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The dropping value of LED bulbs is accelerating. We evaluate a couple of brands to see how they're approaching design and decrease price manufacturing. You have most likely seen LED bulbs situated subsequent to the incandescent and compact fluorescent (CFL) bulbs at your native hardware store. I spend means a lot time in these aisles. That is capitalism at its finest! I discover the battle of recent tech, sensible manufacturing, EcoLight brand and massive demand intriguing. I've switched nearly all of the lights in our house over to LED partly because of the (small) energy financial savings, but principally as a result of I am lazy: EcoLight dimmable A 22-year lifetime means I don't must climb a ladder for some time. After i bought my LED bulbs just a few years in the past they had been around $15 a pop. As with most all tech, I've watch the value drop over time. On this case, LED bulbs in my local Residence Depot (Philips 60W) are hovering round $10.

On a current go to to the lighting aisle I used to be taken off guard when a pack of two 60W bulbs by Philips had been promoting for $5 ($2.50 every!). This isn't just a drop in value, that is an all out price warfare between some heavy hitters. Complicated me was the fact that right subsequent to those 60W bulbs for $2.50 were 60W bulbs for EcoLight dimmable $10 from the same manufacturer. Upon closer inspection I observed something odd. These lower price LEDs had a display life of 10 years as opposed to 22. Okay, so that they shaved some price by shortening the life span of the bulb. Neat advertising and marketing trick however the engineer in me wanted to know how. Nothing too loopy. Each bulb claimed to be 800 lumen at numerous energy consumption ranges (8.5W to 9.5W). And that i only seen this now however the cheap bulbs are non-EcoLight dimmable. Onerous to see within the above image however the bulb in the center (low cost Philips) is slightly shorter than the costlier Philips bulb.

The TCP is a couple of centimeter taller. This has little impact on lighting but millimeters of supplies will start to matter. I did a fast preliminary take a look at to see how the bulbs carried out. 13.2W). Maybe the precise LEDs consume 9.5W and the ballast (the factor EcoLight converting AC to DC) consumes the rest. This would be an excellent-sneaky marketing ploy, EcoLight outdoor as I assumed the ranking on the surface of the packaging was the general power consumption of the bulb. All three bulbs had opaque plastic upper our bodies. The expensive Philips bulb came apart with some strong twisting. Beneath was a neat plastic diffuser. Beneath the diffuser was a mixture of small and enormous LEDs. Not what I'd have anticipated - 14 massive LEDs, 6 small. A, as properly as the date code: 2014-10-14, a delta of 7 months from after i bought the bulb. The date is probably in relation to design version and never manufacture date.

With quite a bit of prying power, the steel LED PCB comes off the metal base heatsink. This was to be expected; there was good thermal grease sandwiched between the PCB and the heatsink. Some further prying and we will see the ballast beneath. I acquired a bit forceful with a hacksaw so ignore the hack marks for the second. The metal base is threaded onto the plastic base and then spot crimped to the plastic (you'll be able to see the multiple dots or dimples across the metal base). That is the first clue that Philips is engaged on simplifying the manufacturing process. Furthermore, the 2 exposed wires in the picture are usually not soldered to the base, they are compressed to it, additionally simplifying the assembly course of. The ballast! A lot of caps, EcoLight an inline fuse, transformer, inductor, and a few transistors. C1, C2 and C3 are metalized polyester film capacitors. Here is the rear side of the ballast.