New Insignia 60 and 45 watt equivalent bubls with Cree inside

[bose301s]

http://www.cree.com/news-and-events/cree-news/press-releases/2012/november/best-buy-bulb

November 2, 2012
Best Buy Debuts Exclusive Insignia LED Light Bulb With Improved Features for Easier Adoption of LED Lighting
New Bulb Designed to Offer More than 20 Years of Energy Cost Savings; Provides Instant, More-Uniform Light in a More-Natural Color
DURHAM, NC -- Best Buy Co., Inc. (NYSE: BBY), the industry leader in consumer electronics, today announced a new LED light bulb. Powered by Cree, Inc. (Nasdaq: CREE) LEDs, the new bulb is designed with improved features to make adoption of LED lighting easier for consumers. The Insignia LED bulb, available exclusively at Best Buy, was developed in partnership with local Twin Cities inventor Dave Carroll and offers distinct advantages over existing LED bulbs on the market today.

http://www.insigniaproducts.com/products/home-office/NS-LED60F.html


We had one in our staff meeting today, it seems pretty nice and a good price. I am cinsidering buying a couple tomorrow and taking one apart to see what makes it tick.


Please do not quote the article in full to save falling foul of copyright, the first paragraph is fine, the reader can follow your link if they wish. - Norm

 

[AnAppleSnail]

Dang. First time in years Best Buy had something I wanted to buy at a good price. Let us know how they are - it's a long haul to the nearest BB for me.

 

[DaMeatMan]

Good to see more choices out there. Philips however offers a more efficient 60 watt equivalent at only 10.5 watts and is similarly priced.

I may buy one of those insignia bulbs, however I have a feeling that the heatsink design will introduce shadows that you will not find in these Phillips bulbs. I have replaced every bulb in my condo with the 40 and 60 watt equivalent Philips led bulbs. For the most part I am using the 40 watt equivalents that are only drawing 7.5 watts. Colour temp is gorgeous and very similar to a high end incandescent, and much nicer then any cfl I have ever owned!

http://m.homedepot.com/p/Philips-10...ight-White-3000K-Light-Bulb-420240/203248902/

http://m.homedepot.com/p/Philips-Vi...ht-White-3000K-Light-Bulb-E-420232/203248901/

 

[IMSabbel]

23 years at 3 hours a day.... for some reason, I think that the drivers of those bulbs will fail LONG before the LEDs themself will.

We might really want to look into a separation of CC driver from the LED itself, just like there is the ballast / tube separation for fluerescent tubes...

 

[RoGuE_StreaK]

Are there any bayonet bulbs available in the US, or are they all Edison? These could be interesting if I could find somewhere that shipped, and had bayonet. I think I've only got one fitting in the whole house that uses Edison.

 

[Lynx_Arc]

23 years at 3 hours a day.... for some reason, I think that the drivers of those bulbs will fail LONG before the LEDs themself will.

We might really want to look into a separation of CC driver from the LED itself, just like there is the ballast / tube separation for fluerescent tubes...

That is about 7 years at 8 hours a day perhaps... it won't compete well with CFLs that can last around the same length running the same hours/day costing less and nearly as efficient.

 

[slebans]

That is about 7 years at 8 hours a day perhaps... it won't compete well with CFLs that can last around the same length running the same hours/day costing less and nearly as efficient.

The stated lifetime spec for this LED bulb is 25,000 hours(I'll guess they are applying for Energy Star certification). The standard CFL lifetime spec is 10,000 hours.

But I would point out that this LED bulb is not directly competing against the standard CFL 60 watt equivalent bulb. It is competing against a dimmable CFL bulb with lower efficacy and a lifetime spec of 8,000 hours with a cost between $8 - $10.

I still agree with you that CFL is a better value for the customer - as long as they customer does not need:
1) Dimming capability
2) Base up orientation
3) Efficient cold weather operation
4) Long life due to maintenance considerations
5) Instant full brightness

 

[IMSabbel]

That is about 7 years at 8 hours a day perhaps... it won't compete well with CFLs that can last around the same length running the same hours/day costing less and nearly as efficient.

My point was actually only that at this lifetimes, I would consider the driver circuit the archilles heel, espeically with the elevated temperatures these bulbs operate on.

 

[Lynx_Arc]

My point was actually only that at this lifetimes, I would consider the driver circuit the archilles heel, espeically with the elevated temperatures these bulbs operate on.

And the problem with warranties is too many of them require you to return to the manufacturer which usually does not pay for shipping and even then they may just mail you another one that self destructs similarly in the future. Insignia is a low to mid level manufacturer IMO they sell the cheaper or cheapest electronic stuff typically found at Walmart so chances are their bulbs are similarly made.

 

[bose301s]

These are the XT-E's not the XB-Ds. XT-Es are bigger, better efficiency (and more expensive). At only 61 lm/W, they're using the high efficiency XT-E's and throwing away the efficiency, which for the XT-E is about 100 lm/W.

There is a horrible buzzing from the driver on any of the bulbs I have. Put on a dimmer circuit it gets worse, so I'm trying to use one in my living room lamp where we have the TV so I can drown out the buzz. I expect the driver to fail within a year as this thing gets hot! I agree that the Philips bulbs are much better for anyone looking for quality.

Hmm, the package looked smaller to me than the XP-Gs so I thought it was XB-D, but I definitely could be mistaken. They did complete the Cree TEMPO testing which is pretty rigorous so I have some confidence in them, but they definitely aren't the highest quality, definitely built to a price point first and quality second.

 

[VegasF6]

Bought one of these today (the 13 watt version) and have been testing it in an open fixture, base up. There is no humming what so ever from mine, even if I put my ear right next to it. But it runs REALLY hot. Like can't hold your finger on it hot. Bright as all get out.

 

[idleprocess]

Insignia is a low to mid level manufacturer IMO they sell the cheaper or cheapest electronic stuff typically found at Walmart so chances are their bulbs are similarly made.

Eh, I'd be amazed if Insignia was anything more than a purchasing, marketing, and distribution operation run out of a secondary Best Buy office.

A few predictions:

• These bulbs will not live on Best Buy store shelves long past Christmas
• Some white-label contract manufacturer designed these on spec
• The design exploits some minor manufacturing innovation that makes them marginally cheaper to produce than comparable designs a fractional generation before, making them more profitable for the distribution chain for 60-90 days
• Best Buy is selling them as a novelty item, and is making more margin than the likes of Home Depot on something (functionally) comparable
• Woot.com (or some other deep discounter) will pick them up in early 2013 and sell them in 2-packs at 50-75% of today's retail for a single bulb

 

[Lynx_Arc]

Eh, I'd be amazed if Insignia was anything more than a purchasing, marketing, and distribution operation run out of a secondary Best Buy office.

A few predictions:

• These bulbs will not live on Best Buy store shelves long past Christmas
• Some white-label contract manufacturer designed these on spec
• The design exploits some minor manufacturing innovation that makes them marginally cheaper to produce than comparable designs a fractional generation before, making them more profitable for the distribution chain for 60-90 days
• Best Buy is selling them as a novelty item, and is making more margin than the likes of Home Depot on something (functionally) comparable
• Woot.com (or some other deep discounter) will pick them up in early 2013 and sell them in 2-packs at 50-75% of today's retail for a single bulb

Yeah you are probably right since I have a DTV box made by LG for Zenith that they also make a model (same guts) for Insignia. If they do finally make their own stuff it would be because they bought someone that already makes it for them. I typically don't like buying some stuff by companies like that unless I know who actually makes it in the first place because as some have seen here those branding flashlights have switched manufacturers when product demand increases or something and quality can fall off a cliff requiring another switch and perhaps even another. In other words if they make 1 million of the bulbs the first batch of 100,000 could come from 1 place and 600,000 from another and 200,000 from a third place and quality of component sourcing and assembly could vary enough to make one batch work perfection 99.9% of the time and another batch work right 70% of the time while saving 10% more for them to pocket.

 

[monkeyboy]

Good to see more choices out there. Philips however offers a more efficient 60 watt equivalent at only 10.5 watts and is similarly priced.

Don't trust advertised specs, even from a big company like philips. Usually just a bunch of figures dreamed up by marketing. e.g. "60w equivalent" is a very vague figure and power ratings are never accurate.
I remember seeing tests of 1st generation fluorescent bulbs and the advertised specs were complete BS. (Of course things have improved a lot since then)

 

[foxtrot824]

I'll post more regarding it's luminous output later but quick numbers show only about 61 lumens per watt when hot (about 80c at the ribs). The emitters are Ctee XT-Es. The CCT was 3000K right on the line with a CRI of about 80.

 

[AnAppleSnail]

61 lumens per watt when hot (about 80c at the ribs).

Yeouch! Water at 80C (175F) burns skin in about half a second. I wouldn't consider that safe in a working environment.

 

[VegasF6]

Yeouch! Water at 80C (175F) burns skin in about half a second. I wouldn't consider that safe in a working environment.

Since when is it ok to touch a light bulb?

 

[AnAppleSnail]

Since when is it ok to touch a light bulb?

General product design forbids surfaces that are unsafe (potentially injurious) without warning. Assuming common sense (Light bulbs are hot) is risky in that business.

 

[VegasF6]

Well of course it needs a big fat warning label. And perhaps another label to warn the first label could cause a paper cut 🙂
Seriously though, as I said this lamp gets very hot. Like I could touch it for a full second or so before I let go. But it didn't raise blisters and wasn't anywhere near as hot as an incandescent globe b

 

[bose301s]

Eh, I'd be amazed if Insignia was anything more than a purchasing, marketing, and distribution operation run out of a secondary Best Buy office.

A few predictions:

• These bulbs will not live on Best Buy store shelves long past Christmas
• Some white-label contract manufacturer designed these on spec
• The design exploits some minor manufacturing innovation that makes them marginally cheaper to produce than comparable designs a fractional generation before, making them more profitable for the distribution chain for 60-90 days
• Best Buy is selling them as a novelty item, and is making more margin than the likes of Home Depot on something (functionally) comparable
• Woot.com (or some other deep discounter) will pick them up in early 2013 and sell them in 2-packs at 50-75% of today's retail for a single bulb

Did you even read the press release :shakehead