Philips AmbientLED 16-Watt Medium Base PAR38 Indoor Flood

We just purchased and installed several Philips AmbientLED PAR38 (16W)and PAR30L (11W) floodlights to replace several 45-Watt Halogens and a handful of compact PAR-type fluorescents (all Philips). Our motivation was primarily to reduce energy consumption in high traffic areas where we have several recessed lights and eliminate the long ramp-up to full brightness on some of the CF's. I have been eyeing LED replacement lamps for some time, but have been disappointed previously in the light quality (poor CRI -- Color Rendition Index) and a typically bluish cast to the light -- typical of early LEDs.

After trying these new Philips AmbientLED bulbs, this marks an inflection point in the promise of architectural-grade LED lighting for residential and commercial use. While they still don't quite match the warmth and instant-on of halogens, they come close enough to consider them as acceptable replacements in most situations.

As with all new technologies, there are...Read more

Replaced one of the latest so-called long lasting halogen flood in my recessed kitchen lights (failures, the electrician suspects, are being caused by my walking on the floor directly above the light cans which causes vibration.. believable, since the other cans in the kitchen with the same bulbs but not in the foot traffic area in the floor above, last much much longer) with the PAR38 16w LED flood.

The LED bulbs are almost there... but not quite yet (at least from Philips in this model)

Pro:
# Very solid build and all solid state - so the floor vibrations will no longer cause premature failure of the lamps. This alone makes them worth a higher price as I'm not replacing the regular halogen floods every two months.
# Good white color (not blueish.. but its not the warmer yellow that you are used to)

Cons: This is the issues that still need addressing
* cost.. everyone lists this in 2010. At around 10x the cost of a...Read more

I love these bulbs.

...and I love Amazon.com


...but you can buy these same bulbs at Home Depot for $32 cheaper PER BULB than what I paid for the first two I bought on Amazon last week.

That's a huge difference.

Nobody buys these bulbs because they're neat. You buy them because they save energy.

If you figure (very rough numbers sorry) that:
- Residential electricity costs about 15 cents / kwh (fully loaded cost)
- You might run these bulbs about 5 hrs a night, 7 nights a week

Then at Amazon's $72/bulb they take 46 months to reach payback compared to a 90w PAR 38 bulb.

Whereas at $39.95 they take just 25 months to reach payback.

I'm sorry Amazon, but that's a huge difference.

However, the BULBS are great.
- yes, there is a half second delay for them to turn on, but then it is full brightness. There is no warm-up period like on CF bulb...Read more