Philips offers LED replacement for 60-watt bulb

May 12, 2010 8:23 AM PDT
by Candace Lombardi 17 comments

Endura LED is designed to look similar in shape to the common 60-watt incandescent light bulb.

(Credit: Royal Philips Electronics)
Royal Philips Electronics unveiled on Wednesday an LED bulb that will be mass-produced as a replacement for the common 60-watt light bulb.

The 12-watt Endura LED, which is the fruition of the LED prototype bulb the Dutch electronics giant unveiled in 2009, looks very similar to its historic predecessor in size and shape. But the bulb cuts energy use by 80 percent and lasts 25 times longer than the common 60-watt incandescent bulb, according to Philips.

The LED bulb will last 25,000 hours compared with the 1,000 hours that consumers normally get out of the average 60-watt incandescent bulb.

The company has submitted the bulb for the L Prize, a competition by the U.S. Department of Energy that asked entrants to "develop high-quality, high-efficiency solid-state lighting products to replace the common light bulb."

The bulb is set to go on sale by the fourth quarter. Pricing has not been announced. But given that LEDs are more expensive to make, the price tag will likely be significantly higher than that on a regular bulb.

The Endura LED offers the "same soft white light" common on incandescent bulbs, according to Philips. However, the company did not offer the LED bulb's exact color temperature in terms of Kelvin--which would specify exactly how warm the light will look. The light of the average incandescent bulb, for example, is 2,700K to 3,000K. One type of alternative bulb, the compact fluorescent light (CFL) ranges from 2,700K to 6,500K and higher. The higher the number goes past 5,000K, the more bluish the light appears. While there are currently many warm options among CFLs, they were initially spurned by consumers who found their bluish tone harsh.

The new Philips LED bulb, by the way, is not the invention of one person, but a joint effort among several Philips research centers.

The soft white color was developed at Philip Color Kinetics laboratory in Burlington, Mass.; the electronics at Philips Lighting Electronics in Rosemont, Ill.; the LED integration at Philips LumiLEDs in San Jose, Calif.; and the phosphorous tech and light distribution system from Philips researchers in the Netherlands.

Philips is not the first to announce an LED 60-watt incandescent lookalike for consumer sale. The Pharox 500 from Lemnis Lighting was unveiled Tuesday. It will be available for under $40 on the company's Web site in the coming weeks, according to Lemnis.

Lemnis Lighting President Warner Philips concurred with analysts predictions that the LED lighting market will take off as the price of LEDs comes down. He said in an interview that the price of an LED bulb will drop to $30 by the end of 2010 and to $10 within five years.

Comments

by Appledogx May 12, 2010 8:36 AM PDT

If somebody can figure out how to bring the price of LED technology down faster, the whole planet will be grateful. There are serious advantages to these; the only disadvantage being the price. If these were available at accesible prices in volume, there would be huge energy savings almost immediately. Everybody would start buying them. That's what the world needs, and quickly.
Like this Reply to this comment 1 person likes this comment
by solitare_pax May 12, 2010 8:39 AM PDT

Patience - it will take time to gear up to produce these things, and discover any bugs or problems in them.
Like this by Goodbye Helicopter May 12, 2010 8:52 AM PDT

The stupid thing is that we screw in LED lights.
What a waste of design.
Light fixtures should be updated to take advantage of new design potential not available to old light bulbs.
Like this Reply to this comment by Jahntassa May 12, 2010 9:01 AM PDT

"Light fixtures should be updated to take advantage of new design potential not available to old light bulbs."

A good idea, but potentially cost-prohibitive. Would you want to replace all of your existing fixtures with a new one just to be able to use a more efficient bulb?

Yes, it would be nice to have a second 'high efficiency' socket come out on the market, so they can co-exist for a while until the new socket is more phased in, but unlikely.
Like this by papaspud May 12, 2010 9:05 AM PDT

I am sure there will be many new designs that will take advantage of the new light bulbs, but the fact is the big market is still the old tried and true edison base. It will be many years before the standard changes, in my opinion. Definitely a waste though on a twelve watt bulb...LOL
Like this by TX-Sunset May 12, 2010 9:26 AM PDT

It would be easy enough to come out with an adapter for old style light fixtures and start making new light fixtures with a new interface. It is no different then coming out with a new adapter slot for a PC.

Either way, my main complait about LED bulbs are that digital bulbs have a high rate of failure. Just look at all the traffic lights that are always blinking or half the LED grid stops working. Do these new LED bulbs come with a 25 year warranty to cover the Mfgs claims? Am I going to invest 10, 20 ,30 or even 40 dollars into a bulb and have it die on me in a few years and have to buy another one? That would take me 20+ years to start seeing a return on my investment.

Just seems like to me these LED companies are going to rape us for light bulb and there is nothing we can do because our grand federal government has already made incandescents illegal.
Like this by zyxxy May 12, 2010 9:49 AM PDT

You can still buy CFL while you wait for LED to mature. The current CFLs are very good as long as you do not need dimming. Most of the bulbs in my home are now CFL. Only short term use lamps and dimmers are using incandescent bulbs.
Like this by wryland May 12, 2010 9:10 AM PDT

'Gearing up" taking a long time is a 20th century phenomenon. These days it can be done in less than 6 months. They need rapid return of R&D money & profit for their stockholders (and, of course Executive "Bonuses"), and with patents stifling competition, they can get away with overcharging, and absurdly, people will pay it. The first price drops will be because of Government subsidies (tax dollars - basically paying for the bulb twice!). After they bleed that dry, and are zillionairs thanks to taxpayers, then prices will actually come down for mass quantity sales, which of course they could have done in the first place if they could have accepted a reasonable profit (like in the 20th Century).
Like this Reply to this comment 1 person likes this comment
by Nidocamen May 12, 2010 9:23 AM PDT

Yes, this is great. I have been testing some LED bulbs for a while from EarthLED, who is focused on getting direct-replacement bulbs to consumers without compromises being made in light output, color temp, etc.

To the CNET article author: is this new Phillips bulb dimmable? If not then it is a waste for them to come out with it since it can't be used at any other level except full on. Dimming is, at least for me, a huge requirement in lighting design.
Like this Reply to this comment 1 person likes this comment
by IceN9ne May 12, 2010 9:33 AM PDT

that's exactly what i was going to ask. I'm hoping they are dimmable. But at the same time, $40 for a bulb, energy efficient aside, is a VERY steep price. What is the return investment on somthing like this?
Like this 1 person likes this comment
by bob1xxxx May 12, 2010 9:23 AM PDT

Nice first start I buy the second or third gen when the bugs are out.
Like this Reply to this comment by leo59jacque May 12, 2010 9:29 AM PDT

At the current cost people on low income will be in the dark the bulb will cost $240.00 for a two bedroom one bathroom house not including basement, attic or, porch
Like this Reply to this comment by TX-Sunset May 12, 2010 9:34 AM PDT
Even at $10, that is a rip off. Once these things go into full production, it will probably be cheaper to make a LED bulb then an incandescent. A tiny circuit board, a few diodes and some metal and plastic should not cost more then a dollar or two to make. We are all getting blinded by the marketing of these. "Forget about how much it costs to make one, just think of how energy efficient they are and how long they are supposed to last."

This is like the CD revolution. CDs were cheaper to make then cassette tapes or vinyl LPs, but cost double just because, in theory, they were supposed to last longer. But you get one small scratch on that CD and it is toast. Tapes and even records were a bit more durable.
Like this Reply to this comment by zyxxy May 12, 2010 9:54 AM PDT

Cheaper than incandescent? How? An incandescent has exactly four parts. Envelope filament, support wires, base. And their manufacture is highly automated. An LED bulb is going to have two enclosures, a base, a circuit board, a dozen passive components, an active current regulator, plus the LEDs. Currently, the high output LEDs cost $15 to $20 on the wholesale market.
Like this by sdf0013 May 12, 2010 9:36 AM PDT

I'd really like to know if this is basically the end of clear light. Will everything have to be soft white going forward? There are certain uses where I prefer clear bulbs to soft white. I'm all for saving money and certainly from having to replace a bulb on a tall ceiling. But, the bulb has to work the way I want it to. And color and lumens are pretty important to get right for any replacement to work.
Like this Reply to this comment by MadLyb May 12, 2010 9:40 AM PDT
I'm not sure what cave these people live in, but 60 watts is the bare minimum in illumination. If it is a reading space, I typically use 100 watt lamps.

And to be really sure, what are the lumens on this lamp because Pharaoh 500 claimed to have the output of a 60 watt, but only provided 500 lumens which is actually less than a good 60 watt lamp.

Finally, let's be clear LEDs are not toxin free. The manufacturing process is the same as any kind of circuit board manufacturing process and there are good ways and bad ways to manufacture the diodes, but they all produce some degree of toxins. Much better than CFL, but not perfect.
Like this Reply to this comment by cvaldes1831 May 12, 2010 9:48 AM PDT

Like the two 40W-equivalent LED bulbs I currently own, I will wait for this product to fail then pick up bargain-priced units in the clearance bin of the local hardware store. No sense in paying full retail for a lightbulb based on immature technology. God knows I wasted enough time/money looking for CFLs with pleasing light output.

It will probably take 5-10 years for this technology to come down to reasonable price levels for consumers.