Note : they make a “regular CRI” variant of these. Not saying you got those, just make sure it says “true and natural colors” with the 90+ (93 if I recall correctly) CRI listed on the packaging.
The rule is generally that they charge what the market will bear. This means that over time, prices come to a certain equilibrium, based on the interchangeability of the light bulbs of various makers, and what the production cost is. In general, if companies are competing on cost, the one who can make the bulbs the cheapest is going to be the long-term winner, because they can drop their price lower than their competition, or they can keep it at the same as their competition, and make more profit per bulb.
However, lowest cost isn’t really a desired competitive strategy. Most manufacturers try to differentiate themselves from their competition in some way, and charge more for that difference. That’s why you see claims of “more natural light”, higher efficiency, longer lifetimes, and things like that- those things distinguish their bulbs from the rest of the otherwise fungible light bulb market within a given size, light output and base.
Incandescent bulbs are stupid-simple- they’re basically a hot filament in a glass bulb with a vacuum inside. Halogens are a bit more complicated- they’re still a hot filament in a glass container, but there’s some kind of halogen gas in there too that sets up a chemical cycle that resists the deposition of tungsten on the glass (the main thing that eventually ruins incandescent bulbs), and it’s under pressure. Plus, the bulb itself is stronger and more temperature resistant, as the halogen bulbs can be run much hotter , which is the source of their efficiency gains.
So for halogen versions of A19 bulbs, you have everything the normal bulb has, but you also have an inner bulb of high strength, high temp resistant glass filled with halogen gas. So there’s definitely some cost difference, but I suspect it’s a way to get more money now that incandescents are gone, since halogens have always been more expensive.
And the LEDs are the most complex, containing a bundle of the diodes themselves, a lens, some method to actually make the white light from the monochromatic output of the diodes, an AC-DC converter, and a heat sink. Ironic that you can get supposedly good ones for $5 a bulb (those Feit 60w high CRI ones). The LED light sources themselves are claimed to last 20k+ hours, although I grain of salt this, because the AC-DC converter will probably fail first.
Mine say 92+ CRI, 810 lumen, 25,000 hour, 2,700 K.
Yeah, that’s the one. At $3.33 a bulb, I wouldn’t want to bet on them actually all surviving 25k hours, but they probably last vastly longer than the 1000 hours of incandescents on average. I’ve never seen one burn out, personally.
As with everything else, not all LED bulbs are equal. The ones coming out of China are, in large part, poor quality. The best-rated LEDs on the market are made in the USA by Cree, available at Amazon or Home Depot. The ones I have installed cast a nice, warm light, and stay mildly warm to the touch. I initially bought four of them to try out, and have just ordered another eight to replace remaining incandescent and halogen bulbs in the house.
I really want to replace the CFL can light lamps, but LED replacement cost isn’t cheap.
I got a 4 pack of GE 40 watt equivalent soft white halogens today for $6.88 (the Wal-Mart house brand ones were even cheaper)
Could you really ever get a 4 pack of 40 watt incandescents for $1.72? I sure don’t recall them ever being that cheap. Even $2.29 per 4 pack seems lower than I recall.
I’ve tried the Cree models, they’re better than most cheap “Snowcone” LEDs, but not as good as incandescents. The TW model comes closest to incandescent color rendering but the huge heatsink blocks any light coming down towards the base. The 4-Flow model doesn’t have the high CRI and but disperses light light an incandescent. Neither are available above 60 watts and neither dim very well. The downlight retrofits have good color but again don’t dim well.
GE brand are trash. Also, just relabeled stuff straight from China. The critical flaw is they are low CRI. Get high CRI, or you will regret it.
GE Halogens are low CRI?
But seriously, does anyone actually know where lightbulbs are made, or is that some dark industry secret. GE incandescents used to say made in the US, now the halogens say made in China. Sylvania said made in the US, then made in Hungary or someplace, now made in the US of domestic and foreign components. Does this mean they make all the pieces in China and a robot in the US slaps them together so Menards and Walmart can advertise “Made in the US”. What about Cree LEDs, the chips used to be in the US, but I guess they outsourced assembly, and now have invested in Asian chip manufacturing.
I found a box of old track lighting on the street and pilfered all of the halogen bulbs from the used fixtures. I replaced all of my dead halogen bulbs and have some to spare.
So, to me the cost of halogen bulbs is zero.
However, I pay an arm and a leg for everything else.
Yeah, my experience with things like this is that 9 out of ten of them will last 28,000 hours, and one will die in the first month. You’ll average 25,000 hours but you can’t count on any single bulb to give you the rated life.
I have not had good luck with CREE LED bulbs. I installed 44 65W-equivalent floodlights last summer in a renovation project, thinking I was buying quality bulbs. So far, in 18 months, I have had 17 of them go bad. I thought I might have a first wave of bad ones followed by no more burn outs, but that hasn’t happened. I am still having bulbs go bad on a sporadic basis.
Fortunately, HD has replaced all of the bad ones without much hassle, but it certainly appears to me that a 15k, 20k or 25k hour life is enormously exaggerated. I have three sitting on my credenza ready to take back to Home Depot at this very moment. When they decide to quit replacing them, I am going to be mighty pissed. The packaging says that CREE will honor the warranty if you mail bad bulbs back to them. Who the hell wants to mail back a burnt out light bulb?
I like LED bulbs much better than CFL ones, but I’m not convinced I’ll save nearly as much money in the long run as the propaganda would lead us to believe, due to the lack of reliability and longevity.
Both interesting and surprising. Do you think the fixtures may be contributing, or a voltage problem?
I’ve never had a Cree go bad.
My longest-lasting one has been on 24/7 since July of 2013.
I’m wondering about the fixtures. LED bulbs don’t produce much heat, but are more sensitive to it. I usually use them in fixtures with the bulb oriented up. I’m thinking that a bulb down fixture like in an outside floodlight might accelerate failure.
I have had several go bad in numerous recessed and track light fixtures. These are the intended fixtures for BR30 type bulbs. All of the fixtures were new last summer, as well, so I don’t think it’s a fixture problem. As for voltage, I can’t say I know. But it’s not like all of the bad ones go out at the same time, as in a voltage spike event. Any suggestions for evaluating my power supply?
Not sure where you get that from, unless 100 CRI is low.
That’s not an LED…
Over their lifespan, they will gobble many times the bulb cost in energy.