EcoLEDs Announces Brightest Commercial LED Light Bulb Yet

Energy Daily ^ | May 23, 2007 | Staff Writers

[MD_Willington_1976]

no, there are bulbs that are ~ $6, but they don’t really do mutch for lighting the whole room, geeks.com has/had some...

[lepton]

When measuring parts per...remember Avagadro. He has his own number. ;)

[lepton]

If you haven’t already, convert all your flashlights to the LED bulb version. You won’t be sorry. Especially if you live in hurricane or earthquake or in fact any area where an emergency might hit — The LED flashlight bulbs improve light output while at the same time dramatically increasing ruggedness and battery life.

My little single-AA flashlight will run about 3 days continually on. ...and LED's aren't likely to break if dropped - the weakest point is usually the solder point or the traces on the ckt board, which are both a lot sturdier than an incandescent's filament.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

Don't LEDs still flicker with the cycle too?

No. They run on DC only. Incoming AC voltage must be converted to low voltage DC before the LED illuminates. No flicker there.

[lepton]

Unless they have a good rectifier, with capacitive storage, it’ll be a pulsing DC. Maybe these have it. I don’t know. ...or maybe 120 pulses per second is too fast to bothr the eyes.

[Atlas Sneezed]

After just a few hours use, I noticed that one LED in each flashlight no longer glowed.

---

I’d wager that the lap itself was fine, but that the connection failed. Yes, there are infant failures of LEDs, but at the minuscule fraction of a percent, and not 2 out of a dozen.

I recall that if brightness is important, assume half the claimed lifespan, because they do degrade in brightness with time, and the latter half of life may be disappointing. Same is true for LED flashlights rated for “battery life.”

[Calvin Locke]

I have an "old" CFL that I use for reading in bed. Must be at least 5 years old. About the only "problem" is turning over at night, the static from the blanket may get it to flicker once or twice.

But I know what you're talking about. IIRC, it's the lack of "red" spectrum that causes the eye strain. My reading CFL is pretty warm.

My LED flashlights aren't that great for detail work, either.

[ansel12]

“My little single-AA flashlight will run about 3 days continually on. “

My Lightwave 4000 uses 3 D batteries, but it will produce light for 30 days of continous burning.
http://www.flashlightreviews.com/reviews/lightwave_4000.htm

[Busywhiskers]

Figure 50-100,000 hours of useful life.

[ansel12]

“My LED flashlights aren’t that great for detail work, either.”

My newest flashlight using the Cree LED put out a better quality , more appealing light.

My newest key chain flashlight is the single AAA LOD-CE by Fenix, it uses the Cree.

http://fenix-store.com/product_info.php?cPath=22_55&products_id=191

[lepton]

My LED flashlights aren't that great for detail work, either.

Yup. They are great when you reliably want to have *some* source of light for an extended period of time. The quality of the light is problematic for a lot of applications. I like my little AA flashlight because I can wear it around my kneck pretty comfortably while hiking or walking at night. It'll get me around a pitch dark building or camp site, or let me hunt for something I forgot in the car, or read a few pages from a manual. It's not something I'd light a room with, even if bright enough.

[lepton]

Sounds like a great car/hurricane flashlight.

[P-40]

I do wonder what they pay to replace bulbs!

[P-40]

incandesent bulbs still provide the most comfortable & eye friendly light.

It depends on your preference and where you use the bulb. I like warm light (about 3500k) in most areas of the house except the library which has a mix of fairly warm light plus a lot of cold light (about 6000k). Much of the house is shades of blue or green except the library is white.

[Tarpon]

I got s couple of these bulbs for my 4D Maglites, 125 hour run time. The trade off is brightness, but when all the lights are out, they are plenty bright. The long runtime bulbs lack 'throw', for that I just got the Maglite dropin 3 W LEDs, all at Walmart.

Target also has a decent selection of LED lights at good prices, I got my headlamp there. For those repairs in the dark, the only way is with a headlamp. Another handy thing to have is a LED table lantern, target has a nice one, made by River Rock.

LED flashlights are worth the money in an emergency. Never go to an emergency again without one, if you can avoid it :-). The media is hoping for a busy hurricane season, the sun says it's not so sure about that.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

LED lights have to have circuitry between them and the AC source to change the nature and amount of voltage. I'm certain that the proper components are included to provide clean lower voltage DC.
And 120 Hz is way too fast for anyone's eyes to be bothered. That's double the current rate of AC supplied lights.

[Yo-Yo]

What about the Mole?!? I forgot to factor in the Mole!!!

(Thanks for the High School Chemestry Exam nightmare flashbacks!)

[ChildOfThe60s]

As far as flashlights for emergencies, I also include one of the hand charge LEDs. 3 LEDs and 2 minutes of cranking will give 1/2 hour of light. There are also LED lanterns with 20+ LEDs. I sold a bunch of them to a company that gave them to their employees (they are in Florida, I think they may come in handy)

[TKDietz]

It uses 10.8 watts and produces 400 lumens. A standard 40 watt incandescent bulb will put out about 460 lumens total, compared to this $99 LED’s 400 lumens. This super expensive LED bulb is getting about 37 lumens per watt, compared to around 12 lumens per watt for a 40 watt incandescent bulb. Standard compact fluorescent lightbulbs will put out anywhere from around 55 lumens per watt on up to 70 lumens per watt or so. A 32 watt four foot fluorescent T8 tube in a fixture with a good electronic balance can get up in the neighborhood of 100 lumens per watt.

LED lights are not ready for prime time for use in general home lighting. They’re super expensive. The light they produce tends to be really weak, and not particularly pleasing to look at. The companies that push them really seem to be engaging in some over the top false advertising. Someday LED technology will mature and we’ll all want to use them in our homes to replace incandescents and most fluorescents, but that time hasn’t come yet.

Here are the specs on the bulb:

http://www.betterlifegoods.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=LED-CAT21417

[TKDietz]

“People make stuff here? :)”

All they say is that it uses an American made component. The company that makes these is a Chinese company though, so my suspicion is that only a tiny percentage of this $99 bulb is actually made here.