Unfortunately these lamps seem to be 80CRI, which provide low quality lighting similar to CFL. Really not worth the investment
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GE Announces Line of 'Link' Smart LED Light Bulbs, Starting at $15 [Updated]
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Yeah, my CFLs consistently burned out in 1-2 years. I can't say how many hours that was, but not high usage. The one lamp we use that's on more than most lights always burns them out in under a year. Incandescents in that lamp last a year or so, consistently a bit longer. In our other lights, they usually last several years.
There's always the oddball incandescent that burns out in less than a year, sometimes in just a few months, which is a little annoying, but not a real concern when it's only $1-2 wasted.
But CFLs have that same oddball failure rate. And when a $5-10 bulb burns out in just a few months, I don't replace it with another $5-10 bulb.
Light bulbs need to come with warranties: 1 year for every $1 the bulb costs. Maybe some do? That's the only way I'm ever switching off incandescents.
I'll stick to my Hue system thanks... I have a bunch of them around the house along with the Hue lightstrips and they're amazing. It's nice if you want to have different color accents and be able to set different scenes. But I get how this GE would be more of an economical solution if you're only looking for white lights. 
Yeah they only omit white light though. I have 6 Philips Hue lights and love changing colours for different moods...etc.
My problem now is that LOTS of similar things are coming along and I can't control them all using the same app/protocol. Some standardisation would be neat.
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In the case of Hue I get pretty well any different colour (and they can be triggered in different patterns...etc). There's useful applications such as parties, romantic dinners and fake sunrise (i.e. rather than an alarm you can emulate the sun slowly rising).
They are useful to me. Also I live in an apartment so only need 6 lights to have the whole place covered.
There are two conditions that generally cause CFL bulbs to die prematurely:
- Frequently turning them off and on, due to the starter circuit having a fixed number of uses.
- Putting them in a fully enclosed housing, as a lack of airflow can cause their circuitry to overheat.
LEDs do not suffer from the first issue, though they can still overheat.
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Unless they are a piece of crap. Phillips bulbs are far superior in quality then many bulbs out there. I've have two LED bulbs that were much cheaper then the Phillips ones already have the entire bulb fall off.
This is also no different argument then saying Apple should change their iPhone so that they can compete with the cheap throw-away Android models.
I guess only time will tell...but my bet is prices will come down.
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This is an interesting point...you're right, standardisation would be great.
Am I the only one who doesn't understand the appeal of colored light bulbs? It seems like the Philips Hue bulbs are somewhat popular, but I don't get it.
As for these bulbs, the price is pretty neat. But I don't see how practical it is to have the electronics in the bulb vs the switch. Am I going to have to use my iPhone to turn on and off my lights? And what happens when a guest wants to turn the light on/off?
As for these bulbs, the price is pretty neat. But I don't see how practical it is to have the electronics in the bulb vs the switch. Am I going to have to use my iPhone to turn on and off my lights? And what happens when a guest wants to turn the light on/off?
Well, isn't Apple's HomeKit supposed to at least help centralize their control? So a developer could make a 3rd party app that controls multiple different types of devices. Might be a different protocol (and require more than one "base station") but could still be conveniently centrally controlled.
For anyone who is interested in this sort of thing, I recommend looking into the SmartThings hub which supports the Z-Wave & ZigBee home automation standards, as well as offering some compatibility with WiFi devices (e.g., Nest). $100 for the hub and you can use it with Z-Wave light switches and then just use regular LED bulbs (or whatever kind of bulb you like).
There are other similar hub options out there as well (MiCasaVerde VeraLite which I think only supports Z-Wave) and the Revolv (which supports multiple standards, but is pricey at $300), and Staples Connect (multiple standards and $100).
My wife bought me a MiCasaVerde VeraLite about 2 years ago, but I still have it in the box. I bought some Trane Z-Wave thermostats and planned to buy some Z-Wave light switches. I've just never gotten around to installing anything yet. But I also knew that the technology was still in its infancy and that things would probably improve and be made simpler in the near term. With Apple's recent announcement of HomeKit, I'm thinking of holding off a bit longer to see what comes out of that this year.
Anyways, the products I mentioned above will let you have multiple home automation nodes (light switches, thermostats, door locks, etc.) and control them all within a single app.
There are other similar hub options out there as well (MiCasaVerde VeraLite which I think only supports Z-Wave) and the Revolv (which supports multiple standards, but is pricey at $300), and Staples Connect (multiple standards and $100).
My wife bought me a MiCasaVerde VeraLite about 2 years ago, but I still have it in the box. I bought some Trane Z-Wave thermostats and planned to buy some Z-Wave light switches. I've just never gotten around to installing anything yet. But I also knew that the technology was still in its infancy and that things would probably improve and be made simpler in the near term. With Apple's recent announcement of HomeKit, I'm thinking of holding off a bit longer to see what comes out of that this year.
Anyways, the products I mentioned above will let you have multiple home automation nodes (light switches, thermostats, door locks, etc.) and control them all within a single app.
True, I guess we'll see what it's like. IMO there's a lot of scope for this kind of thing to be useful/successful.
Yeah GE bulbs aren't as good but for many they probably won't care. I have cree tw bulbs for all traditional bulb usage and cree 4" led recessed which are both 90+. I don't want to downgrade.
Good to see another company taking interest in new technologies for something very trivial like light bulbs. As of now such kind of bulbs are quite expensive and will take time to become mainstream but thanks to Philips, GE and all early adapters. They all shape future for rest of us.
As soon as this becomes less expensive, I am definitely going to replace all light bulbs in my apartment
As soon as this becomes less expensive, I am definitely going to replace all light bulbs in my apartment
when i get up in the middle of the night and switch on a light I want it to be a colour or dimmed so I don't get blinded. I want this to be working like apples iPhone do not disturb feature where I set the time from say 8pm - 6am. Maybe call it do not blind me
I agree. I had a Philips CFL since 1993, until March or April 2014. I used this CFL daily around 3 hours (sometimes more).
This are: 335 days * 3 hours * 21 years = 21105 hours
(i subtracted 30 days for vacations)
That's around ten times longer than standard incandescent bulbs (≈ 2000 hours).
I replaced the dead CFL with the LED equivalent.
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I think the problem is not that people don't care, rather that people don't know and the major players are not interested in changing that. There are huge differences in light quality in LED technology, but people are not aware that they have a choice.
Not so fast. The Wink app is a nasty mess. Poorly designed, buggy and non-intuitive. No thanks.
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If you could ever get a woman to come home with you then you'd understand. ;-)
Just kidding, of course. But the Hue system is designed to all you to create mood colors in your environment. Nice concept, and I own a set. But the problems with the system for me include:
-The white color is just not bright enough for everyday lighting. If if were I could put them in regular lamps, etc., and use them as dual purpose lights.
-The fact that every time a switch is turned on the Hue lights come on, regardless of whether I have them programmed off. So they're impractical for switched outlets, and annoying when I get power blinks.
-The lack of development on the app side. Three years later I would expect for Philips to have developed a way for me to tell my lights to turn on and off.
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If you could ever get a woman to come home with you then you'd understand. ;-)
Just kidding, of course. But the Hue system is designed to all you to create mood colors in your environment. Nice concept, and I own a set. But the problems with the system for me include:
-The white color is just not bright enough for everyday lighting. If if were I could put them in regular lamps, etc., and use them as dual purpose lights.
-The fact that every time a switch is turned on the Hue lights come on, regardless of whether I have them programmed off. So they're impractical for switched outlets, and annoying when I get power blinks.
-The lack of development on the app side. Three years later I would expect for Philips to have developed a way for me to tell my lights to turn on and off.
Early Adopters
All you early adopters, go go go!!! Bring the prices down and work out the bugs for the masses. I remember CFL prices starting out high at $6/$8 and dropping like a rock within 3-4 years.
The CFLs in my house rarely fail, and they are all over - even outdoors. However, they have to be disposed off properly for environmental reasons (I just drop mine off at Home Depot). Fwiw, LED bulbs with cheap Chinese components will "defiantly" fail prematurely. Much like their power adapters and other devices. They just have no quality control in place. Everything is cheap cheap cheap and people buy them all the same.
All you early adopters, go go go!!! Bring the prices down and work out the bugs for the masses. I remember CFL prices starting out high at $6/$8 and dropping like a rock within 3-4 years.
The CFLs in my house rarely fail, and they are all over - even outdoors. However, they have to be disposed off properly for environmental reasons (I just drop mine off at Home Depot). Fwiw, LED bulbs with cheap Chinese components will "defiantly" fail prematurely.
Much like their power adapters and other devices. They just have no quality control in place. Everything is cheap cheap cheap and people buy them all the same.
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1) Interesting. I find that they are bright enough. Though i have 4 of them in upward lamp type fixtures at the four corners of my living room. But i find just having 2 of them on is bright enough in general.
2)Well, this is a bit annoying, though it also lets you quickly flick a switch and get some light without needing the app. That unpowered "switch" they're coming out with seems like a nice addition to be able to select scenes from something simple you can mount anywhere.
3) I'm not sure what you mean by this. For me personally, I made a little web page that links to a bunch of huepl (http://www.floodgap.com/software/huepl/) scripts to easily turn lights on and off. With convenient "All On" and "All Off" buttons. Works for me since there is always a computer or handheld device nearby with a web browser- but I admit Philips could do better here. I think the extensions on iOS 8 will make it even easier.
1. I'm a "bright" light kind of guy. I would much rather have bulbs that can be bright (around the 80-100 watt range) and dim them when I need less light than have darkly lit rooms.
2. Was not aware of the switch you're speaking about. I'll check it out.
3. I mean actually talking to my lights to turn the on and off. In this day and age it has to be easy to design a module that will let me walk into a room and tell Hue to turn on a particular scene, or turn off my lights with my voice when it's time for me to go to sleep. Seems that would have occurred to them a long time ago.
when i get up in the middle of the night and switch on a light I want it to be a colour or dimmed so I don't get blinded. I want this to be working like apples iPhone do not disturb feature where I set the time from say 8pm - 6am. Maybe call it do not blind me
That's what the Hue Tap is for. Hasn't hit stores yet, but it's an actual switch that you can assign 3 of your light scenes to. Put it on your nightstand or anywhere else and have one set to your "Don't blind me" scene.
Also, people keep mentioning visitors not being able to turn lights on and off, but with the Hue lights, every one of them works just fine without the app as a "normal" bulb. Use your light switch to turn it off, flip it on and it comes back on as a normal bulb temperature. The only issue with that is that if your power goes out in the middle of the night, every Hue light in your house comes on when power is restored. Experienced that myself a few weeks ago.
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What are you getting at here? The Hue app has a giant "All Off" button in the middle of all your scenes. Hitting any scene you want is your "on" button.
if they're selling well, which they are, then by definition they are not overpriced. you just don't like the price.
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won't happen -- new ("smart") products incur a ton of start up costs (R&D, testing, milling new molds, etc) that mature products do not. old product designs will always be much less expensive than new categories.