"attractive" LED bulbs that put out good light (vs "Edison" quality light)

[masraum]

Edison bulbs are all the rage these days, and they are, at least, more attractive, but if you want actual light, relatively white, bright light to work by like in a kitchen for instance, they don't do that. At least, all of the Edison bulbs that I've even seen put out relatively dim, very warm light.

A bulb like this


isn't going to make the most of a fixture like this


And while this would look better in that fixture, I've never seen one that put out anything but really warm light that wouldn't really work well for working in the kitchen


Come on, someone show me the way to an LED bulb that gives good light and looks good!

[hbueno]

I've gotten Cree brand that are pretty good. The trick is to get the right color temperature and high CRI. Somewhere from 2800k to 3200k should give a nice warm light. I suspect that look good and good light are mutually exclusive.

[masraum]

Duh! I did a search for "led edison bulb daylight" and got hits. So I guess they are a thing.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by hbueno

I've gotten Cree brand that are pretty good. The trick is to get the right color temperature and high CRI. Somewhere from 2800k to 3200k should give a nice warm light. I suspect that look good and good light are mutually exclusive.

Yeah, I think we'd want more like 3800-5000k light for our kitchen, but yeah. I'd just never seen any Edison bulbs that were anything other than VERY warm (I'm guessing down around 2000K).

[hbueno]

In my opinion, 5000k is too blue and too harsh.

I still use incandescent if bulb appearance matters, such as for the dining room chandelier.

[look 171]

No more then 3000K, 2700 feels a bit yellow but has the warm tone like traditional light bulbs.

[Cajundaddy]

Ideal indoor light for me is 2700k (soft white) 60w equivalent. All of our lighting is LED and the bulbs all match in color and intensity. Something like this but there are many different brands. Our electric bill last month was $67.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Sylvania-8-5-Watt-60-Watt-Equivalent-A19-LED-Light-Bulb-in-2700K-Soft-White-Color-Temperature-24-Pack-74765/303629965

[masraum]

Originally Posted by Cajundaddy

Ideal indoor light for me is 2700k (soft white) 60w equivalent. All of our lighting is LED and the bulbs all match in color and intensity. Something like this but there are many different brands. Our electric bill last month was $67.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Sylvania-8-5-Watt-60-Watt-Equivalent-A19-LED-Light-Bulb-in-2700K-Soft-White-Color-Temperature-24-Pack-74765/303629965

Yeah, we've had LEDs like ^those^ for 8-10 years. I don't know the color, but I could probably check Amazon since I think I got most of them there. The only problem is that if you have fixtures where the bulb will be visible, those aren't ideal.

[masraum]

Yep, pretty much all of our bulbs are 2700K or 3000K.

[masraum]

LOL, this is great!

https://smile.amazon.com/Quality-LED-99999900K-Filament-Bathroom-Dimmable/dp/B0816HT8BN/

Poor Quality---LED A9999 Lilb 99999W Etage E9999 Edison Bulbs 99999W 99990LM, 99999900K Warm White, Clear Antique LED Filament Bulb for Home, Bathroom, Indoor&Outdoor, Non Dimmable 999999 Pack

[zakthor]

"Good looking" bulbs with "good light".

Well... I have been rat holing on "good light" for a bit over a year.

I replaced some leaky recessed light halogens with this cheapo amazon led things. Was amazing how much warmer the room became but the light color made me ill. Sort of a greenish blah. Even though the light was bright and the lights were actually 2700k the stuff in room looked horrid.

Turns out CRI is a weighted average of how a small number of color patches render. The manufacturers tuned their led so those patches looked great - essentially hacked the test so high scoring bulbs can still look awful.

Is seriously distressing to fill a room with crappy LED, makes a dark winter so depressing.

https://www.waveformlighting.com/tech/what-is-cri-color-rendering-index

Long story short I've been ordering light samples from different makers and pretty much the best I've found are SORAA vivid. I've got a bunch ordered for the kitchen in 3000k and the light is lovely to our eyes. You've got to see them to believe it though.

https://www.soraa.com/assets/cloud/product_specs/par30s/00837/lm79.pdf

Rest of house we stick with 2700 and love the warmth, especially winter afternoons when sun sets at 4:30pm.

LED make sense for areas where your lights are mostly on.

For fixtures with odd shaped bulbs you'll look at I think its better to just go with incandescent - you probably aren't using those lights all the time?

[masraum]

Originally Posted by zakthor

"Good looking" bulbs with "good light".

Well... I have been rat holing on "good light" for a bit over a year.

I replaced some leaky recessed light halogens with this cheapo amazon led things. Was amazing how much warmer the room became but the light color made me ill. Sort of a greenish blah. Even though the light was bright and the lights were actually 2700k the stuff in room looked horrid.

Turns out CRI is a weighted average of how a small number of color patches render. The manufacturers tuned their led so those patches looked great - essentially hacked the test so high scoring bulbs can still look awful.

Is seriously distressing to fill a room with crappy LED, makes a dark winter so depressing.

https://www.waveformlighting.com/tech/what-is-cri-color-rendering-index

Long story short I've been ordering light samples from different makers and pretty much the best I've found are SORAA vivid. I've got a bunch ordered for the kitchen in 3000k and the light is lovely to our eyes. You've got to see them to believe it though.

https://www.soraa.com/assets/cloud/product_specs/par30s/00837/lm79.pdf

Rest of house we stick with 2700 and love the warmth, especially winter afternoons when sun sets at 4:30pm.

LED make sense for areas where your lights are mostly on.

For fixtures with odd shaped bulbs you'll look at I think its better to just go with incandescent - you probably aren't using those lights all the time?

In this specific situation, these are going to be the main kitchen lights, so they need to look good and put out good light and be efficient. Honestly, in the grand scheme of things, incandescents in the kitchen probably wouldn't affect our bill that much compared to HVAC costs. But I'd still like to do what I can.

[zakthor]

Originally Posted by masraum

In this specific situation, these are going to be the main kitchen lights, so they need to look good and put out good light and be efficient. Honestly, in the grand scheme of things, incandescents in the kitchen probably wouldn't affect our bill that much compared to HVAC costs. But I'd still like to do what I can.

We have 12 recessed lights in the kitchen so it is a bunch of juice and heat to use halogens. But we've no AC.

You might want to ask a local soraa rep if you can get a free sample to try. He gave me a 2700 and a 3000. Spouse gave the 3000/60 degree the big thumbs up.

Problem is the bulbs are $40 each... The light is pretty great, they dim well and they're much more durable than halogen so it might pencil out eventually.

I had no idea bulb color rendering could vary so dramatically. The cheap LED bulbs are missing a bunch of spectrum which makes certain colors show dark or completely wrong. Its pretty upsetting once you start to perceive it. I literally returned 32 led bulbs back to amazon because the color was so bad, and that was before I found the soraa. I don't know if soraa is the only solution, my friend makes expensive corporate and sales lights and gave me the name of an even higher end company whose bulbs are > $100 each.

What is extra frustrating is that you can't just trust the CRI on the label, probably the manufacturers of 'budget bulbs' are just lying.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by zakthor

We have 12 recessed lights in the kitchen so it is a bunch of juice and heat to use halogens. But we've no AC.

You might want to ask a local soraa rep if you can get a free sample to try. He gave me a 2700 and a 3000. Spouse gave the 3000/60 degree the big thumbs up.

Problem is the bulbs are $40 each... The light is pretty great, they dim well and they're much more durable than halogen so it might pencil out eventually.

I had no idea bulb color rendering could vary so dramatically. The cheap LED bulbs are missing a bunch of spectrum which makes certain colors show dark or completely wrong. Its pretty upsetting once you start to perceive it. I literally returned 32 led bulbs back to amazon because the color was so bad, and that was before I found the soraa. I don't know if soraa is the only solution, my friend makes expensive corporate and sales lights and gave me the name of an even higher end company whose bulbs are > $100 each.

What is extra frustrating is that you can't just trust the CRI on the label, probably the manufacturers of 'budget bulbs' are just lying.

Wow! $40 each! And $100 each for the others! I'll check out the soraa.
I've had 10-15 LED bulbs for 8-10 years, and the performance/color has been pretty good. I've mostly stuck to name brands like Phillips, GE, and I think Cree.

I'll be avoiding the Amazon brand and Chinese brands for sure. Lots of good info, thanks.

Many years ago, we put recessed lights in our kitchen (I think it was only 3). We got some LED "bulbs" (they were really can inserts that included the bezel). They were great. They put out good light and looked a lot better than the traditional bulbs. I have no idea what they were, and it was probably 12 years ago and something that I got at Home Depot.

[stomachmonkey]

We converted the entire house to LED and have Edison style in some of the pendants and chandeliers.

You can find them anywhere from bright White to warm Yellow, just have to dig a bit.

We have one fixture over our kitchen dining area where we have a mix of two bulb temps.

The white we started with were harsh and way too bright so we switched to a warmer bulb which ended up being too dark so now we have a mix of both and it works well.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by stomachmonkey

We converted the entire house to LED and have Edison style in some of the pendants and chandeliers.

You can find them anywhere from bright White to warm Yellow, just have to dig a bit.

We have one fixture over our kitchen dining area where we have a mix of two bulb temps.

The white we started with were harsh and way too bright so we switched to a warmer bulb which ended up being too dark so now we have a mix of both and it works well.

I stopped by a Lowes this morning and saw that they have GE Edison bulbs in 2700K and 3000K and with light output equivalents for 40W, 60W, and 100W. I'm sure HD has a similar but different selection

[flipper35]

We have Cree in the kitchen. Daylight as I cant stand warm white. Edisons in the downstairs bath and they look good. Cree are good units

[Zealnot]

I had the same struggle finding bulbs that look decent and actually give off pleasant light. Ended up replacing the whole fixture in the bathroom quinn led from lassola.it. Totally changed the feel of the space—soft, well-balanced lighting without the harsh glare. Plus, it doesn’t scream “typical LED fixture,” which was a big win for me.

[masraum]

Bot!

[cabmandone]

Now Steve, how can we be sure?