I've been interested in finding a more acceptable solution to indoor
lighting than the usual spiral CFLs for a while now, yesterday I was
researching LED light bulbs as I was actually repairing an outdoor post
light (and am trying a 4W LED in it, although I don't think it's bright
enough for the application) and found this:

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Philips-1...0#BVRRWidgetID


which is available at select (read: almost none) Home Depots but the
secret is that if you can find them, they're apparently subsidized by
local utilities or something to about $15 apiece, not the $50 listed on
the web site. A store about 50 miles away from me had a stock of them
however and I have a friend who works in that area so I imposed on him
to get me a couple.

I have a feeling I need more of these. They have a CRI of 92 (normal
CFLs and most LEDs are in the 70-80 range) Surprisingly, HD does not
even mention CRI at all in their description of this product although to
me it's a bigger deal than the efficiency. However if you research the
L-prize you'll find that a CRI of 90 was one of the conditions. They
also turn on instantly, and are actually bright. Well, almost instantly
- there's a very brief but noticable delay between flipping the switch
and getting light. It's really the one way you can tell that you're not
turning on an incandescent bulb but something more complicated and
electronic. I remember when we didn't try to skimp on light bulb size
and actually lit up a room, but since switching to CFLs it's hard to get
enough light in some spaces. Two of these 10W bulbs are definitely
brighter than the single 40W CFL with which I was trying to light up a
difficult room (dark paneling, main lighting from a torchiere with a
dark colored shade that reflects most of the light up, would have been
acceptable with a 200+ watt 3-way incandescent which is what it was
obviously designed for, but nothing else produced acceptable light) and
there's none of that annoying brightness ramp-up that you get from CFLs.

One thing that I have not tested with these bulbs is dimming ability.
Supposedly it works, but some dimmers will buzz and hum. But if you
don't have dimmers, don't have fully enclosed light fixtures, and don't
mind (or can't see in your application) the odd shape/color of the bulb
when unlit, there's really nothing at all I can find fault with.

Best part - this bulb is actually assembled in the USA, and apparently
the LEDs used are made in the USA as well!

This may be old news for some as apparently they've been available @ HD
at the discounted price for about a month now, but I figured this was
worth posting because a) I don't go into HD that often and b) even if I
did, none of the stores local to me carry this bulb so if I hadn't gone
looking for it online I would not have known that it was actually
available (and if someone hadn't mentioned to check the price, the $50
price listed on HD's web site would have put me off...)

Hope this helps someone...

nate

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