Philips decoled 3 watt dimmable chandelier bulb

[slebans]

I have been waiting for months for the newest Philips DecoLED 3 watt dimmable chandelier bulb to show up in North America.

SPECS:

$15.99 CANADIAN

3 watts

136 Lumens

Color Temp only specified as Soft White

20,000 hours

15 year manufacturer's direct warranty only



There is a similiar looking Philips bulb currently available in North America but it is not dimmable and the output is less than 15 lumens per watt!



Amazingly, today my Home Depot in Canada had 18 of these new units in stock. I bought all of them and replaced my existing 18 - 25 watt Halogen bulbs in 9 wall sconces.



Since each wall sconce takes 2 bulbs I was able to test them side by side. The Philips bulbs certainly appeared a bit dimmer but I think a lot of it has to do with the distribution of light as the LED bulbs send a larger proportion upwards versus the Halogen bulbs.



Dimming worked perfectly with my Lutron dimmers. The only issue is that around 50% there is a very slight ringing(I'm sensitive to this noise while my wife could not even detect it). Also a slight flickering at this level but it's not constant and seems to go away after a few seconds. I plan on replacing all of my dimmers with the new Lutron LED/CFL dimmers anyway so we'll see if the same issue arises upon replacement.



Other than the issues at 50% dimming the bulbs look and work flawlessly(so far).

18 bulbs x 25 watts x 6 hours per day x 365 days x $.10/kwh= $98.55/year

18 bulbs x 3 watts x 6 hours per day x 365 days x $.10/kwh= $11.82/year

Annual Savings: $98.55 - $11.82 = $86.73



LED Bulb Cost: 18 bulbs x $16 = $288

Payback: $288/$86.73 = 3.32 years



I really like the idea of only using 12% of the energy consumed by the original 25 watt Halogen bulbs!



Stephen Lebans

 

[LEDninja]

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01-07-2011 10:30 PM #2 slebans

I was able to isolate the "ringing/buzzing" noise tonight. I'm not sure of the correct terminology but the circuit for the two runs of wall sconces has a dimmer switch on one end and a standard non dimming On/Off switch on the other end. The noise is emanating from the On/Off switch and not the dimmer switch itself. The noise level is low but proportional to the amount of dimming selected. The bulb packaging does state that one of the benefits of the bulb is a "Quiet(no-hum) operation". I guess technically - this is correct- as the switch itself is producing the noise and not the bulb.

Stephen Lebans

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01-08-2011 04:49 AM #3 LEDninja

Did you notice any other LED bulbs?
Especially the 12W (60W equivalent) one.
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/...d.php?t=303840
I got the A-19 style (non dimmable) last year.

Are the bulbs you got E12 or E26 base?

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01-08-2011 06:24 AM #4 slebans

Did you notice any other LED bulbs?
Especially the 12W (60W equivalent) one.
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/...d.php?t=303840
I got the A-19 style (non dimmable) last year.

Two other SKU's were on display. A PAR38 and I think a MR series but I did not look too close. The salesperson told me they had cleared out all exisiting bulbs and that these 3 new SKUs had arrived last week. I did ask him about the Ecosmart 40 and 60 watt, and the Philips 60 watt bulbs but he had no idea regarding availability in Canada other than "sometime in the next few months".

I have tried everything to purchase the newest Philips 60 watt bulbs Online but Home Depot US makes it impossible. I was really excited last week when Home Depot introduced support for PAYPAL but once again - the transaction fails because my PAYPAL account is linked to a Canadian address.

Are the bulbs you got E12 or E26 base?

They are E12(B10) but the package includes an E26 adapter.


Stephen Lebans

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01-09-2011 01:49 AM #5 LEDninja

Thanks for the info. Home Depot does not have a store in Hamilton proper and it is a pain to go to one in the outlying townships. I'll probably wait a month or 2 before heading out.

Be careful when ordering from across the border. As I don't think the Ecosmart will come to Canada soon I ordered some Zetalux 2 from Earthled. The website only indicated USPS but they shipped Fedex Ground. I do not look forward to the Fedex customs brokerage bill.

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01-09-2011 02:04 PM #6 slebans

...Be careful when ordering from across the border. As I don't think the Ecosmart will come to Canada soon I ordered some Zetalux 2 from Earthled. The website only indicated USPS but they shipped Fedex Ground. I do not look forward to the Fedex customs brokerage bill.

My daughter ordered a $300 purse from an Ontario bricks and mortar Retailer for this past Christmas. They ran out of stock and had it shipped directly from their parent US distribution warehouse. The customs and duty bill was over $200!

Stephen Lebans

 

[teksavvy]

I bought five LED non-dimmable Philips 2.5W and seven LED dimmable Philips 3W chandeliers bulbs from Home Depot month ago at $15.98 each, but today I found Costco is selling 3 pack of 3W LED chandeliers at only $17.99 with 145 lumens/3k color temperature, 80 CRI(color redering index), 20k hours life(brand is LightsOfAmerica, assembled in USA), I just bought two packs for six bulbs at only $36 to replace some of Philips LED bulbs which I found a tint of red. The actual color temperature of this new LED bulb is a bit more neutral than Philips and the costs is only about one third. If you don't need dimmable LED bulb, this one is far more favourite than Philips one.