The Great Teddypig LED Lightbulb Showdown ~ The Verdict!

GE Warm White LED

Philips Ambient LED

The final verdict…

For “reading” lights or anything like your typical living room light fixture where you use the standard generic white glass type bulb use the Philips Ambient LED. It has this ever so slight yellow tinge to the glow while still being bright white making it very close to a low cost lightbulb giving that homey old style lamp feel instead of that florescent office light intensity.

It is also sells for about $25 at Home Depot and replaces a 60 watt bulb and it runs 12.5 watts with normal use. They say the Philips Ambient LED bulb will last 15 years.

For light fixtures using those bright white half dome silvery halogen type bulbs already like can lights or those modern retractable desk lamps go with the GE Warm White.

I like the GE Warm White for many of my ceiling fixtures since it fits most smaller stuff and I like using spot lights and can lights that need a brighter slightly starker white light like a normal everyday halogen bulb. You can also very easily find even smaller bulbs for those candle type decorative lamps and ceiling fans but the brightness of the light when using an LED can now be almost as intense as a normal 60 watt bulb from one of those little LED thingies and they have the added trick of being able to dim on a dimmer but buyer beware if you want dimmer ability look for the packaging to mention it.

The GE Warm White is sold most places. I found it at Lowes in a green bubble plastic container for around $30 and unlike the Philips Ambient the little GE bulb I bought only uses 4.5 watts in normal use so the GE actually saves more energy it just is not as “homey” and “warm” as the Philips Ambient but that is not as big an issue in most cases where utility and being able to see stuff is more important than looks say in the kitchen. They say the GE Warm White LED bulb will last 22.8 years.

The Philips Ambient does win at being the “warmer” “homey” glowing LED bulb and it is five bucks less but they say it lasts 15 years which is less than the GE and I found it ONLY at Home Depot for some strange reason.

15 years is not THAT bad though and the energy savings here are HUGE but the initial investment price of all this crap where the alternative was so cheap and easy to understand and use is still a little hard to swallow. Once it is all in place and been sitting there for 10 years or more available at the flick of a switch I probably will not remember the pain.

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