEDs on are an essentially flat, blank PCB. Anyone handy with a soldering iron should be able to easily replace these with LEDs that have the efficiency/CCT/CRI of their choice.
-It's not clear right to me whether the old 40/60W bulbs will still be sold, but the old filament tower isn't going away just yet. This new design just isn't scalable to handle the heat of higher power.