While we've seen great improvements in LED lighting over the past few years, there is still a lack of very bright replacement bulbs. It's easy to go out to Home Depot and pick up an LED bulb that is as bright as a 40W or 60W incandescent, but 75W- and 100W-equivalents are a different story. Earlier this year, around the time of the LightFair tradeshow, we heard that GE, Osram, and Philips would be coming out with a their 100W-equivalent (1600+ lumens) lamps some time in 2012, but now we know that news was more than wishful thinking. Philips has confirmed at their 100W-equivalent LED lamp, the A21 LED, will be available in December.
The A21 LED, which I'm currently testing, looks like the bulbs in AmbientLED/EnduraLED family but those naming conventions have been ended so the description will be the bulb's name. The lamp consumes 22W, puts out 1780 lumens, operates at warm white (2700K), and is rated for 25,000 hours of life. It's dimmable and has a CRI rating of 80.
One important detail to know about the bulb is that it's an "A21″, which refers to the shape and size. A standard, household bulb is an A19 which is 2.375 inches in diameter, while A21 is 2.625 inches. That might not make a difference most of the time, but it will in some fixtures. The new model is considerable taller than a standard Philips LED bulb as well, at about 5 inches (including the socket). Philips also used the A21 size with their 17W, 1100 lumen (75W-equivalent) LED bulb.
Philips L Prize Winner vs A21 LED
While the difference between A19 and A21 is negligible to many buyers, the increased size and surface area does help Philips get around the pesky heat issues that often occur when trying to produce so much light. Some other manufacturers, especially those who are going through great pains to produce a 100W-equivalent, would call this cheating, but it is helping to speed along the release higher lumen bulbs.
Osram Sylvania's upcoming 1600 lumen model is also an A21 while GE's will use SynJet active cooling from Nuventix. The Switch100 bulb should be available before too long (no date has been announced) and that will use the company's standard design, but that design is liquid-cooled. In other words, everyone has had to take some unconventional steps to get to 1600+ lumens.
At 81 lumens per watt the A21 LED is not as efficient as the company's L Prizing winning bulb, but it does hit a respectable number. Their standard 12.5W model produces 800 lumens making for 64 lm/w. That's a rather pedestrian number by today's standard, but the bulb is available for about $20.
Over the course its life Philips expects the A21 LED to save its owner around $214 in energy spending, making for a nice return-on-investment for anyone that wants to invest now and save later. With an expected price of about $65 in December, these will be quite expensive to buy in bulk.
Along with the A21 Philips also announced the DimTone BR30 LED lamp. This is a directional bulb, often used as a floor or spotlight. The BR30 uses Philips' Airflux technology, which optimizes cooling and means the bulb does not require an expensive, finned heat sink.
Aside from that, the DimTone BR30′s selling point is that it goes from 2700K to 2200K when it dims, producing a warmer tone that is closer to that of a dimmed incandescent. It's dimmable to under 5% of its full lighting capacity — most bulbs just turn completely off well above that point.
The DimTone BR30 will be available in late November, though the price is still unknown.
