[ad_1]
Good query!
First, a little bit about me: I am not a lighting engineer, however I’ve examined and reviewed gentle bulbs for CNET for over 5 years now. That features a whole bunch of hours in our do-it-yourself lighting lab — a climate-controlled room outfitted with a spectrometer and an integrating sphere that lets us run essentially the most scientific and correct gentle bulb assessments we will probably run. I’ve additionally visited and written options about main North American lighting producers corresponding to Cree and GE to get a greater understanding of their strategies and requirements. That is certainly one of quite a few LED shopping for guides and roundups that I attempt to replace as typically as attainable.
A peek inside our integrating sphere.
We load every bulb we take a look at into the middle of our integrating sphere — a giant, hole ball with particular, reflective paint coating the within. Our spectrometer peeks in by means of a tiny gap within the aspect of the sphere, with a “baffle” that blocks it from trying instantly on the gentle bulb. As a substitute, the bulb’s gentle bounces round inside, which lets our spectrometer take dependable, calibrated measurements for issues like brightness and coloration temperature.
We log these brightness measurements each 10 minutes for 90 minutes, then take a closing studying on the finish. At that time, I plug the sphere’s energy wire into quite a lot of dimmer switches, then measure for the common most and minimal settings throughout all of them whereas additionally preserving a detailed lookout for flicker or buzz.
As soon as a bulb we’re testing is finished within the lab, we take a detailed have a look at issues like gentle unfold, tone and coloration high quality. Our photograph and video workforce (Tyler Lizenby, Chris Monroe and Vanessa Salas right here in Louisville) are an enormous assist at this level, with standardized pictures that lets us take a very shut have a look at these metrics. They’re additionally simply actually damned good at taking footage of sunshine bulbs.
All of that mentioned, crucial factor is not what I feel after I’m taking readings in our lighting lab — it is what you and your loved ones suppose after screwing the bulbs in and turning them on in your lounge or different space. Like I mentioned, LEDs like these are designed to be sturdy and waterproof and final years, so it is nicely value shopping for ones that you’re going to truly like residing with. You’ve got bought a whole lot of good choices nowadays, so there’s actually no have to compromise. I am simply right here that will help you discover these “excellent” bulbs a bit quicker — or extra effectively, you would possibly say.
This new floodlight LED from Sylvania is not out there outdoors of California but, nevertheless it’s environment friendly, placing out 93.7 lumens per watt. It’s going to be one of many subsequent bulbs I evaluate.
[ad_2]
Source
