LED chip maker Cree continues its invasion of household lighting Tuesday with new bulb designs that cost about $2 less than the offerings of most competitors.
View full sizeThe Cree generation three household light bulb is brighter, lighter and less expensive than the bulbs its replaces and may be the least expensive of any consumer LED bulf, for now. DURHAM, N.C. -- LED chip maker Cree is introducing two new household LED bulbs Tuesday that look very much like the old-fashioned, standard incandescent bulbs that some Americans don't want to forget about.
Available as an 11-watt replacement for the old 60-watters and a 6-watt replacement for the traditional 40-watt incandescent, the new Cree LEDs do not have the bulky metal "heat sink" at the bulb base that other LED bulb makers have been trying to shrink but haven't completely eliminated.
Cree has. The bulb cools itself with a design that allows air to flow through it and over the LEDs, eliminating the need for the metal jacket that absorbed the heat in the old design. A company spokeswoman said the bulb is "damp rated" but must have "minimal water exposure."
Compared to the Cree bulbs these newcomers replace -- which were cooled with a gear-like metal necklace at the base, the new bulbs are downright slim. And they are ultralight. Made of what the company calls shatter-proof plastic, each weighs less than 2 ounces.
Available at just under $8 exclusively at Home Depot, the two newcomers are about $2 less than the Cree bulbs they replace -- and about $40 less than the alien-looking household LED bulbs that the industry began trying to sell less than five years ago.
The bulbs are rated to last 25,000 hours, which figures to more than 22 years for most households, using them an average of about three hours a day.
The 6-watt LED delivers 450 lumen, about 10 more than the older version, and would cost about 72 cents a year to light under typical household usage..
The 11-watt produces 815 lumen -- 15 more than the older-style LED and would cost about $1.30 a year under average household use. Minimum industry and government lumen rating for the old incandescent bulbs was 450 lumen for the 40-watt and 800 lumen for the 60-watt.
Both new Cree LED bulbs come in two "color temperatures," warm and daylight. Most consumers prefer warm white for most household locations.
The new products come just a week after Cree released quarterly financial results that disappointed investors. The company said consumer demand for LED bulbs had been lower than expected.
Industry analysts have predicted for years that LED sales will not accelerate until LED bulbs reach the $5 price point.
The consensus has been that LEDs would account for the lion's share of consumer lighting by 2020, a consensus that has assumed continually falling LED prices.
While LEDs are slightly more efficient than CFL bulbs, they last longer, contain no mercury, and emit light that most consumers find similar to the incandescent light bulbs they grew up with. But LEDs have been -- and are still -- more expensive than CFL bulbs and the new halogen incandescent bulbs that most resemble the old-fashioned incandescent bulbs.