CREE LED light bulb demo at APEC

Aside from being an editor at EDN, I am also on my Condo board on Long Island and I am an advisor there in a renovation of 400 of the community’s 35 year old walkway lamp posts. As part of that effort, we went from 100 W incandescents that were originally in the lamp posts to a 40 W CFL with the same amount of lumen output as the original incandescents at a great reduction in power drawn from our illustrious electric company LIPA.

I have always know that this would be an interim solution, because of the great efforts in advancing LED lighting and the Mercury content in a CFL. The biggest stumbling blocks in that technology were price and the clunky heatsinks needed to get rid of the heat generated by the conversion circuitry to take 115 VAC to a DC voltage for an LED drive circuit inside the base of the bulb.

I stopped by CREE’s booth at APEC and viewed their neat innovations in electronics power management, which I will comment on in a separate article, but one item caught my eye. Over in one corner, there was a small lamp with a 60 W light bulb that looked like any other mundane light with an incandescent bulb. When I got closer, I saw that this was an LED light bulb with a soft, warm yellowish color. I put my hand near it to feel the warmth of wasted energy in the way of heat and found that I could close my hand around the bulb and only feel a gentle warmth! That’s efficiency!!!

As soon as I return home, I’m buying 400 of them for the condo walkway lights (The 60 W bulbs are outdoor temperature rated)---the cost is just about the same as the 40W CFLs I was buying but the energy savings will be even better than the CFLs gave me.

Cree, Inc. introduced this series of LED bulbs at a retail price point that gives consumers a reason to switch to LED lighting. The long-lasting Cree LED bulbs showcase Cree's commitment to LED lighting innovation. The new bulbs shine as brightly as comparable incandescents while saving 84 percent of the energy compared to traditional bulbs. The Cree LED bulbs are backed by a 10-year limited warranty and available exclusively at The Home Depot®.

The innovative bulb is illuminated by Cree LED Filament Tower™ Technology and provides a compact optically balanced light source within a real glass bulb to deliver consumers the warm light they love and want. Boasting a shape that looks like a traditional light bulb, Cree LED bulbs can be placed in most lighting fixtures in the home. The new Cree LED bulb is designed to last 25,000 hours or 25 times longer than typical incandescent light bulbs – reducing the need to replace bulbs for years to come. 

With a retail price of $9.97 for the warm white 40-watt replacement, $12.97 for the 60-watt warm white replacement and $13.97 for the 60-watt day light, the Cree LED bulbs save 84 percent of the energy compared to traditional incandescents. Cree LED bulbs can pay for themselves quickly and then pay consumers year after year. By replacing the incandescent bulbs with Cree LED bulbs in a home's five most frequently used light fixtures, consumers can save $61 per year on electric bills.*

Cree LED bulbs are the ideal replacement for energy-wasting 60-watt and 40-watt incandescents and compromise-laden CFL lighting. The new LED bulbs turn on instantly and are free of the mercury that is found in CFL bulbs. Unlike many low-priced LED bulbs, Cree LED bulbs are easily dimmable with most standard incandescent dimmers.

The Cree LED light bulb (60-watt incandescent replacement) delivers 800 lumens and consumes only 9.5 watts and is available in warm white (2700K) and day light (5000K) color temperatures. The Cree LED light bulb (40-watt incandescent replacement) delivers 450 lumens and consumes only 6 watts and is available in 2700K color temperature.

All products are available exclusively at The Home Depot. Please visit www.creebulb.com for more details

* Based on Cree LED bulb 60W replacements at 9.5 watt, $0.11 per kilowatt-hour, 25,000 hour lifetime and average usage of 6 hours per day.