Philips, the well known electronics manufacturer, has created an LED Lamp that is so impressively efficient that it produce 200 lumens of light for every watt of power it consumes.
Coen Liedenbaum, Innovation Area Manager Lighting for Philips Research, with the prototype 200 lumens per watt tube LED in the lab. (PRNewsFoto/Royal Philips Electronics)
The efficiency of LED lamps currently on the market ranges from 45 lumens per watt to 90 lumens per watt. This Philips lamp, a TLED prototype, blows those numbers out of the water. The T here means tube, by the way.
This TLED emits warm white light (as incandescent light bulbs do). I know that many people have become accustomed to the cool white that most fluorescent bulbs produce, but if you still want that warm, flattering, incandescent glow, you can still get it.
An efficiency of 200 lumens per watt means that a 4 watt version of this lamp could adequately light a 100–200 square-foot room with 800 lumens (the brightness of a 75 watt incandescent bulb).
Beware Of Low-Quality LEDs
While the story of the day is clearly the high efficiency of this new Philips lamp, I think this is an opportunity to make you wary of low-quality LED products on the market.
Most LEDs on the market are in the 40-50 lumens per watt range (even if they are from known brands). Do not buy these, as they use more electricity than compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulbs, which are 50-75 lumens per watt, and they still cost far more money up front — so it isn’t a case where you get what you pay for.
The process of determining efficiency is very simple for all types of light bulbs: Divide the brightness in lumens by the wattage of the bulb. For example: 450 lumens divided by 9 watts = 50 lumens per watt. Using this method, you can easily compare the efficiency of various bulbs, and then see how that compares to their price.
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