This past Saturday morning, your humble editor made a Home Depot run as I normally do on weekends. Greeting me in the lighting aisle were three beautiful displays of Cree A-lamp replacements. The offering consisted of a daylight 60-A for $13.97, a warm white 60-A replacement for $12.97, and a 40-A replacement for $9.97. I have been testing Cree lamps in my home which the company sent a few weeks ago and wanted to ensure the lamps at Home Depot were not inferior to what the company sent. Sometimes, companies will hand pick product for testing purposes which can be slightly different than commercially available product. After a few quick visual tests, it appears both products are identical.
My favorite A-lamp replacement has been the $49 Switch bulb, which seems to have more of a sparkle than the Cree, but put a shade over the bulbs and they both look almost identical to incandescent. One advantage of the Cree is that it has nicer scallops on the wall–much smoother than the Switch.
When comparing Cree to Philips, the Cree light does not quite seem to fill the bulb envelope (similar to a 130v incandescent) as well as the Philips. On the other hand, there seems to be less glare from Cree. Also, the Cree lamp seems to look more natural when energized.
In addition to the A-lamp, I am testing the Soraa MR16 replacement which also seems to be an amazing product.
Because I don’t have much of a personal life, I went back to Home Depot late Saturday night. Assuming they did not restock the display, eight of the 60-A warm replacements were sold compared to one of the 40-A and zero of the 60-A daylight.
The bottom line is that LED is now a viable product in the incandescent replacement market. It has good color, long life, and is now cost competitive. Which lamp is best? It really depends on personal preference.