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Energy Efficiency new Cree LED bulb energy efficient

Published on October 28th, 2014 | by Tina Casey

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Lush, Low Cost LED Light Bulbs From Cree Go Way Below $10

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October 28th, 2014 by  

The magical $10 price barrier for LED light bulbs was crashed last year and today one of the main crashers has just come out with a brand new edition that pushes their initial price down even lower. That would be North Carolina’s Cree, which has just informed us by email that the going rate for its standard 60-watt equivalent will be $7.97, not counting in-store discounts or promotions. Cree also shipped us a sample to try out and it arrived just in time for this review, so we gave it the acid test: our favorite reading lamp.

new Cree LED bulb energy efficient

New Cree LED light bulb in use (photo by Tina Casey).

Soft, Warm Light From A Cold, Hard, Light Emitting Diode

For those of you who haven’t seen LED light bulbs in action yet, the idea of creating luminescence through radiative recombination may sound a little cold, so we put the bulb through its paces in the warmest-looking fixture of the house. It’s also one that gets direct use for reading electronic media and printed matter.

The image above is the lamp we use all night, every night, after working under unshaded fluorescent office lights all day, so a nice, soothing light is a priority in that particular fixture.

Our new Cree LED light bulb replaced a pretty decent CFL that gave off a fairly soft light, which was pleasant enough under the red lampshade. However, even to our relatively undiscerning eye the light from the new Cree was a few degrees softer and warmer.

If you already have CFLs at home but are a little put off by the squiggly shape that some of them sport, the Cree bulb also offers a return to the traditional styling of an incandescent bulb. It also reaches full brightness in an instant, and it has hum-free and buzz-free compatibility with most dimmers.

 

Also, if you are a klutz, keep in mind that the shell of the Cree bulb is now made from shatter-resistant plastic, not glass (our sister site greenbuildingelements.com can give you a rundown on other advantages of LED light bulbs).

The question is, is it worth tossing out a perfectly good CFL in favor of an LED, even at well under the $10 price point? That depends on your household budget, but one alternative to the CFL recycling bin would be to give them to a local civic organization, or perhaps use them to tempt an incandescent-hoarding neighbor into trying out a free energy-saving bulb.

Speaking of saving energy, here’s the lowdown on the new Cree LED light bulb according to the company’s specs.

At 82 percent less energy consumption than conventional light bulbs, The 60W Cree that we tested will save an average of $1.32 yearly when used for just three hours daily. All else being equal, your payback period would span just a  few years, and for your $7.97 investment you get a lifetime savings of about $135.

Since the lifespan of the Cree bulb is estimated at almost 23 years (at three hours daily), you’re also going to save additional money on the replacement cost for conventional bulbs, which have a much shorter life.

For the record, Cree provided us with the 60W “Soft White” version of its new LED light bulb. The company also offers a “Daylight” version that  goes for $8.97.

Coaxing Down The Cost Of LED Light Bulbs

LED technology is the bomb when it comes to energy efficiency, so the problem for introducing it into mainstream household lighting is the up-front cost.

One of the main obstacles is the high internal temperature at which the bulbs operate. Typically, LED light bulb manufacturers counter that with a “heat sink,” but Cree figure out a way to get around it.

We don’t have the press materials handy but an email from Cree provided us with the lowdown:

The new Cree LED bulbs replace expensive external heat dissipation with a new 4Flow Filament Design using cross-flow ventilation to cool the LED. By eliminating the heat sink entirely with this convection technology, Cree’s engineers have taken advantage of the simple principle that heat rises.

Any heat generated from the bulb will draw the cooler ambient air through the bulb to vent the heat into the ambient. Thermal equilibrium around the bulb is achieved and voila, the need for a heat sink is no more.

Aside from improving the efficiency of the bulb, that convection-based design saves a significant amount in manufacturing costs, which accounts for why Cree was able to lower its prices again after busting through that aforementioned $10 LED barrier last year (Cree’s three-way LED also provides a comparison).

Not for nothing, but we built this low cost LED light bulb! That’s right, Cree is one of the recipients of Energy Department grants aimed at bringing down the cost of ultra energy-efficient household and commercial lighting. That includes manufacturing costs as well as improving the efficiency of the technology itself.

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About the Author

Tina Casey specializes in military and corporate sustainability, advanced technology, emerging materials, biofuels, and water and wastewater issues. Tina’s articles are reposted frequently on Reuters, Scientific American, and many other sites. Views expressed are her own. Follow her on Twitter @TinaMCasey and Google+.


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  • sal3

    Doesn’t the convection cooling limit the bulb to vertical mounting?

    • Steven F

      No. Convective cooling still happens when the bulb is horizontal just not as much. Add to thad low power levels in LED bulbs mean they don’t generate as much heat as other bulbs. In my experience it more important to have more space around the bulb than the orientation. Also I have 2 PAR 20 LED’s in tight fitting enclosures and they do run at about 50 to 60C (at the socket, The outside runs conciderably cooler) and have had themso for over a year with no change is light output.

  • Steven F

    If you want a efficient light, loose the lamp shade. It blocks most of the light and converts most of it to heat. naturally we don’t do that because 1000 lumpen bulbs are too bright to look at. It is best to put the lamps in the ceiling or use spot lights focused the walls. the refected light won’t hurt you eyes. Better yet Instead of using 3 or 4 1000 lumen bulbs per room use 10 or more lower wattage bulbs spread out all over the room. This will reduce shadow in the room and provide more even illumination. I am currently sitting in a room with 18 LED lamps (all between 400 and 500 lumens). Power consumption is about 111 Watts. The previous owner used used incandescents and used about 425 watts to light the same space and it wasn’t a well lit room.

    I got most of my bulbs from ‘ hardware stores. They tend to have a better selection of LED bulbs than Homedepot. On a recent visit to IKEA I saw a very limited selection of LED bulbs. Perhaps IKEA stores in other cities are better.

  • Kyle Field

    Thanks for the tip – I have been (passively, lazily) looking for dimmable LED flood bulbs for church. This retailer only had 2 of the 2 packs but that’s a nice start :)

    • hhl

      There are as many as you need on ebay for the same price in multiples of 6/8/10

      • Kyle Field

        Thanks – bought a few more on ebay today to fill the gap :) I started a project to reduce energy usage at the church…then offset the remainder with solar. Fun, stretching goal for sure :)

  • Kyle Field

    I was thankful to have picked up 16 cree 60 watt equivs through my utility for ~$3 each. I swapped them in for my CFLs and donated those to my church (who was still using 75w incandescent floods!). I’m a cree fan…the only issue I had was with the rubberized glass housing on one bulb coming off. It looked like it was just hot-glued on.

  • Adrian

    All I want is a 2700k 50W 12V PAR38 equivalent from a reputable manufacturer, and I’ll be incandescent-free.

    Anyone got a source?

    • GCO

      12V PAR38, you’re sure? Not e.g. MR16?
      What base does it have?

      • Adrian

        Whoops, yeah. MR16. Two wire pins close together. Lots available from no-name Chinese manufacturers in 5000K or 3000K, but so far I haven’t found anything from a reputable manufacturer in 2700K. Higher color temps really make the kitchen look weird, it’s all dark woods and black/brown quartz which don’t take well to blueish light.

        • GCO

          50W halogen MR16s are usually around 3000 K, so a good 3000 K LED should give you the same results. This assume that the rating is accurate, and CRI high enough, both of which no-names LEDs can be very bad at. You’re wise to turn to reputable manufacturers instead.

          The other thing is, we humans are quirky, the color temperature we consider pleasant (not too blue, not too yellow) depends on brightness => http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kruithof_curve

          These two things, plus the slightly higher efficiency of bluer LEDs, probably explain why most brands don’t offer low color temperature on high-output LED bulbs; it’s either/or.

          Found some Philips 500 lumens (50 W eq) MR16, but they’re 3000 K, like the halogen they’re meant to replace.
          Yes they also have 2700 K, just not as bright at 405 lumens (35 W eq).
          http://www.homedepot.com/b/Electrical-Light-Bulbs-LED-Light-Bulbs/GE/Philips/N-5yc1vZbm79ZloZ15bZ2s8Z1z0t5dmZ1z0tgccZ1z0th49Z1z0vvqaZ1z0x2e0?NCNI-5

          At 21~23$ a pop, they will take a few years to pay for themselves…

          • djr417

            I just bought the Philips 35W mr16 @ 500 lumens, replacing a halogen bulb in my living room. lasted about 5 seconds then poof! now neither bulb works. i take it the ballast blew? this was my only mr16 fixture- so cant tell if the bulb is damaged, but the halogen wont work either. cost was $22+ tax

  • spec9

    Yeah, in the USA, the IKEA bulbs are $3.99. They are a complete no-brainer. Great light, instant-on, inexpensive, work with dimmers . . . There is no downside. My home is free of incandescents.

  • David in Bushwick

    We just got two IKEA 60w LED lamps to replace our hated compact fluorescent bulbs and couldn’t be happier. They are just $4.
    I will be gifting them by the dozens for Christmas. No more cold-blue lights!

  • BlackTalon53 .

    Just two days ago I replaced four 50W incandescent GU10 spotlights from my ceiling lamp with four 7W LED lights – the room is much more brightly and evenly lit than before, the light isn’t unpleasantly yellowish either.

    I do not like the yellow “warm” color, and if other people just got used to it a little they wouldn’t like it either I guess.

    • Kyle Field

      I agree – the cool white LEDs look much better. I’m still trying to convince my wife that we should get cool white christmas lights (they look more like cool white snow, right?) vs the warm yellowish LEDs but she’s not sold.
      Meh…maybe no christmas lights again this year (and yes, I’m holding out until I convince her white is the way to go :) ).

  • Jenny Sommer

    I buy the 2.99€ Ikea LEDs.
    They used to cost over 13€ two years ago.

    • Larmion

      Another hugely satisfied Ikea user here. They undercut the big guys by a signficant margin and they compete well with the Philips designs I also have around the house. Lumen per watt is slightly lower, but CRI is better and cost far lower.

      • GCO

        Well, FWIW, I had both Ikea and Philips CFLs. Several years later, all Ikea bulbs are long dead, while all the Philips shine on.

        No miracle, you get what you pay for.

        • Larmion

          AFAIK, Ikea didn’t sell LED lights 5 years ago, at least not where I live (Belgium). They did have CFL though in that period, and those were truly, truly horrible. They took ages to get up to full output, died way before they should have and had a sickly color.

        • spec9

          As Larmion pointed out, those were NOT LED bulbs. The LED bulbs only came out in the last couple years. And they are GREAT.

          • GCO

            Yes, as I clearly stated, those were CFLs. I was comparing apples to apples.

            I’m sure Ikea LEDs look fine (their CFLs did too, save for the very first ones), but what makes you think that this time they will magically match the quality and reliability of immensely more experienced brands? Or just that it will at least be consistent?

          • Larmion

            For starters, it’s not apples to apples. An Ikea LED is as similar to an Ikea CFL as I am to a Martian. The technology is so different a comparison is impossible. And because the tech is so different, few companies are active in both sectors.

            Why is it safe to assume Ikea LED’s are okay? Well, for a start the Ikea LED’s are certified by Intertek, which has a good reputation. But more importantly, variance between LED designs is far smaller than that between CFL’s.

            The semiconductors used in LED’s are produced by a fairly small number of manufacturers, all of them of good quality. Beyond that, an LED has few critical components.

            CFL, on the other hand, are more prone to poor manufacturing. They use several components (the ballast in particular) that are produced by hundreds of suppliers of various repute and that, even if sourced from good suppliers, are notoriously prone to failure (which is simply a limitation of the technique). CFL’s also vary considerably in their ability to deal with frequent cycling.

            In short, we can assume the components used are okay. That still leaves the possibility of poor assembly, e.g. bad soldering or a poorly connected heatsink. However, those defects would cause an LED to fail very, very quickly. Since I have about a dozen Ikea LED’s of varying age and none suffered from such defects, I’ll assume assembly is okay too.

            Will a Philips last longer than an Ikea? Probably. Will the difference be nearly as significant as it was in the CFL days? No. In fact, I doubt it will be statistically significant.

          • GCO

            Wow, you’re really just making up everything as you go, aren’t you?

            The Intertek ETL logo merely tells you is that the product complies with mandatory safety standards, ie it likely won’t zap you or cause a fire. It has nothing to do with performance or reliability, let alone reputation. http://www.intertek.com/marks/etl/faq/

            A LED driver is a power supply, its design can vary widely in sophistication, and the vast majority (possibly all) of its components are the same off-the-shelf parts as other electronics, rated to withstand varying ranges of voltages, temperatures and/or mechanical stress — and guess what, lower-rated parts cost less.
            Believing that the whole design, its assembly and testing, can’t have much impact on the product reliability, is mindbogglingly naïve.

            I’ve seen many kinds of problems with low-cost LED bulbs, from benign to severe.
            – Sub-par and/or inconsistent color temperature or rendering, due to the use of less-desirable LED(s) bins.
            – If dimmable: buzzing, flickering, instability etc from overly simplistic dimming circuitry and input filtering, low-grade inductors.
            – RF interference, from insufficient filtering/shielding.
            – Decaying light output, shifting color, due to insufficient heatsinking (incl badly applied thermal paste/glue) and resulting LED(s) degradation.
            – Reduced output (sometimes drastically), unbearable flickering, buzzing due to failed, undersized or under-rated electrolytic capacitors.
            – Blown driver or input stage, again the result of under-rated components, lack of proper input filtering and transients protection.

            All those problems are hallmarks of cheap construction. It’s just too easy for more aggressive manufacturers to save with e.g. a smaller heatsink, faster (but less accurate) assembly and/or testing, capacitors rated for lower temperatures, skip on transients protection, as none of those will affect initial performance.

            There is no basis to believe that low-cost vs brand LED bulbs will play out differently than low-cost vs brand anything-else (incl CFLs) did.

          • Jenny Sommer

            We’ll see. My fist batch of around 10 600 lumen bulbs is lasting over 3years now. They did cost ~13€ back then while others where double that.

    • Bob_Wallace

      I’m not finding any IKEA LEDs in the 100 watt equivalent range. Do they sell anything larger than the 60 watt eq?

      • Larmion

        Ikea currently offers a 1000 lumen LED (at least in Europe). That’s somewhere in between the two (60W is 800 lumen, 100W is 1600 lumen). So no, the best you can get is a 75W equivalent.

        But that’s okay; Ikea’s core market is Europe and 100W light bulbs never really took off here (rooms tend to be a smaller and lower than in a typical American home and lighting is often GU10 rather than a bulb).

        • dcard88

          1000 lumens is enough for reading…barely.

      • GCO

        Homedepot now has Philips 1680 lumens at 30$ for 2. That’s a steal, for such high-quality stuff. Much lower than what I paid only months ago.

        Very happy with them, they’re truly 100W equivalent and dim well (down to 10~20%) without flickering or buzzing. They get hot though.
        http://www.homedepot.com/p/Philips-100W-Equivalent-Soft-White-2700K-A21-Dimmable-LED-Light-Bulb-E-2-Pack-432195/204584126

        • Bob_Wallace

          I bought a Cree 100 watt eq at HD for around $15. Their Cree prices (in store) bounce up and down. They’ve sold the 60 watt eq for less than $5 at times and at other times it’s in the $10-$12 range.

          The few times a year I go past a HD I stop in and see if I can add another LED to my collection. (But I’ve got a box of CFLs that I got for 50 cents apiece….)

          • GCO

            Just curious, how do you like your 1600-lumen Cree? Have you tried dimming it?
            Philips and Cree (plus Osram, if they bothered to sell consumer bulbs) are pretty much the only brands I’d get LED bulbs from at this point, but I haven’t tried Crees just yet; I tested, and very much like, Cree’s CXA LED arrays though…

          • Bob_Wallace

            I really like the Cree. Being offgrid we have a “one light per person” rule and 60 eq just weren’t bright enough for easy reading in a floor lamp.

            I haven’t tried dimming and I really can’t compare them to other brands. I can’t say that I find any real difference between LEDs and CFLs for my purposes. Well, the LEDs are better than 15 year old CFLs…. ;o)

          • Offgridman

            On the new Phillips soft whites I have been very pleased. Last month picked up the new 60 watt equiv (looks like a squished in incandescent), and the slim line 75 down spot.
            Both are dimmable and really like the light color/quality from both. Both were under 8$ each which is another positive.

          • dcard88

            Oh no. Another one of those CFL hoarders. :)

      • spec9

        100W equivalent is not really available. There are some but they are expensive. They are hard to build because of thermal issues.

      • Jenny Sommer

        There is one 1000 lumen bulb. I mostly use two 400 or 600 lumen bulbs per lamp.
        I also like the led spots.

        That’s for the old lamps. Just installed some 3000 lumen lamps in the basement, 15€, array of LEDs, just plain white discs.

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