Cree vs Philips 3-way LED bulb

wws944

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I just bought one of the new Philips LED 3-ways at HD. Both are rated at 2700K color temp and 80 CRI. The Philips is one of their "white alien head" designs, so the heat sinking is no where near as intrusive as the Cree version. Philips is a couple dollars less than the Cree 3-way.

The Cree is rated to draw 3/8/18 watts for 320/820/1620 lumens respectively. The Philips is rated to draw 4/9/20 watts for 470/840/1620 lumens. So the Philips is a little brighter on the low setting, but about the same on medium and high settings. Both have efficacies of over 100 lumens per watt in the low position! Philips drops into the 90s in the medium postion, whereas the Cree stays at over 100. On the high position, the Philips drops to ("only") 81 whereas the Cree is at 90.

Using a Kill-A-Watt meter, I had previously measured actual power draw of the Cree at 2.8/7.2/17.2 watts respectively - slightly better than they claimed. The Philips measures out at 4.9/9.1/21.0 respectively - slightly worse than they claimed. Measured power factor - Cree: 0.81/0.96/0.94, Philips: 0.70/0.79/0.96. Measured VA - Cree: 3.5/7.5/18.8, Philips: 7.0/11.2/21.8. The Kill-A-Watt meter readings tend to bounce around a bit more with the Cree, whereas the readings are more stable with the Philips.

Subjectively, the low setting is certainly lower with the Cree than with the Philips. The medium and high settings are about the same between the two. However the Philips seems to have a little higher color temp.

My conclusions? The Cree is a bit more efficient in power usage. But everything else, including price, leans towards Philips on this round.

Here is a photo of both - on the low setting:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/wws944/15650446355
 
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markr6

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Thanks! I really wanted to pick up some 3-ways at HD last night. But at $22/ea I couldn't do it. I'll look into the Philips, but I don't remember seeing the 3-way version.
 

wws944

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Did you notice any flicker or buzzing at each power level?

No audible buzzing. I've not tried hooking a photocell up to my 'scope to look for flicker.

The Philips seems clean RFI-wise. I just tried tuning a radio to 540 khz and tested all three settings. No noise (using a Kenwood TH-F6A at about 1 ft) on any of the three settings. The Cree bulb showed a bit of RF noise on low, less noise on medium, and very little on high. Even on low, the noise wasn't bad. By two or three feet it was gone.
 

SemiMan

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Better to do a frequency sweep unless you are looking at where the switching frequency is. One bulb may be low at 540 but high at say 700.

With no triac I would not expect audible noise ...emphasis on expect.
 

wws944

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Better to do a frequency sweep unless you are looking at where the switching frequency is. One bulb may be low at 540 but high at say 700.

Well, one of my favorite radio stations is at 560 khz, so for me it is a valid test. :)

With no triac I would not expect audible noise ...emphasis on expect.

The Cree definitely had some low-level noise where the Philips did not. No triac involved.

I can imagine that almost all 3-way bulbs go into table lamps. And table lamps are often placed on nightstands where there is also a clock radio. So even low levels of RFI would be annoying. (In fact, all three of my 3-way lamps have clock radios living under them.)
 
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Gaffle

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I just bought a Cree 3-way last week. Threw it in my 10+ year old floor lamp. The color temp is spot on, and I have zero noise. Very happy with this bulb, blows away the old incan that resided (and died) in there.
 

jthj

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No audible buzzing. I've not tried hooking a photocell up to my 'scope to look for flicker.

The Philips seems clean RFI-wise. I just tried tuning a radio to 540 khz and tested all three settings. No noise (using a Kenwood TH-F6A at about 1 ft) on any of the three settings. The Cree bulb showed a bit of RF noise on low, less noise on medium, and very little on high. Even on low, the noise wasn't bad. By two or three feet it was gone.

I have purchased some of both. You can notice a very faint buzzing from the Phillips if you put your ear a few inches from the bulb. However at normal distances you would be from the bulb there is no perceivable noise.

Overall I think I like the Phillips a little better although the efficiency of the Cree is very impressive.
 

jthj

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I just had one of the CREE 3 way's quit working. It just failed to turn on and I assume it's something wrong in the power supply. All of the Phillips, which actually get used more, are still going strong.
 

wws944

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I just had one of the CREE 3 way's quit working. It just failed to turn on and I assume it's something wrong in the power supply. All of the Phillips, which actually get used more, are still going strong.

Same thing here. I returned it for full credit and bought a Philips. Saved $2 in the process.
 
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