http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/09/philips-master-led-light-bulb-set-for-us-release-in-july/ Engadget Comments for http://www.engadget.com/media/feedlogo.gif http://www.engadget.com en-us Copyright 2012 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/09/philips-master-led-light-bulb-set-for-us-release-in-july/http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/09/philips-master-led-light-bulb-set-for-us-release-in-july/Mar 9th 2009 9:08PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/03/09/philips-master-led-light-bulb-set-for-us-release-in-july/http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/09/philips-master-led-light-bulb-set-for-us-release-in-july/Mar 9th 2009 9:20PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/03/09/philips-master-led-light-bulb-set-for-us-release-in-july/http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/09/philips-master-led-light-bulb-set-for-us-release-in-july/Mar 9th 2009 9:32PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/03/09/philips-master-led-light-bulb-set-for-us-release-in-july/http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/09/philips-master-led-light-bulb-set-for-us-release-in-july/http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.2849

here you go

OOS btw.]]>Mar 9th 2009 9:52PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/03/09/philips-master-led-light-bulb-set-for-us-release-in-july/http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/09/philips-master-led-light-bulb-set-for-us-release-in-july/
This thing looks incredibly over-engineered.]]>Mar 9th 2009 9:55PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/03/09/philips-master-led-light-bulb-set-for-us-release-in-july/http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/09/philips-master-led-light-bulb-set-for-us-release-in-july/Mar 10th 2009 9:29PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/03/09/philips-master-led-light-bulb-set-for-us-release-in-july/http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/09/philips-master-led-light-bulb-set-for-us-release-in-july/
Chances are, Phillips will be making them in China. ]]>Mar 9th 2009 11:57PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/03/09/philips-master-led-light-bulb-set-for-us-release-in-july/http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/09/philips-master-led-light-bulb-set-for-us-release-in-july/
Basically....

70 dollar lightbulb is 70 dollars.]]>Mar 10th 2009 2:39AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/03/09/philips-master-led-light-bulb-set-for-us-release-in-july/http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/09/philips-master-led-light-bulb-set-for-us-release-in-july/Mar 10th 2009 10:50AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/03/09/philips-master-led-light-bulb-set-for-us-release-in-july/http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/09/philips-master-led-light-bulb-set-for-us-release-in-july/Mar 9th 2009 9:10PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/03/09/philips-master-led-light-bulb-set-for-us-release-in-july/http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/09/philips-master-led-light-bulb-set-for-us-release-in-july/
Source: http://www.mrbeams.com/index.asp?PageAction=Custom&ID=2 (The first result in google)]]>Mar 9th 2009 9:51PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/03/09/philips-master-led-light-bulb-set-for-us-release-in-july/http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/09/philips-master-led-light-bulb-set-for-us-release-in-july/
They are superior in every way. In a few years the price will come down enough that people will stop buying Compact fluorecents and stop missing incandescents. ]]>Mar 9th 2009 10:18PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/03/09/philips-master-led-light-bulb-set-for-us-release-in-july/http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/09/philips-master-led-light-bulb-set-for-us-release-in-july/Mar 9th 2009 10:52PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/03/09/philips-master-led-light-bulb-set-for-us-release-in-july/http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/09/philips-master-led-light-bulb-set-for-us-release-in-july/Mar 9th 2009 11:22PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/03/09/philips-master-led-light-bulb-set-for-us-release-in-july/http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/09/philips-master-led-light-bulb-set-for-us-release-in-july/Mar 10th 2009 12:19AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/03/09/philips-master-led-light-bulb-set-for-us-release-in-july/http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/09/philips-master-led-light-bulb-set-for-us-release-in-july/
LEDs do dim, but most LED bulbs do not. I reckon this has to do with the many low-powered LEDs in a bulb requiring a in-bulb transformer in order to not totally zap the LEDs. You can't feed 230V AC straight into LEDs (not if you don't happen to have like 64 of them, each at 3.6V).]]>Mar 10th 2009 4:08AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/03/09/philips-master-led-light-bulb-set-for-us-release-in-july/http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/09/philips-master-led-light-bulb-set-for-us-release-in-july/http://www.lck-led.com/p435/Aluminum-E27-5-x-1W-Power-LEDs-Bulbs/product_info.html

There, go buy one for $30 and decide if you like it better than the Phillips one.

Oh, and these DO dim.

The reason CFLs are cheap is because they're subsidized.]]>Mar 10th 2009 2:45PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/03/09/philips-master-led-light-bulb-set-for-us-release-in-july/http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/09/philips-master-led-light-bulb-set-for-us-release-in-july/
Anyhow, CFLs are absolutely fine most places (get a 'warm' one if you want them to look like incandescents, or a 'daylight' one if you want bright white)... but there are two cases where you might really want LED-based lighting:

1) you turn the light on and off very frequently (this reduces the lifespan of CFLs) eg bathroom light
2) you really insist on a dimmer switch

I'd be in the market for one (just one) LED bulb. $70? Sure, fine. 40W equiv? Not good enough.

So, nice to see the product and all, but let's hope the technology keeps improving.]]>Mar 10th 2009 6:00PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/03/09/philips-master-led-light-bulb-set-for-us-release-in-july/http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/09/philips-master-led-light-bulb-set-for-us-release-in-july/Mar 9th 2009 9:10PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/03/09/philips-master-led-light-bulb-set-for-us-release-in-july/http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/09/philips-master-led-light-bulb-set-for-us-release-in-july/Mar 9th 2009 9:39PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/03/09/philips-master-led-light-bulb-set-for-us-release-in-july/http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/09/philips-master-led-light-bulb-set-for-us-release-in-july/Mar 9th 2009 10:12PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/03/09/philips-master-led-light-bulb-set-for-us-release-in-july/http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/09/philips-master-led-light-bulb-set-for-us-release-in-july/
This is great though! They need to push for more advances in LED tech]]>Mar 9th 2009 9:11PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/03/09/philips-master-led-light-bulb-set-for-us-release-in-july/http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/09/philips-master-led-light-bulb-set-for-us-release-in-july/Mar 9th 2009 9:12PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/03/09/philips-master-led-light-bulb-set-for-us-release-in-july/http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/09/philips-master-led-light-bulb-set-for-us-release-in-july/Mar 9th 2009 9:14PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/03/09/philips-master-led-light-bulb-set-for-us-release-in-july/http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/09/philips-master-led-light-bulb-set-for-us-release-in-july/Mar 9th 2009 9:23PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/03/09/philips-master-led-light-bulb-set-for-us-release-in-july/http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/09/philips-master-led-light-bulb-set-for-us-release-in-july/Mar 9th 2009 9:43PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/03/09/philips-master-led-light-bulb-set-for-us-release-in-july/http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/09/philips-master-led-light-bulb-set-for-us-release-in-july/Mar 9th 2009 11:02PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/03/09/philips-master-led-light-bulb-set-for-us-release-in-july/http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/09/philips-master-led-light-bulb-set-for-us-release-in-july/
http://www.enluxled.com/products/

because I thought it was cool.

It lasted about 2000 hours before it quit.]]>Mar 9th 2009 11:41PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/03/09/philips-master-led-light-bulb-set-for-us-release-in-july/http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/09/philips-master-led-light-bulb-set-for-us-release-in-july/ ]]>Mar 10th 2009 1:33AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/03/09/philips-master-led-light-bulb-set-for-us-release-in-july/http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/09/philips-master-led-light-bulb-set-for-us-release-in-july/
In a nutshell, no, they don't last forever, and while it is not very exciting, it has nothing to do with conspiracy to get people to buy more. My concern is quite the opposite, the current crop of mains powered LED products often fall so short of claimed lifespan and offer such lackluster performance that people will get turned off to the whole concept and will be unreceptive even down the road when the technology improves sufficiently which I believe it will.]]>Mar 10th 2009 6:12PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/03/09/philips-master-led-light-bulb-set-for-us-release-in-july/http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/09/philips-master-led-light-bulb-set-for-us-release-in-july/And while regular bulbs might cost quite a bit of money over their lifetime, sparingly used bulbs can last years and years before that lifetime is up. With a lower up-front cost you have more money to buy other stuff with in the interim, or put it in a bank account to earn interest or something.
Installing these in places where the bulbs are going to be on for a lot of hours each day makes sense, but I have a hard time believing that regular people will put these bulbs everywhere at this price. Especially since the up-front costs would run into the thousands if you wanted to replace every lightbulb in your house at once. And who cares if your closet light bulb lasts 45000 hours or not?]]>Mar 11th 2009 3:07AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/03/09/philips-master-led-light-bulb-set-for-us-release-in-july/http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/09/philips-master-led-light-bulb-set-for-us-release-in-july/
I'm sure the prices will come down as these become commonplace. So any bets as to how long it will be before low-voltage DC outlets are common in the home?]]>Mar 9th 2009 9:17PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/03/09/philips-master-led-light-bulb-set-for-us-release-in-july/http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/09/philips-master-led-light-bulb-set-for-us-release-in-july/Mar 9th 2009 9:42PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/03/09/philips-master-led-light-bulb-set-for-us-release-in-july/http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/09/philips-master-led-light-bulb-set-for-us-release-in-july/
I wholeheartedly agree. And probably so do the guys who call the shots.
BUT, just imagine the confusion. Take the DTV transition confusing and multiply that by 100,000.]]>Mar 9th 2009 10:07PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/03/09/philips-master-led-light-bulb-set-for-us-release-in-july/http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/09/philips-master-led-light-bulb-set-for-us-release-in-july/
It isn't the voltage that will kill you. It's the current.]]>Mar 9th 2009 10:19PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/03/09/philips-master-led-light-bulb-set-for-us-release-in-july/http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/09/philips-master-led-light-bulb-set-for-us-release-in-july/Mar 9th 2009 11:06PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/03/09/philips-master-led-light-bulb-set-for-us-release-in-july/http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/09/philips-master-led-light-bulb-set-for-us-release-in-july/
It couldn't be too confusing if they made some kind of hybrid outlet that both 110AC and 12V devices could plug into. Or even intelligent sockets that switch power type based on the device plugged in.]]>Mar 9th 2009 11:11PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/03/09/philips-master-led-light-bulb-set-for-us-release-in-july/http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/09/philips-master-led-light-bulb-set-for-us-release-in-july/
Hmm, I believe the reason AC won back then was there was no legitimate way of distributing DC current over long distances. DC is actually a much safer form of current than AC. You are right about current killing you of course. Technology has changed significantly (duh) in the last 90 years and DC is now a far more viable alternative. However, retrofitting houses and buildings to use it would be largely prohibitively expensive, to say nothing of the changes needed in distribution systems.]]>Mar 9th 2009 11:28PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/03/09/philips-master-led-light-bulb-set-for-us-release-in-july/http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/09/philips-master-led-light-bulb-set-for-us-release-in-july/Mar 10th 2009 3:53AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/03/09/philips-master-led-light-bulb-set-for-us-release-in-july/http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/09/philips-master-led-light-bulb-set-for-us-release-in-july/

Edison carried out a campaign to discourage the use of alternating current, including spreading information on fatal AC accidents, publicly killing animals, and lobbying against the use of AC in state legislatures. Edison directed his technicians, primarily Arthur Kennelly and Harold P. Brown, to preside over several AC-driven executions of animals, primarily stray cats and dogs but also unwanted cattle and horses. Acting on these directives, they were to demonstrate to the press that alternating current was more dangerous than Edison's system of direct current. Edison's series of animal executions peaked with the filmed electrocution of Topsy, a Coney Island circus elephant. He also tried to popularize the term for being electrocuted as being "Westinghoused".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_Currents#Edison.27s_publicity_campaign

AC won the "War of Currents" because it was easier to distribute long distances.

Having a standardized DC circuit in houses would be a great idea (especially for lighting circuits).]]>Mar 10th 2009 6:01AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/03/09/philips-master-led-light-bulb-set-for-us-release-in-july/http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/09/philips-master-led-light-bulb-set-for-us-release-in-july/Mar 10th 2009 9:21PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/03/09/philips-master-led-light-bulb-set-for-us-release-in-july/http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/09/philips-master-led-light-bulb-set-for-us-release-in-july/Mar 9th 2009 9:19PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/03/09/philips-master-led-light-bulb-set-for-us-release-in-july/http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/09/philips-master-led-light-bulb-set-for-us-release-in-july/
I have some nice, old lightbulbs right here that you can jump on. Even some CFL, if bulbs can't satisfy you.]]>Mar 10th 2009 4:01AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/03/09/philips-master-led-light-bulb-set-for-us-release-in-july/http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/09/philips-master-led-light-bulb-set-for-us-release-in-july/Mar 9th 2009 9:20PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/03/09/philips-master-led-light-bulb-set-for-us-release-in-july/http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/09/philips-master-led-light-bulb-set-for-us-release-in-july/
You can get CFLs today that produce 40W worth of light that consume 7W of power. So the low power alternative exists. The life is ~4x as long, but the cost is ~12-20x so the only thing you get is the ability to set a color. Sorry, but this is not going to get the market focus at this price delta when there's a very good alternative on the table. I've been using CFL's since the 80's and my father still has some of the original bulbs we installed in his bathroom back in 1987. The blink a couple times and and hum a bit, but they did pay for themselves between a combination of reduced power consumption and 22yrs of not replacing a bulb (If I recall correctly he spent $12 per bulb - equivalent lume ones today cost about $3 per bulb and are even more efficient.) At 2hrs/day for 22yrs and these being 40W lume w/ 10W consumption at $0.10/KW average over that period of time. That's ~$150 savings (and yes that's 16Khrs and still going)

TAZ427]]>Mar 11th 2009 11:35AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/03/09/philips-master-led-light-bulb-set-for-us-release-in-july/http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/09/philips-master-led-light-bulb-set-for-us-release-in-july/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Led#Life_time_and_failure

With the the development of high power LEDs the devices are subjected to higher junction temperatures and higher current densities than traditional devices. This causes stress on the material and may cause early light output degradation. To quantitatively classify lifetime in a standardized manner it has been suggested to use the terms L75 and L50 which is the time it will take a given LED to reach 75% and 50% light output respectively.]]>Mar 9th 2009 9:30PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/03/09/philips-master-led-light-bulb-set-for-us-release-in-july/http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/09/philips-master-led-light-bulb-set-for-us-release-in-july/Mar 9th 2009 9:26PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/03/09/philips-master-led-light-bulb-set-for-us-release-in-july/http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/09/philips-master-led-light-bulb-set-for-us-release-in-july/Mar 9th 2009 9:26PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/03/09/philips-master-led-light-bulb-set-for-us-release-in-july/http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/09/philips-master-led-light-bulb-set-for-us-release-in-july/Mar 16th 2009 5:38PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/03/09/philips-master-led-light-bulb-set-for-us-release-in-july/http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/09/philips-master-led-light-bulb-set-for-us-release-in-july/Mar 9th 2009 9:28PM