LED vs. CFL vs. Incandescent Light Bulbs Find out which of all the different types of light bulbs is best for you For years people have only had one style of light bulb, the incandescent. Then CFL (Compact Flourescant Light) bulbs came onto the scene, introducing a cheaper, more efficient option. Compared to CFLs and Incandescent lights, LEDs are fairly new, and until recently they have been dim and expensive. In the past 5 years or so numerous manufacturers of LED light bulbs have struggled to make a bulb that performs just as well as the good old fashioned incandescent lights while still preserving all of the traits that make LED lights so desireable: low energy usage, low heat emission, and low impact on the environment when discarded. Sewell has now come out with an LED light bulb that uses only 10W but whose brightness matches that of a 75W traditional incandescent light, or that of a 15W CFL. Heat is a big factor for many, especially purchasers of large amounts of bulbs for large scale installations because fire hazard is a figure that influences what an entity is willing to spend to light their facilities.

Home users in a sense should also consider this factor just as seriously no matter what their scale of installation. And not just for fire hazards. Incandescent and CFL bulbs get so hot because most of their energy is being released as heat, not light, making them much more ineffeicient. Evening Dresses Sale PhilippinesProprietary tests show 100W incandescent lights burning at 335.4 F, CFL lights burning at 179.2 F and LED bulbs burning at 87.2 F.German Bathroom Mirror Cabinets Test 2: Brightness and EfficacyVintage Light Bulb Ebay Obviously, the first factor that comes to mind when we think of a bulb's performance is brightness, and this can be measured in lumens (lm). A 75W traditional incandescent light will output 900-1000 lumens, a 13W CFL light will ouput roughly 800 lumens, while the Saffron 10W LED Light will output around 850 lumens.

Taking a look at efficacy, which is simply found by dividing the lumen output by the wattage necessary to power the bulb, the incandescent outputs 14 lm/W while the CFL can handle roughtly 65 lm/W and the LED bulb achieved 85 lm/W. This equates to costing roughly $3.70 a year if you operate the bulb 8 hours a day for 365 days (based on $.10 per kilowatt hour). The visual comparison above shows how well LED lightscompare with other light sources Test 3: Average Life LEDs are well-known for their life expectancy burning for over 50,000 hours in most cases, but theoretically they burn much longer. This is compared to the 8000 hours that CFLs last and 750 hours for typical incandescent lights. This life span is the other main money saver besides a lower power bill, especially if you consider the 67 incandescent bulbs you'll have to replace before you replace an Evolux. Many larger scale commercial scenarios are switching to LED simply because of the enormous cost of changing so many bulbs every year.

Test 4: Environmental Impact Flourescent lights present a different problem that can be costly to your wallet as well as the environment: disposal. CFLs are not to be disposed of like your typical incandescent or LED light because they contain mercury which seeps into the Earth's soil and water supply when finally dumped in a landfill. Flourescent lights also emit greenhouse gases when in use and when discarded. LED lights and incandescent lights are both safe to discard normally. Many materials in LED lights can actually be recycled, which you won't have to do very much anyway because they last so long. While the initial cost of buying LED’s is higher than other bulbs, they are becoming very affordable. Because LED bulbs are so much more efficient, and contain no toxic materials, it won’t be long until these bulbs replace other bulbs as the standard means of lighting homes and businesses alike. The US Department of Energy has already invested with industry partners to research and promote LED lighting across America.

They have stated that the efficacy of LED light sources has already surpassed all other forms of lighting and they continue to improve. If you are still skeptical about LEDs, try one out for yourself and you’ll see the difference. Not only will you be helping keep our air and landfills a little bit cleaner, you will also begin to see more and more savings in the long run.Find what you need here: Saffron by SewellDrift Light Saffron by SewellSense Light Saffron by SewellVintage Filament Bulb Saffron by SewellFilament Bulb There's a lot we only tell our email subscribers about. New product launch dates Techy tips and tricks We will never share your personal information with third parties. Read our privacy policy. Your time is far too valuable to be waiting on the phone, plus, who likes to get transferred only to have to explain the issue again? If you leave your info and details about your request, we will get the right person to call you back as soon as we can.

Describe the question or issue you have Of course, you can always call us directly during regular business hours at (800) 709-1345. Your request has been received. We will give you a call as soon as a representative becomes available.A lot of our customers like to touch and handle our bulbs a lot – at times when they otherwise wouldn’t for standard incandescent or CFL bulbs (don’t worry, we do the same too). So one of the popular questions we get is, “wow, your lightbulbs are hot. Hot to the touch, but not nearly as hot as Incandescent, Halogen and CFL bulbs are. LED light bulbs are one of the latest and most efficient lighting technologies. High powered lighting LEDs generate light at a much lower running temperatures than the hot filament used in previous generation bulbs. The hottest outside surface of an LED light bulb is often half the temperature of an equivalent brightness Incandescent or Halogen bulb, and around 20% cooler than CFL bulbs. LED light bulbs should be handled by the diffuser – the plastic dome that the light shines out of. 

When it’s lit or hot, don’t touch or handle LED light bulbs by the heat sink.Heat sinks on LED light bulbs are designed to get hot, drawing the heat out of the LEDs and transferring the heat into the air. It’s the hottest part of the bulb, and for good reason – the heat sink is designed to be the hottest part, while keeping the LED power supply and electronics as cool as possible. In development and testing, we found that the heatsink of a fully lit LED bulb was around 60°C-100°C (140°F-212°F) depending on the make and model of the LED bulb, room temperature, and airflow. Here’s a thermal camera image analysis including some representative top brand-name samples of LED light bulbs – purchased new last week from the supermarket and hardware store. Brighter yellow is a higher temperature. The two 9W compact LED bulbs are the hottest! Though the compact bulbs are lower power and lower light output, there is very little heat sink area and no airflow management.

The power supply electronics are sitting directly inside the sealed 86°C 186°F heat sink. The 13W LED A19 bulb is a little bit cooler. It’s 30% brighter than the two compact bulbs, but it has a larger heat sink area to work with and get the LED heat out into the room air. The LIFX A21 bulb is the coolest, while producing the most light. It has an airflow management design which uses convection airflow through the body, flowing both inside and outside the heat sink. The power supply and electronics sections are kept as cool as possible in this next generation bulb. In even hotter room temperatures than the warm 28°C 82°F used in this test, or in semi-sealed enclosures, the LIFX A21 bulb keeps the lowest possible temperatures for the electronics and heat sink system, especially compared to current model LED light bulbs as tested in sockets 1-3. Any object above 50°C (122°F) will quickly feel very hot when touching it with your fingers! You will reflexively pull away.

It’s a heat sink, so always remember that it is supposed to be hot. Your fingertips and pain sensors are automatically protecting themselves from the temperature where the proteins in your skin will start cooking. This cooking is also called ‘protein denaturing or unfolding’. This cooking starts from around 57°C 134°F and up. It’s a reflex response to remove your body parts quickly from anything hotter than 50°C 122°F, and get the message that something is ‘way too hot’. If you don’t reflexively remove your fingers within a few seconds of anything hotter than around 55°C 131°F, yes – you’ll burn your fingers. Don’t touch the hot parts of any light bulb. This includes nearly all lighting technologies including the new generation of LED light bulbs with efficient, lower temperature heat sinks. We can’t speak for all LED light bulbs, but good quality designs use power supply and driver components rated for 125°C (257°F). Note that this is the internal electronics temperature, different to the outside heat sink temperature.

Done properly, a bulb design can keep the electronics temperature at least 10°C-30°C lower (18°F-54°F lower) than the heat sink temperature. So an LED bulb with a heat sink temperature of even 90°C (194°F) could comfortably have an electronics temperature of 60°C-80°C (140°F-176°F), both well under the temperature rating for the electronics components.Light bulbs positioned straight up or straight down will generally run cooler than sideways. The hot convection air flow flows past more of the bulb length, so it cools a bit more effectively. Sideways is still acceptable though and tested to be within normal operating temperature ranges. In testing, the heat sink on a sideways mounted LIFX A21 bulb in a ceiling mounted semi-enclosed fitting was around 85°C (185°F), but more importantly, the power supply electronics temperature measured 75°C (167°F), and the driver control electronics was kept at 53°C (127°F), a good advantage. Room temperature was 28°C (82°F) for this and the CFL heat comparison. 

For comparison, a similar lumen output CFL lamp in the same test was running a glass temperature of 120°C (248°F) and electronics temperature of 85°C (185°F).32°C higher than the LED based system. Light bulbs for the USA and all customers worldwide have been through extensive independent laboratory testing and certification processes. This includes UL safety testing for lighting products, which includes checking the high temperature materials and components used in the light bulb’s design and production, and a sealed ‘heat box’ test. We’re serious about our technology, so the LIFX A21 bulb has an additional safety feature beyond what’s required to pass UL and other certification and safety tests. The power supply is self protected and will turn itself off at an internal temperature of 105º-115°C. It’s not possible to trip this protection in normal operation across the extended temperature range, but we put this protection in the system as an extra feature.