Significant price drop on Philips LED light bulb (60 watt equivalent) - $24.97

[txlibdem]

I found it on the HomeDepot website... could be other places too, I dunno. At HomeDepot it's an in-store item only, cannot order online or I would have done it already. Last month the price for this same bulb was $39.97... and now it's $24.97 -- a $15 drop in price. --- Note: the guy in the lighting and light bulb department could not find it so I asked to speak with customer service and she found it (they had 9 of them)... they're holding it at the Cust Serv counter for me.

I went ahead and purchased a Lighting Science Group (40 watt equivalent) for $17.43 just to compare sort of. Free shipping because I bought other stuff as well so it's a win, win.
http://www.amazon.com/Lighting-Science-Group-A19-Non-Dimmable/dp/B004W8EVMO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1317854076&sr=8-1

PS, Amazon had a cheaper LED bulb by a company called Feit but I've never heard of them and Lighting Science is an American company... any of you who've read all of my posts know that I try to buy American whenever possible or do without if I can. I've repaired my made in USA dishwasher twice now instead of buying a new one (which will be made in some foreign country since Maytag moved their last factory).

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Here's a chart: http://topbulb.wordpress.com/2010/11/19/lumens-per-watt-the-next-step-of-the-white-led-revolution/
... it shows that LEDs aren't the right choice for some applications as of 2010 but by 2020 they will be the only option available. This is big.
... for instance, the 40 watt-e LED didn't score so great (49 lumens/watt), but the 60 watt-e Philips LED scores at 66 lumens/watt.
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Here's a convenient site to compare the savings you'll get with an LED bulb (even though it costs many times what a regular incandescent would).
... http://www.ledwaves.com/led-calc/
... it'll tell you how many years it will take the LED bulb to completely pay for itself; and how much money you'll save over the life of the LED

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As I always try to mention: if you have solar panels or wind turbine(s) you need to be switching out those incandescent and CFL bulbs as they burn out. Just replace the bulbs one by one so it won't kill your budget.

[OnlinePoker]

1. $29.98 at Home Depot Canada

There's plenty in the 2 stores near me so I'll probably go on the weekend and look at them. I especially like that they're dimmable.
http://www.homedepot.ca/product/12w-led-a-dimmable-soft-white/926038

I've actually been waiting for Switch Lighting to release info on when their bulbs are going to be available. Not only do they have the best ratings of LED bulbs that I looked at in wired last month, but just their styling is beautiful.
http://switchlightbulbs.com/

Of course, how often do you actually look at a bulb? If I like the Phillips bulb, I might buy enough to switch out the lights in all my rooms at once. It will be interesting to see if there's a month over month change in the power bill (we tend to turn our lights off when we leave the room).

[OnlinePoker]

2. Email from Switch

I had inquired last month when the bulbs would be available in Canada. I just opened my email and the following response has arrived from the company:

"Thanks for your e-mail. We're happy to hear from you and apologize for the delay in response.

Currently we are working on our go to market strategy which includes pricing, marketing support, road map, etc. Our first ship dates on the 60w will be in December followed closely by the 75w and the 100w. Our first bulbs will be a limited edition, assembled in the US bulb, sold in limited quantities through mid next year. We expect to ramp production in mid 2012. Our online store is under development and will be accepting advanced orders towards the end of this year (www.switchlightbulbs.com). We are also working with select retail stores to provide our products on their shelves and/or through their online stores.

If you'd like to be added to our email contact list, please visit our website to sign-up or let me know. You can also “like us” on Facebook (facebook.com/switchlightbulbs) and get up-to-the minute news.


Thank you for your interest in Switch! "

Bulbs will be assembled in the U.S. (not necessarily manufactured) for the first run. Sorry for jumping on the Philips bulb thread to pass this info, but I think it's info people might like to have.

[txlibdem]

4. I think the 40 watt-e bulb from Lighting Science is not dimmable (their 60 & 75 is)

I agree about the Switch LED lights. Their website says their 60- and 70-watt equivalent are available now, the 40 and 100 in 2012. And you can add yourself to the list of early adopter buyers.

http://switchlightbulbs.com/where_to_buy.html

[OnlinePoker]

22. Should I feel guilty?

So I went to Home Depot as I said above to buy the bulbs. I decided to only buy 12 as $360 for lighting is pricey no matter how you slice it. I take the bulbs to the checkout and they have one person working a till and 4 of the new automated checkouts (almost no staff in the store, either). I like the personal touch so opted for the one manned till despite the 6 customer wait. When she rang them in, the price, instead of being $29.98, came in at $14.98. I pointed this out to the woman 3 times. She looked in the flier once but couldn't see them and didn't bother to call anyone over to check it out. In the end, I got 12 bulbs for $179 and change. I would have bought more, but I didn't want the karma to kick me in the ass. If anybody lives in Victoria, this was at the Langford Home Depot. I don't know if they'll correct it, but I'm happy with my fortunate deal.

[txlibdem]

23. The store manager may have put the price into the POS system wrong

For what it's worth... TXLIBDEM says you did all that you could to correct the situation and your word of mouth to friends and family will bring in much more to the store than if they hadn't made that mistake... that's assuming it was actually a mistake. It could have been that they want to clear out the inventory or ??? So, please feel free to sleep soundly at night.

:-) :bounce: :-)

[NYC_SKP]

3. I got 'em all: Feit and Philips and others. All good, but watching the prices fall is fabulous.

I've been buying LEDs online for years, then Lowes finally started selling Feits for under $20 more than a year ago, then Philips at Home Depot last January, now they've dropped the prices.

Big fan.. Solid State Lighting!

[txlibdem]

5. Great news about the Feit LED light bulbs

You are definitely right that watching the prices fall is going to be sweet. But I'm not waiting (and as your comment states neither are you) because they pay for themselves in just a few years and then keep on saving for another 15+ years after they've paid you back.

I did this (far too) elaborate spreadsheet to prove that even at $50 they paid me back in under 10 years (used 4 hours a day). Today I was far too lazy to recreate it so I found the link to the LED payback calculator (phew!).

I have a pair of lights that are used about 10 hours a day (don't ask) so the two I purchased today are going to free up another pair of CFL bulbs to go somewhere else (but I'll have to hunt for an incandescent).

[txlibdem]

6. Have you had any experience with Lowes' Utilitech brand LED light bulbs?

http://www.lowes.com/pd_352216-75774-LA19DM/800/LED_0__?productId=3408608&Ntt=led+light+bulb&pl=1¤tURL=%2Fpl__0__s%3FNtt%3Dled%2Blight%2Bbulb&facetInfo=

Here's a link: 11 watts, 800 lumens = great specs if true. And a 25,000 lifetime to boot. The only thing that raises an eyebrow: it says they are "directional" which I believe means either a spot or less than 180 degree flood type bulb. Any thoughts?

[NYC_SKP]

7. Not that one, that was released later I think.

I guess I fibbed about having them all. The Feits I bought come in a black and silver box, over packaged. I wouldn't call them directional, it's just that they aren't as universally distributed as the light from an A-19 edison base incandescent.

[txlibdem]

9. You mean the light is not as universally distributed as a similar incandescent, right?

That's what I took the text to mean. They'd still work great in a ceiling can or some other application.

In a bit, I'm posting an update for the Philips 800 Lumen (60 watt-e) bulb I picked up yesterday (hint: I'm loving it and if my camera has cooperated then I'll post some comparison pics.

[NYC_SKP]

11. Yes, you said it better than I did.

LED chips are sort of unidirectional, or at least hemispherical in their directional output in the case of the lower wattage Philips and the Feit lamps.

I've taken apart all of them, by the way, and the Philips are particularly impressive. Both the lower and higher wattage lamps use orange phosphorescent "lenses" to take the otherwise blue-violet light and convert it to warm light output.

The Feit lamps have individual square emitters with the orange phosphor gel coating.

The 60 watt equivalent Philips has three sets of emitters so is more universally distributed.

[txlibdem]

13. I read that the Philips LED bulbs (with the yellow glass) actually have blue LEDs

And when they interact with the yellow glass it comes out white. Any truth to that?

[NYC_SKP]

14. Pry off one of the orange "lenses" with the tip of a knife, start at the bottom...

Then snap in and out, I've done it with two bulbs without permanent damage.

The emitters are bright day-glo UV violet-blue, really cool!

[txlibdem]

15. Cool! (but I'll wait till they're $10 apiece before doing that :-0 )

Also, I failed to mention that I've been sort of monitoring the price of the Philips bulbs since I found out they were selling them at Home Depot. 6 months ago the price was $45, then after a short time it dropped to $40 ($39.95) and there it stayed for 3 or 4 months. Then I happened to be on their website the other day and found the in-store special for $24.97 and absolutely had to jump on it. I plan to use it in a lamp that is on up to 10 hours per day - which means it'll pay for itself in less than 1 year and 4 months (compared to the incandescent that was there, 60 watt).

I've also ordered (but not yet received):
= a Lighting Science Group 40 watt-e LED bulb (420 Lumens, $17.43, cool space age look)
http://www.lsgc.com/


= and a 15 foot long string of warm white LEDs which runs on DC ($18 at Amazon).


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[NYC_SKP]

18. We're in the LED nut club! Seriously though, you can pry off the orange thing...

Without damaging it, use the corner of a metal putty knife or the smallest slotted screwdriver you have (not a super-tine watchmakers one, though).

It's the greatest color light I've seen in a long time!

[Sherman A1]

8. Thanks for posting

:hi:

[txlibdem]

10. Update on the Philips 800 Lumen (60 watt equivalent) LED bulb

It uses 12 watts and the light output is identical to a 60 watt incandescent as far as I can tell. The light is omni-directional and much brighter than the CFL bulb I placed next to it which uses 13 watts (listed on the bulb itself). Hopefully, pictures will come out and I'll post them in a before/after type format.

I plugged it in this morning and it's been on for about 3 hours so far.

The color is pleasing and all in all I am happy with my purchase.

[NYC_SKP]

12. Pry off one of the orange "lenses" for a surprise!

:hi:

[NickB79]

17. Why is the LED using as many watts as the CFL?

I thought that LED's blew CFL's out of the water, watt-wise.

[NYC_SKP]

19. LEDs are typically just a bit better in the efficacy department, the real savings is in life span.

Lasting four to five times longer than a CFL, and possibly longer, is where they come out far ahead.

When you calculate costs to operate over 100,000 hours-


Far less cost/energy to manufacture just one or two;

Fewer trips to the store;

Less material to mine and use in making;

Less material to send to the landfills;

AND less energy to operate--

LEDs rock!

[txlibdem]

20. LED 12 watts, CFL 13 watts - and the LED puts out more light

So it doesn't use *quite* as many watts. I'll try to get the pictures up on the web soon. I wanted to get a shot with 3 lamps in it: the LED, the CFL, and a 60 watt incandescent... but I am having trouble finding an incandescent since I've spent over 4 years replacing those with CFL. But it sounds like I should just go with what I have already...

Oh, and the LED light bulbs don't really use all that much less power (wattage) than CFL bulbs... they just last 10 times longer and turn on instantly versus the CFL bulbs which can take up to 2 minutes to reach full brightness. And LED bulbs have zero mercury (but they are electronic so they will be recycled at the end of their 25,000 to 50,000 hour lifespan.

One of the links in the OP has a chart that shows that LED bulbs are already more efficient than CFL and by 2015 they'll dominate all other lighting technologies. By 2020 they'll be double the efficiency of any other light source. This means the brighter lights (like street lights) will be more likely to be LED and the household LED lights will be cheaper to buy.

[NickB79]

16. Menards sells a ton of Feit-brand CFL bulbs

And as far as I can tell, they work just as well as the more expensive ones. Hopefully the LED's will be the same.

[txlibdem]

21. Thanks. That's two votes for Feit - and on Amazon they are cheaper for the 40 watt equivalent bulb

I didn't look further to see if they have a 60, 75, or 100 watt equivalent bulb.

The previous sentence reminds me of the trouble I had speaking to the lighting staffer at HomeDepot. I kept saying 60 watt equivalent and he kept saying that they don't have a Philips light bulb in 60 watts. When I talked to the customer service person they had the same problem. I had to spell out that the bulb will not say it's a "60 watt" bulb, that it will probably say 11, 12 or 13 watts; once I spelled it out like that they were able to find the bulb for me.

[anern]

24. led lighting manufacturers

We are a professional LED lighting manufacturers http://www.topledsupplier.com/ and the wholesale price is cheap.