GE 13 watt LED

[jhellwig]

I have noticed that my electrical supply place had flyers for these bulb out every time I had been in there this last week so I thought I would get one to try it out. It cost me 16.57 with the instant rebate from the power companies. At that price I had to try it out.

It is rated 800 lumens, 13 watt, 25000 hour life, 3000k, dimmable. It is guaranteed to last 3 years at 8 hours a day at 120v. The fins are metal and the globe is plastic. It looks like a well built bulb. There was no noticeable delay when turning it on.

At first when I turned it on I would have thought it was more in the 3500k range. When I looked at it a few hours later it looked like 4100k. A little later and I would have said between 3500 and 4100. To just turn it on andn stand under it I would call it 3000k. Granted I am used to 2700k cfls and 3500k-4100k linear florescent. I am fond of 3500k fluorescent so my opinion of led light might be off. I suppose I could get used to it but right now I still think that a 3500k 4ft t8 is yellower than it. You can definitely tell the difference between it and the ceiling fan in the same room as it that has frosted incans in it. If I had a room that was lit with only these bulbs I might have a different opinion of the light. There is a definite difference between this bulb and my incans and cfls.

Allthough I have only see phillips allien heads on the internet and never actually seen sylvanias in fixtures, I think the look of this bulb is more pleasing. I have also seen and 40 watt equivalent version at wallmart.

If the luck I have had with ge cfls is any indication of what this will be like this bulb will last a long time.


Sorry for the bad cell phone pic. I will get better ones when I figure out how to make my dslr take pics to compare the color.

 

[Qship1996]

specs,price,and energy efficiency make it obsolete compared to the newer offerings.

 

[PhotonWrangler]

I wonder if those fins around the bulb are actually functional or just placed there for asthetics. I do like the classic "mazda" shape of the bulb itself. While it might be a little pricier and slightly less efficient than other offerings, it might make up for this in color rendition and/or light distribution. Looking forward to seeing more photos.

 

[Harold_B]

I haven't grabbed one of these as yet but if they are the same as the 40W equivalent bulb then the metal fins are an important part of the heat sink. The lower output bulb has a glass globe so it would surprise me if this one was plastic. If by not competetive you are referring to the Cree then it will depend on how they are used. I still haven't heard much about how the Cree design is addressing the heat/globe coming loose issue whereas to get the globe off the GE we had to cut it. I really need to get my hands on the new Cree and this one and get them in the lab so that I can make comments based on current data.

 

[thinker]

FYI, Home Depot is currently selling CREE brand 60 W-equivalent bulbs for $12.97 through May 15th. They come in two versions - 9.5 W warm white and 9 W daylight. They look much more like a regular incandescent bulb; they don't have the fins. They are rated for 25,000 hours. And I think I could make out on the package (the print was very small in the picture) that they are also dimmable.

Regarding the fins, my guess is if they are metal, then they are heat sinks; if plastic, then reflectors.

 

[PhotonWrangler]

The fins on the GE bulb are metal? I didn't know that. This would make much more sense.

I stopped by my local Depot today and they were sold out of the Cree 60w versions. Looks like this might be catching on.

 

[jhellwig]

Here are some shots for color temp and brightness comparison.

They were shot with 1/40 sec shutter, f5.6, iso 100, manual focus, and the white balance is set at incan 3200k.

GE 13 watt led

ge 60 watt incan

ge 15 watt glass a19 cfl (I have no idea why this one looks so white. I doesn't look that way in person.)

ge 13 watt cfl

The fins are metal. It is all metal down to the ring just above the screw shell with the info on it. It looks like a very well built bulb.

It might be not as efficient or as cheep but it is one of my few options. I don't live near a home depot. I can buy sylvania leds at menards. The electrical supply house in town that carries phillips lighting products had the 12 watt led on the counter as a demo. I didn't see the price but they had some blurb about the rebate on it.

I like ge flourescent products. I have had good luck with their cfls and very good luck with their linear florescents (in an industrial setting even). I would hope that this quality will go through to their led lines.

I am surprised that there is hardly any mention of ge led products on this forum.



Now that I look on the internet some more and see that this bulb came out in 2011 so it is old news. That would also explain why the specs are bad and everyone here finds it uninteresting. I will go sit in the corner now and think about what I did.:sssh:

Your images are oversize, when you post an image please remember Rule #3

Rule #3 If you post an image in your post, please downsize the image to no larger than 800 x 800 pixels.

Please resize and repost. - Thanks Norm

done

 

[crazyk4952]

FYI, Home Depot is currently selling CREE brand 60 W-equivalent bulbs for $12.97 through May 15th.

This is just a promotional price!? What will the price be after 5/15?

 

[PhotonWrangler]

This is just a promotional price!? What will the price be after 5/15?

Their regular price is $13.97.

 

[crazyk4952]

Their regular price is $13.97.

Thanks. Not much of a promotion, is it?

 

[PhotonWrangler]

Thanks. Not much of a promotion, is it?

Apparently enough to clear out the stock in the store nearest to me. I saw maybe 10-12 of them last Saturday. Today they were gone.

 

[Anders Hoveland]

I am fond of 3500k fluorescent so my opinion of led light might be off.

3500k LED light is not the same as 3500k fluorescent light. There are fundamental differences in the spectrum, and a change of CCT in LEDs is associated with different spectrum differences than a similar change in CCT would be with fluorescent tubes.

For example, I happen to like* the quality of light from 4100K cool white fluorescent tubes, but find the light from lower CCT fluorescent tubes just hideous. The reverse is true with LEDs. I find the light from 3000K LED lamps to be fairly decent (not quite as nice as incandescent or halogen, but still much better than fluorescent). But the light from 5000K LED lamps is just an unnatural blue, greyish, and a little harsh. It is NOT the color temperature, it has to do with the spectrum. I personally would look for a different correlated color temperature depending on what the light source is.

I am just saying this because you cannot really compare fluorescent and LED light. Correlated color temperature and CRI are just generalized indicators, and certainly do not tell us everything about the quality of light. (It is possible for two light sources to be the same "color temperature" and have the same CRI, and still look completely different)

A typical fluorescent tube has more broader bandwith frequency coverage in the blue region of the spectrum, whereas a typical LED has its broader frequency coverage around the orange-yellow (it has to do with the different phosphors). So naturally we would expect a lower CCT LED light to have a more complete spectrum, whereas with fluorescent tubes the opposite would be the case.

* (I have some UV sensitivity so I still do not like cool white fluorescent tubes, even though I may find the quality of the light okay)