LED replacements hit stores empty of 100W bulbs
NEW YORK (AP) - Sorry to see 100-watt bulbs disappear from stores because they were energy hogs? You can now get LED bulbs that roughly match the 100-watters for size and brightness, but use far less energy.
Until recently, your only alternative was a compact fluorescent bulb, which has several drawbacks compared with light-emitting diodes. Most people see the light quality as less pleasing, and the bulbs contain a small amount of mercury that's released if the glass breaks. LEDs, by contrast, don't contain any volatile, hazardous substances and are durable. They also last longer.
Osram Sylvania, a division of Germany's Siemens AG, said Monday that it's shipping the first batches of its Ultra LED bulb to some Lowe's stores. The bulb uses 20 watts of electricity and costs $50. It's slightly larger than a regular 100-watt bulb, so it may not fit in all fixtures. Osram claims 25,000 hours of use, or more than 20 times the lifespan of a standard, incandescent bulb.
Competitors aren't far behind. Royal Philips Electronics NV plans to start selling its own, slightly brighter 100-watt-equivalent LED bulb at Home Depot's website starting in a few weeks for about $55. Startup Switch Lighting Bulb Co., with its unusual liquid-filled bulbs, plans to start selling 100-watt equivalents late this year or in January.
The federal government banned the manufacture of regular 100-watt bulbs on Jan. 1 as a consequence of new energy-efficiency standards. Much the way it forces car manufacturers to improve fuel efficiency, the government is forcing the lighting industry to move away from incandescent bulbs because they convert relatively little of the electrical input into light. Most of the energy is dissipated as heat. In the next step, 75-watt bulbs will be banned at the start of next year, and 60-watt and 40-watt bulbs at the start of 2014.
Compact fluorescent bulbs that produce light equivalent to 100-watt bulbs have been available for a few years and cost as little as $4 each.
LEDs are small chips that produce light when current passes through them. In their red and green incarnations, they've been around for decades. Technical breakthroughs in the 90s allowed the manufacture of chips that produce white light.
LED bulbs equivalent to 60-watt bulbs have been available for a few years and now cost around $25 each. The problem with making brighter models is that while LEDs produce less heat than regular bulbs, the heat they do create shortens the lifespan and reduces the efficiency of the chips. Cramming a dozen chips together in a tight bulb-shaped package that fits in today's lamps and sockets makes the heat problem worse, and the brighter the bulb, the more heat is produced. LED bulbs have large, finned metal collars to radiate the heat.
Until recently, your only alternative was a compact fluorescent bulb, which has several drawbacks compared with light-emitting diodes. Most people see the light quality as less pleasing, and the bulbs contain a small amount of mercury that's released if the glass breaks. LEDs, by contrast, don't contain any volatile, hazardous substances and are durable. They also last longer.
Osram Sylvania, a division of Germany's Siemens AG, said Monday that it's shipping the first batches of its Ultra LED bulb to some Lowe's stores. The bulb uses 20 watts of electricity and costs $50. It's slightly larger than a regular 100-watt bulb, so it may not fit in all fixtures. Osram claims 25,000 hours of use, or more than 20 times the lifespan of a standard, incandescent bulb.
Competitors aren't far behind. Royal Philips Electronics NV plans to start selling its own, slightly brighter 100-watt-equivalent LED bulb at Home Depot's website starting in a few weeks for about $55. Startup Switch Lighting Bulb Co., with its unusual liquid-filled bulbs, plans to start selling 100-watt equivalents late this year or in January.
The federal government banned the manufacture of regular 100-watt bulbs on Jan. 1 as a consequence of new energy-efficiency standards. Much the way it forces car manufacturers to improve fuel efficiency, the government is forcing the lighting industry to move away from incandescent bulbs because they convert relatively little of the electrical input into light. Most of the energy is dissipated as heat. In the next step, 75-watt bulbs will be banned at the start of next year, and 60-watt and 40-watt bulbs at the start of 2014.
Compact fluorescent bulbs that produce light equivalent to 100-watt bulbs have been available for a few years and cost as little as $4 each.
LEDs are small chips that produce light when current passes through them. In their red and green incarnations, they've been around for decades. Technical breakthroughs in the 90s allowed the manufacture of chips that produce white light.
LED bulbs equivalent to 60-watt bulbs have been available for a few years and now cost around $25 each. The problem with making brighter models is that while LEDs produce less heat than regular bulbs, the heat they do create shortens the lifespan and reduces the efficiency of the chips. Cramming a dozen chips together in a tight bulb-shaped package that fits in today's lamps and sockets makes the heat problem worse, and the brighter the bulb, the more heat is produced. LED bulbs have large, finned metal collars to radiate the heat.
CFLs also dont work well in the pumphouse to keep the well piping from freezing when left on during freezing weather, they dont produce decent light for several minutes after turning them on when its NOT freezing but just cold...For those and other uses, like in my shop that is minimally heated during non-occupancy CFLs are a POOR choice against the traditional 100w incandescent bulbs. Some say the heat is "wasted" or term the thermal output as "wasted energy", but I see it as a feature not a detriment.
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SO...now i have to go purchase, at more cost to me, electric heater tapes for the piping in the well house, that uses additional power (1500w vs100w) to accomplish the same task as well as purchase vastly more costly bulbs to replace the non-available 100w incandescents. some fast math shows that it will take me a minimum of 31 years to recoup the initial investment in materials alone, and if my time were to be valued as a tradesman's time (say an electrician) an additional 55 years to recoup the investment there.
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$50 LED bulbs? Mercury-containing CFLs? (watch the HAzmat teams when one gets broken - and the enviros have illegitimet kittens)
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Tell me again how this is saving me money? I see NO upside.
 @Woodswalker Stick a 500w quartz halogen in the pumphouse on a dimmer.  You'll get heat AND a reasonable amount of light when dimmed.
No mention of these. Coming soon.
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I have CFL's in most of my house right now. If the price of LED comes down I will consider replacing some of those. A little hint, CFL's don't work well in garage door opener light fixure. They burn out quickly for some reason so I have regular bulbs in there.
 @mstipton The smaller LED models are fairly cheap.  Wally World has them for about 6 bux each (if I remember right).  I put a couple in the range hood.  Cheap enough to leave on all night.
 @mstipton They burn out because of the vibrations.
 @mstipton CFLs don't last very long when turned off and on frequently.
LOWES has some 40w equivalent bulbs sold in 2 packs, about $8. Â I am slowly replacing all the bulbs in my house with these. Â Only bought 1 100w equivalent for a place needing more light . Â You have to look, they are not normally by the lights display but usually by the registers. Â White and green box.
So, the incandescent bulbs produced too much heat and the problem with making larger LED bulbs is the heat? Â Anybody else see the irony here?
@farm2city - "So, the incandescent bulbs produced too much heat and the problem with making larger LED bulbs is the heat? Anybody else see the irony here?" - you only see the irony if you don't understand the details behind the statement.  The ultra high output LED 'chips' (I hate that inaccurate description) are very heat sensitive - as in they will burn out quickly if they get overheated and it doesn't take much to dramatically shorten it's lifespan.
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When you cram enough ultra high output LED 'chips' close together, the temperature at the 'chip' goes way up, hence the use of a large heat sink to dissapate that heat quickly.Â
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HOWEVER - that heat output is nothing compared to the heat output of an incandecent bulb.
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I read somewhere that a 100 watt light bulb can potentially get as hot as 400+ degrees. An equivelant LED light bulb's heat sink probably never hits more than the low 100's. Â
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Watts is the measure of how much electricity is used by the bulb, not the amount of light it puts out.
Lumens is the actual measure of the amount of light being output.Â
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LED light bulb pricing is way, way down from where it was - and it's dropping at a pretty decent speed. Costco has some that are the equivelant of a weak 60 watt incandescent that they are selling for about $5 each (after the automatic 'instant rebate' from PSE for something like $10 or $15). I bought a couple of these last week and they aren't bad. Not anywhere near as bright as a 100 watt incandescent of course, but then they aren't $50 each either.
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 @farm2city I saw the irony when I worked for Lowe's. We had 75W equivalent floods that would almost be hot enough to cook an egg on after about an hour's worth of use.
Fortunately, I bought some 8-packs of 100W incandescent bulbs when Lowe's was getting rid of them. Lowe's has the LED bulbs that have similar light output but at $45 per bulb, I won't be buying any until my supply of 100 watt bulbs runs out. Maybe by then the price will be down. Or not.
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CFL bulbs that are supposed to "equal" 100W bulbs simply suck. They take too long to come to full brightness and for the most part, the color temps are nowhere near that of other bulb types.
 @Veteran Odd, my 60 watt CFL bulbs take no time to reach full brightness, they are instant-on, they solved that problem at least a couple years ago.  I wonder why the 100 watt versions would be different.  As for their color temps, I personally don't really care about that, my lamps provide more color than the bulbs.
 @CommutingGuy  @Veteran I've bought a wide variety of CFL bulbs and NONE, not even ONE is an instant on. That's not a huge deal in the summer, but in the winter it gets worse. When I turn on a light, particularly an outdoor light, I usually need the light right away, or I wouldn't bother.
 @therunner PSE brought some out, said they were instant on, well, they come on instantly, giving about the equivalent of a tot's night light on a dimmer until they warm up a lot!
 @Commenter87643 Snopud sent me a couple of CFL bulbs for free, they were both instant on - much better than the ones I bought at the store a few years ago.
 @CommutingGuy Thanks! We wouldn't mind at all using CFL's for our porch lights that need to burn longer hours during the winter months, if only they'd come on quickly when needed!
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 @Commenter87643  If you're interested, I just checked the brand, it's "Ecosmart".  And they definitely last longer than incandescents, as I had 2 incandescents and 2 CFL's in the same lamp, and the incandecents both burnt out a long time ago, the CFL's are still going.
@CommutingGuy @Veteran - I've had very, very few of my CFL bulbs be (or stay) instant on.  I guess I keep buying the wrong ones or something.
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The very, very few I've seen that are even close to instant on have always burned out as quickly as my old incandescents (or sooner in some cases).
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I'm moving to LEDs as my current bulbs burn out.
I have a mix of reflector incandescents, reflector CFL and reflector LED bulbs in my home. All reflector style because most of my fixed lighting is recessed units. I also have some curly CFLs and a couple of battery-operated LED night lights. I have to say that I prefer the LEDS over the other types but the cost is fairly high at this point in time.Â
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The worry over the trace of mercury in CFLs is a canard in my opinion since I have never had one break in ten years. When they burn out I simply put them in a zip-lock bag and save them for my once or twice yearly trip to the household hazardous waste dump.
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I have two reflector LED lamps that I purchased from the world's largest retailer for about $20 each. They put out more light than the 65 watt incandescents they replaced and they come to full brightness instantly, unlike the reflector CFLs that take upwards of five minutes to reach full brightness.
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And for those (mostly women) that dislike the color of the newer bulbs in comparison to the incandescents...it is all in your perception as it is the incandescents that are poor in revealing true colors. Even so, the new bulbs come in several different color temperatures and while the higher temperature numbers are more like daylight you can get the new bulbs in lower temperature numbers that approximate the (lousy, in my opinion) color index of incandescents.
I totally support saving the planet by banning those energy guzzlers, but i HATE the CFC bulbs. Yuk, the light is gray and orange, and flourescents are bad for health and moods. Â Will look at the LEDs for sure.Â
LED is still way too expensive. I would love to replace my entire home with LED, but at $35 to $55 per bulb, I'm looking at $5k. CFL will have to do for now. Great deals on CFL light bulbs at SAMs Club, .99 cents for 6 23 watts bulbs and $1.99 for 6 bulbs at Shoreline Costco for the 18 watts 6,500K.
 @STK If you have a home large enough to accommodate over 100 light bulbs, you can afford this. Unless you were exaggerating about that $5K.
 @Illuminati  @STK Not necessarily so. I live in a very modestly sized house, yet we have about 45 light bulbs by the time we count the porch lights and lights in the garage.
@Illuminati I have 132 bulbs to be exact. I have some dimmable LED replaced already. To replace the rest at $35 to $55 a piece, easily $5k for LED or $30 for CFL. I will stick with CFL for now.
 @STK If you live in Seattle, Tacoma or another larger "tree huger" type municipality you could get a decent rebate in the neighborhood of 35%. Look into it. Here's an example from Tacoma: http://www.mytpu.org/tacomapower/conserve-energy/conserve-in-your/lighting-rebates/Default.htm
There is a discount going on right now at McLendon Renton. A 2 pack 8w LED (normally 39.99) sold for 5.99.
6 of those per person per visit. I've been waiting for so long to replace all of my stupid CFLs, and was too happy to see this.
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I think deal last for couple more days (or when they sold out).
@nw_nature This should tell you something about the rediculous markup on these things. Regularly $40 but somehow miraculously on sale for just $6? Worst case scenario, they are selling to you at cost. Chances are, they are making a dollar or so per bulb.
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As I've said on other topics, I hate getting ripped off on value and this one is right up there (along with a certain fruity firm's devices).