Philips Releases 100W-Equivalent LED Bulb, Runs On Just 23 Watts

MrSeb writes "The Light Fair convention kicks off in Las Vegas this week, so there will be any number of related announcements coming soon. Lighting giant Philips is starting things off early with the announcement of their 100W-equivalent LED bulb, the AmbientLED 23W. The model produces 1700 lumens, putting it at a very respectable 73.9 lm/W. The unveiling comes shortly after Philips' L Prize bulb was made available to consumers. That bulb currently sells for about $60 and is a more efficient light source, capable of 94 lm/W. The two use similar designs; for example, both take advantage of remote phosphor, but the AmbientLED 23W (it will be called the EnduraLED in non-consumer applications) is brighter and lacking in some of the performance characteristics of the L Prize winner, including luminous efficiency and color accuracy. Philips' 100W-equivalent bulb will be available some time in the fourth quarter. Pricing has yet to be announced, but it will likely be well over $30."

Comments

Warranty?

[crazyjj]

At those prices, I expect it to come with a warranty that backs up their "Lasts X years" claim. If you say it lasts 10 years, and you can't even offer a 5-year warranty, I'll keep my $60, thanks. I've seen too many of these bulb manufacturers make promises they knew they couldn't keep. CFL's in particular seem very sensitive to electricity fluctuations and brownouts. I've got a couple of fixtures in my house that burn through them like crazy, even after replacing the switches (finally just put a incandescent back in them and they do fine).

No way I'm slapping down that kind of money for a bulb unless I can be sure the thing is really going to last, and that the company has enough faith in it to put their money where their mouth is. I'd hate to buy a bunch of those only to have some local brownouts blow them in their first year (and find out the company won't back their product up with a replacement or refund).

Re:Warranty?

[Anonymous Coward]

"Pay us what you think you'd pay the power company to operate an incandescent or CFL bulb for the same number of hours".
"Oh, and please take our word for the fact that it will last as many hours as we claim."
"We wouldn't lie to you."
"Honestly!"

Re:Warranty?

[pla]

Well... if you've got some fixtures that seems to burn through light bulbs faster than normal, then maybe it's not the light bulb's fault?

While I agree with you to the extent that the GP might want to have that fixture rewired (or at least checked out) by a real electrician, I can't agree that something pushed as a long-lasting drop-in replacement for an X-Watt incandescent light-bulb would have a shorter lifespan than that same incandescent, regardless of faulty wiring.

I fully appreciate that incandescents count as just about the lowest-tech electricity-using device you can own; But CFL/LED manufacturers need to take into consideration the fact that people don't generally run their room lighting on a line-interactive UPS.

Re:Warranty?

[Hatta]

There is an implied warranty of fitness for a specific purpose. If you're selling a device that serves the same purpose as an incandescent, fits into the same receptacle as an incandescent, and is found on the same shelves as incandescents, and you fail to disclaim the warranty of fitness, I'm pretty sure you're legally and ethically in the wrong.

Re:Warranty?

[es330td]

Thank you for reminding me again how happy I am to not live in the nanny state that is California. It is a beautiful state, with dynamic people and wonderful climate, but the amount of regulation its citizens to which the citizens subject themselves is unreal.

Re:Warranty?

[realityimpaired]

That wasn't my first thought... though in response to your question, LED lights usually last a long time, because they're composed of hundreds of LED's, and an individual diode can burn out without drastically affecting the usability of the bulb itself.

That being said... my first thought was of the CFL in a lamp sitting next to my computer. 8 years old, and it cost about $15. It's a full-spectrum 100W equivalent bulb that I call my "artificial sun" (and there have been many late-night gaming sessions which turned into early morning sessions with its help), and it draws 27W equivalent. Costs of CFLs have gone down significantly in the last 8 years... is a $30 LED bulb that would save 4W (which is less than some DVD players draw at idle) really enough of an upgrade to be worth the cost?

Re:Warranty?

[DavidTC]

In case you haven't noticed, heat getting trapped in light fixtures are why all bulbs burn out. It's what deforms the filament in incandescent bulbs, which then cools and either snaps then, or snaps when they next have current run through them. In fact, the entire question of 'What is a good filament in a light bulb?' is answered by 'Whatever metal expands less when heated.'

Which is the reason that all non-stupid light fixture have holes in them to let the heat out, because otherwise the incandescent bulbs that existed when they were designed burn out rapidly.

And of course, CFLs run a lot cooler, so are generally safer to use in such fixtures for each lum of light. The idea that CFLs are more susceptible to heat is somewhat idiotic. Yes, they have more complicated circuitry that is technically more susceptible to heat (Which is why CFLs will never be used inside a stove.), but they also are generating only a third the heat, so there's a lot less damn heat to start with!

Of course, the real solution is to stop buying stupid light fixtures that trap heat. Which, in addition to rapidly eating through a supply of any sort of light bulbs, are a fire (If made of something combustible or touching something combustible) and/or scalding (If not combustible but they just sit there and absorb heat, resulting the entire thing getting hotter and hotter, eventually including parts that people are supposed to touch.) hazard.

(And, incidentally, current CFLs have no startup time, at least not one that humans can notice. Complaining that you were sold something that is shitty that is supposed to last for five years is reasonable, but it's not a reason to not buy new ones, which do not have that problem.)

This is why they passed the law

[Attila Dimedici]

And now we are discovering why they passed the law requiring all light bulbs to be higher efficiency than standard incandescents, so that Philips can sell light bulbs for $30-60.

Re:This is why they passed the law

[Jeremi]

as in ONLY reason to get married is to get a child

Absolutely incorrect.

Lots of people get married without any intention (or even any ability) to have a child.

Lots of people have children without getting married.

so i do not understand really a reason for having a gay marriage (or any other kind of marriage without kids)

That's okay, you don't have to understand the reason. What's important is that you don't get to deny marriage to people simply because you don't understand their reasons.

Re:24W for equivalent of 100W light?

[Darth Snowshoe]

The price of the bulb is, unsurprisingly, like just about everything else, related to the number of bulbs produced and sold. If you bought a one-off handmade automobile, it would cost a lot more, even if it performed exactly the same as a stock car that rolled off a manufacturing line.

Over time, as more of these bulbs are produced, the price per item is going to come down. Phillips doesn't want to subsidize the price of the early bulbs (to take the risk that they'll never sell enough of them to back out the cost of the subsidy), so they're pricing them to cost, apparently. I'm sure its dawned on Phillips that a $30 light bulb is not going to be an easy sell. I'd bet that the pricing also indicates that they don't expect a consumer with a house full of these would need to replace them very often.

It's not some kind of socialist plot. It's business.

Re:I avoided all this...

[Xandrax]

On the flip side, I don't have to worry about having a substance in my house that has cleanup recommendations that involve a hazmat suit. How much mercury do you think has been tossed into landfills by now? I'll give you a hint:

"According to www.lightbulbrecycling.com, each year an estimated 600 million fluorescent lamps are disposed of in U.S. landfills, amounting to 30,000 pounds of mercury waste. Astonishingly, that's almost half the amount of mercury emitted into the atmosphere by coal-fired power plants each year. It only takes 4mg of mercury to contaminate up to 7,000 gallons of freshwater, meaning that the 30,000 pounds of mercury thrown away in compact fluorescent light bulbs each year is enough to pollute nearly every lake, pond, river and stream in North America (not to mention the oceans)."

You can Google many more articles questioning the environmental wisdom of using CFL's.

If your concern is the environment, you should be a lot less fanatical against incandescent light bulbs for that reason, not to mention the fact that the manufacturing of CFL's has a much bigger environmental footprint, as well.

Re:I avoided all this...

[joggle]

Using those 300 bulbs isn't free, unless for some reason you don't have to pay the power bill.

At .12 cents per kWh and a lifetime of 750 hours per bulb, it would cost you about $2,700 to use them. Tack on a cost of $1 per bulb, and you pay a total of about $3,000.

To get 750 * 300 hours of 100 W equivalent, you would only need about 12 of the LED bulbs. The cost of running them for that many hours would be $621. The article doesn't say how much the bulbs will cost, just more than $30. Let's double it to $60, then the cost of those 12 bulbs would be $720. You would end up paying a total of $1,321 for what would have cost $3,000 with incandescents, a savings of almost $1,700.

So it's your choice, either pay nothing down while paying more in the future, or pay more now but more than make up for it eventually.