Just a heads up, its backordered but this is a HUGE drop in price for one of these things

its 429 Lumen, 40w equivalent and will save a ton over its lifetime if you have alot of lighting in your place

5/12/2010 8:57:20 PM

20 bucks for a got dam light bulb? out yo mind.

5/12/2010 9:17:55 PM

I have nothing in the house that requires a 40W lightbulb.

Thank you for the information though.

5/12/2010 9:18:57 PM

$20 for a lightbulb that more than pays for itself in savings

like a hybrid car SHOULD be priced but isnt

5/12/2010 9:22:31 PM

awesome, thanks for the heads up

5/12/2010 9:28:00 PM

Are LEDs anything like the CFLs - where the "100w equivalent" is more like a 50-60w equivalent max.

A 40w equivalent? I'll light a candle, thanks...

[Edited on May 12, 2010 at 9:56 PM. Reason : -]

5/12/2010 9:55:13 PM

then go by the lumens which is actually more useful in calculating how much youll need to light up a room

429 is perfectly fine compared to normal bulbs and at 8.8 watts is definitely more safe than the mercury filled CFLs

from wikianswers

Quote :

"a 230 V, 40 watt incandescent bulb produces a light (quality) of about 400-500 lumens, a standard 230 V flourescent lamp of only 7 watts will produce exactly the same value of lumens, i.e. 400-500 lumens."

5/12/2010 10:13:16 PM

And it's not just saving money.

It's saving on the giant pain of having to change light bulbs.

I'm on board.

5/12/2010 10:19:44 PM

wait i thought the CFLs were the hot shit? and aren't they like 2-3 bucks or something...and they last for years or something?

i don't get $20+ for a single bulb...

5/12/2010 10:27:48 PM

yes, this is an LED bulb

slightly biased looking comparison, but the actual numbers are correct: http://www.designrecycleinc.com/led%20comp%20chart.html

[Edited on May 12, 2010 at 10:35 PM. Reason : comparison]

5/12/2010 10:30:40 PM

It would not cost $20 to make your own 400+ lumen LED light bulb, methinks.

5/12/2010 10:30:53 PM

does it still have shitty color rendering like every other led bulb?

5/12/2010 10:41:17 PM

Quote :

"It would not cost $20 to make your own 400+ lumen LED light bulb, methinks."

if you made one yourself with a bunch of 5mm LEDs, your light would be halfway burnt out within the first year. these new phosphor based LEDs are designed to operate for 50,000 hours.

You have to have your lights on a lot for them to pay for themselves, and the light can be annoying because it is directional and doesn't disperse well to light up a room. I don't have any lights in my house that make sense to change out with LEDs from the CFLs I currently have. Once they get down into the $5 price range for a 60W bulb, I might consider getting some.

5/13/2010 12:01:18 AM

Quote :

"wait i thought the CFLs were the hot shit? and aren't they like 2-3 bucks or something...and they last for years or something?"

like i mentioned before, economically CFLs are still the best choice but environmentally it's a hazard

so if you want the best of both worlds this is the way to go

5/13/2010 12:19:56 AM

We need to get some HIDs up in the house...

5/13/2010 12:42:25 AM

I've been obsessed with LED's since my sophomore year at NCSU (aka '00-'01.) I am glad they are finally becoming more affordable. I also believe that they are the best choice if we want the best of both Cost and Environmental friendliness.

5/13/2010 12:49:21 AM

I've already got 4 LED bulbs rocking in my place.

To all those questioning the $20 price:
Really?
429 lumens, 8.8 watts, 50,000 hours. $20 is a good price.

Quote :

"they are the best choice if we want the best of both Cost and Environmental friendliness"

5/13/2010 1:20:58 AM

Average life of a CFL is 10,000 hours and the incandescent bulb is 1,500 hours.

I typed a whole bunch of gibberish, which no one probably cares about, so, instead, I'll leave it like this.

5/13/2010 1:34:01 AM

It's probably like those CFL bulbs that they say last for like a decade yet I've been in my house for only 4 years and changed every damn one of them at least two fucking times. Fucking bullshit ass mercury filled bullshit is all they are.

[Edited on May 13, 2010 at 2:05 AM. Reason : l]

5/13/2010 2:03:58 AM

^
I've had some CFLs that lasted over 10 years, but also others that only lasted a couple years.
I think the cheap ones were all from a multi-pack. (Keep your receipts.)

5/13/2010 2:12:32 AM

I shouldn't have to keep receipts when I buy brand name bulbs from a big box store.
Lesson learned...Just get the old school bulbs from the thrift store for $.25 each and don't turn them on when you don't need them.

5/13/2010 2:19:01 AM

^
When they're $5 to $20 you should.

I guess what I meant was that, apparently, some brands are better, or something.

5/13/2010 2:25:12 AM

Quote :

"Are LEDs anything like the CFLs - where the "100w equivalent" is more like a 50-60w equivalent max. A 40w equivalent? I'll light a candle, thanks... "

as stated before, you need to be looking at lumens for equivalent light. wattage is power and they are comparing the lower power output at the same lumens as incandescent bulbs

5/13/2010 6:47:09 AM

because i'm bored i'll do some extra math and maybe itll become a little clearer why even a cheap .25 cent bulb cost you more

progress energy rates are measured in killowatt-hours which is essentially what it sounds like 1000watt/hr usage so if you use:

a 40 watt regular bulb (.25) for 3 hours a day lets say x 365 = (.25) + (365 x 3 x 0.04) = $44.05 /yr
a 40 watt equivalent LED ($20) under the same usage = (20) + (365 x 3 x 0.0088) = $29.64/yr

a savings of 14.41yr...for one bulb...if you only used the one bulb for 3 hours a day so it'd be a multiplied savings when you start adding up the bulbs

5/13/2010 6:52:59 AM

Quote :

"does it still have shitty color rendering like every other led bulb?"

this is what i care about, too...LEDs that produce the pleasant "warm" light are freakin' expensive and so most bulbs are those that produce the harsh white ("cold") light...i don't care if they're $1/each, they're useless

5/13/2010 7:52:30 AM

^^

Assumptions: $0.10/kWh (it's .095 in the winter and .105 in the summer with progressive), assume CFL's are $2.50 each and are 15W, analysis is good for first year of service, all bulbs last at least the full year

Regular 40 watt bulb: $0.25 + (365 day/yr x 3 hrs/day x .04 kW x $0.10/kWh) = $4.63/1st yr

CFL: $2.50 + (365 day/yr x 3 hrs/day x .015 kW x $0.10/kWh) = $4.14/1st yr

LED: $20 + (365 day/yr x 3 hrs/day x .0088 kW x $0.10/kWh) = $20.96/1st yr

The price per year energy cost differentials (from a reg. bulb):
CFL:-$2.74/yr (means .91 years simple payback)
LED:-$3.42/yr (means 5.85 years simple payback)

^An incandescent light bulb's color temperature is 2700-3300 K, the $20 LED light bulb at Home Depot has a color temperature of 3032 K so I imagine it's very similar light. Personally, I prefer warm CFL's in the living/dining areas and daylight (~5000 K) bulbs in the garage/kitchen (basically where you need to be able to see better).

[Edited on May 13, 2010 at 8:27 AM. Reason : ]

5/13/2010 8:13:21 AM

welp thats what i get for trying to do math after not going to sleep at all last night, lol

i'm out

5/13/2010 8:27:33 AM

50k hour lifetime? If you use that 8hrs a day, that's 6250 days of light... or 17 years? Is that for real?


Also, just looked this up: It's using Cree's XLamp XP-G LEDs. Cree's in RTP and founded by NCSU students, good for them.


[Edited on May 13, 2010 at 8:49 AM. Reason : also]

5/13/2010 8:43:15 AM

This is some sharp end of the stick stuff as far as consumer grade bulbs go. LED lights are getting better all the time, and prices are finally starting to drop. That's good for everyone. I'm betting they'll be commonplace within the next 4 years, just like CFL's are now.

Cree's the bee knees too. Great company.

5/13/2010 8:58:27 AM

Quote :

"then go by the lumens which is actually more useful in calculating how much youll need to light up a room"

Understood. I guess I'll have to get a lumens rating off a bulb I consider decent and compare with available CFLs and LEDs because my experience so far has been CFL = way too dim.

5/13/2010 11:36:20 AM

I hate CFLs and plan on making the jump from incadescents when LEDs are more affordable. For now I love my traditional bulbs!

5/13/2010 11:52:51 AM

Quote :

"It's probably like those CFL bulbs that they say last for like a decade yet I've been in my house for only 4 years and changed every damn one of them at least two fucking times"

thats what i'm wondering about these LED bulbs.

Sure if they could prove the thing would last 30-50 years then great. But we were told these CFLs would last 10 years and that seems to rarely be the case.

5/13/2010 2:24:51 PM

I guess people have had different experiences with CFLs. I haven't ever replaced a CFL. I haven't been using them 10 years but the ones I do have I have been using for about 4-5 years (maybe 6 on one) and never had to replace any. You're not going to find incandescent bulbs that do that with the same usage.

^I'm not sure where you guys are getting 10 years from either. I'm guessing some packages show/showed that assuming a typical length of usage per day or year or something but I haven't really paid attention. But lamps are rated for hours of use, not years.

Just a little research (pulling from wikipedia since I don't have time to track down other sources atm) shows that typical CFLs are rated for 6000 - 15000 hour lifespans compared to 750 to 1000 hour lifespans of a typical incandescent.

If we use the midpoint of both that is 875 vs 10500 at 4 hours a day, the incandescent will last about 219 days vs 2,625 days (years) for the CFL. As pointed out before though, lights are rated on hours *not* years so any assumption on years is going to be tied to usage time in each day, month, year or whatever time frame you are measuring for.

On top of that, if you are turning a lamp off and on all the time it negatively affects the life and more so with CFLs. However, they state that even a very dramatic, constant on/off cycle only reduces the lifespan of a CFL to "close to" the life of an incandescent. Wikipedia references a source saying that if you are going to be turning a CFL light back on within 15 minutes that you should go ahead and leave the light it on instead of turning it off and then turning it back on.

However, even if your CFL died in a year (which would be ridiculous because that means it would be dying at around 10% of its rated life. At this point I'd assume it was a ballast failure which is also rare unless it was overheating), let's compare the breakdown. At 4 hours of usage per day and 365 days per year, assuming a $.10 kWh energy cost a 100W incandescent light bulb will cost you $14.60 to run for the year while the 26W consuming GE CFL equivalent will cost you $3.79. With coupons and buying in multipacks (though I haven't hardly had to buy CFLs) I have generally spent ~$1.00 per CFL for the ones I have bought, which is hardly any more than incandescents. Thus, the payback is extremely quick and worth it even in the worst case scenario.

I can understand why some people complain about light quality for some applications, but I personally don't have a problem with the light I get from mine.

I think the few people who have complained about the life of CFLs are either extremely unlucky, don't remember how quickly incandescents burned out, or expected the CFL to last longer than it was even rated for. And even for those people who have had bad luck with "short" CFL life, I'd like to see the total usage time because I'd be surprised if you hadn't already passed the payback period for getting that as opposed to a traditional bulb.

[Edited on May 13, 2010 at 3:50 PM. Reason : ]

5/13/2010 3:27:51 PM

What about if you drop one and get mercury dust all over the place?

5/13/2010 3:31:53 PM

^

From the EPA:

Quote :

" What should I do if a CFL breaks? Because there is such a small amount of mercury in CFLs, your greatest risk if a bulb breaks is getting cut from glass shards. Research indicates that there is no immediate health risk to you or your family should a bulb break and it's cleaned up properly. You can minimize any risks by following these proper clean-up and disposal guidelines: * Sweep up—don't vacuum—all of the glass fragments and fine particles. * Place broken pieces in a sealed plastic bag and wipe the area with a damp paper towel to pick up any stray shards of glass or fine particles. Put the used towel in the plastic bag as well. * If weather permits, open windows to allow the room to ventilate. "

I'd recommend rubber gloves while wet-wiping with a damp paper towel. If you get anything on your clothes, wash those items by hand instead of putting them in the washing machine. I've never broken one though and I've dropped a couple (from no more than waist height).

What's the next generic question or reason for not liking CFLs that will pop up in this thread? someone will question the slow start? (I say this because we have had lots of threads on here covering the same content before) The decent ones with good electronic ballasts have hardly any problem with this.

All this being said...I like LEDs better but CFLs are certainly a decent option for now. I do admit that the mercury from all of these eventually being discarded is an issue so I really hope that LEDs start dropping in price soon.

[Edited on May 13, 2010 at 3:46 PM. Reason : ]

5/13/2010 3:36:11 PM

Oh shit. I've been contaminated... I totally let that shit touch me when one exploded while in the socket once...


That may explain my issues with short term memory loss...

5/13/2010 3:42:28 PM

Quote :

"I'm not sure where you guys are getting 10 years from either. I'm guessing some packages show/showed that assuming a typical length of usage per day or year or something but I haven't really paid attention."

durr we're making it up

Quote :

" But lamps are rated for hours of use, not years"

obviously

and ~3 hours per day seems to be a good average for hours per day (or 3.13 according to energystar.gov). so 10k hours / 3.13hpd ~ 9 years.

Quote :

"And even for those people who have had bad luck with "short" CFL life, I'd like to see the total usage time because I'd be surprised if you hadn't already passed the payback period for getting that as opposed to a traditional bulb"

I don't think anyone is disputing that.

The reason people are talking about the difference between the expected and observed life of the CFLs is due to the selling point of the LED bulbs being 50k hours

Quote :

"I like LEDs better but CFLs are certainly a decent option for now"

agreed...I'll stick to CLFs for now. I'll hop on the LED train once the price come down some more

5/13/2010 3:59:21 PM

on the subject of CFLs...

My wife and I just moved from an apartment to a house we bought. Back in our apt. we got a coupon for a free 6-pack of GE CFLs via Duke Energy. When we moved into the house, the previous owner also had the same coupon sitting in the pile of mail she had gotten that was in our name already (although the light bulb coupon was just "current resident" so I guess she just left it for us). So we buy our 12 CFLs and then a week later we got 2 packages from Duke Energy with 6 more CFLs each. So basically we got 24 CFLs from Duke Energy absolutely free. With some of the free ones I have gotten from other coupons lately, I am pretty sure I will be continue going years without paying for a light bulb

5/21/2010 3:43:57 PM

I want some of them coupons.

5/21/2010 4:32:24 PM

i have CFLs in my whole house

and i didnt pay for any of them

5/22/2010 7:36:15 PM

For real, every time I move I take my CFLs with me.

5/23/2010 12:32:39 PM

^what a jew. (no offense)

5/23/2010 12:36:31 PM

^^Met too. I'm not leaving CFLs in an apartment. I paid more for them to last longer, and I'm going to benefit from that.

5/23/2010 12:39:20 PM

ditto...when i move into a place, it seems like they almost always have the regular bulbs...i replace them and store the regular bulbs in a closet so i can put them back when i'm done

5/24/2010 9:04:40 AM

^^

ain't nothing wrong with that. When we sold our first house and moved, I did the same thing, and took 3+ year old CFL bulbs with me.

I've been using them for about 5 years now, and still have yet to have one burn out.


On another note, some of the cannister lights in my house are finally starting to burn out. I replaced a few of them with CFL versions, but they do not produce nearly enough light until they 'warm up' which seems to be about 30 minutes after i hit the lights. This is annoying as shit. Anyone else seen this? Is there a better one to buy?

5/24/2010 9:08:29 AM

Quote :

"when i move into a place, it seems like they almost always have the regular bulbs...i replace them and store the regular bulbs in a closet so i can put them back when i'm done"

5/24/2010 10:13:16 AM

I am not paying $20 for a light bulb.

no way no how

5/24/2010 10:31:08 AM

depends on how you look at it. you run a traditional incandescent in the same socket for a year and a half of normal use vs the LED and you do pay $20 for your choice in bulb basically because it cost you that much more in energy. And I'm not saying "you" as you yourself (since I don't know what you use) rather I am just speaking generally.

[Edited on May 24, 2010 at 10:50 AM. Reason : ]

5/24/2010 10:42:35 AM

Home Depot at Crossroads had 4 packs of CFLs for $1.05 last weekend.

5/24/2010 10:52:03 AM

^^
^^^
I know, right? Just do the math. If the bulb is gonna last way longer, and uses way less energy, it might be worth a good amount of money.

We're talking about 429 lumens, 8.8 watts, 50,000 hours. (I think)
But would you pay $100 for a dimmable 1000 lumen, 5 watt, 100,000 hours?....because I would.



Here's a dimmable 6 watt one for $40: http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-10366221-54.html

[Edited on May 24, 2010 at 11:02 AM. Reason : ]

5/24/2010 11:00:06 AM