“Cree’s $10 LED light bulb is the best yet, looks and feels incandescent (hands-on)” →
Cree released three bulbs, and the $10 one is a 40-watt equivalent. The Verge actually got their “hands on” the brighter, $13 model. (I have no explanation for their headline.)
- $12.97 for a “warm white” 60-watt equivalent, providing 800 lumens of light for 9.5W of electricity, at a warm color temperature of 2,700K
I haven’t seen these bulbs, but if they’re not complete garbage (and Cree usually isn’t), that’s a great price.
But after my extensive tests, I’ve already filled every light socket in my house that can accept an LED comfortably with today’s technology.
The market already has excellent 40- and 60-watt-equivalent LED bulbs. These are cheaper, which is noteworthy, but they don’t appear better.
LED bulbs need to get cheaper, brighter, more diffuse, smaller and lighter (so they’ll fit in more fixtures designed for incandescents), and cooler-running (so they can live longer in enclosed fixtures), roughly in that order.
The manufacturers are addressing the first one, and that’s great. But it’s hard to care about endless 60-watt choices when most households have a lot of bulbs that LEDs still can’t replace at any price.1