This Ecosmart LED bulb uses only 10.5 watts but has the same brightness as a 65 watt incandescent bulb. Yeah, I know, you've heard too many promises in the past about LED bulbs that either are way too dim or that emit a light that is so cool it's almost blue in color. I probably wouldn't have purchased this bulb if I hadn't seen a it demo'd alongside a 65 watt incandescent of the same type. The color of the light looked identical to the incandescent and the light was just as bright. Both bulbs had dimmers and this LED is fully dimmable. I have a couple of CFL dimmable bulbs made by other manufacturers in our home that only dim to about 20% of the normal light of the bulbs, but this LED dims just like an incandescent, and it uses about 85% less energy.
This 6" LED Bulb is a down light, designed for use in ceiling-recessed housings and it fits most 6" wide cans. It comes with it's own built-in innards (you know, the recessed housing that you see inside the can, below the bulb) and it's own trim. Both are white.I purchased two of these Ecosmart bulbs. After installing them, I immediately got a third one for my kitchen. It took me all of 6 minutes to install the first two and that includes dragging the ladder out of the garage. All I had to do to remove the inside and outside trim that was in there from before, was to remove the two little spring thingies that hold the old one in (they're up inside the housing and easy to remove). The old trim stuff pulled out easily. There was one little wing nut up on the side that held in a silver colored plate that I removed. Then I was able to pull down the socket that the bulb screws into and remove the little plate by squeezing two little metal clips right above the socket. It was really easy. There are three little "flip clips" on sides of the new Ecosmart light. They were turned to the side in the package so I just turned them out so they were facing outward. These are what holds the light and the trim in the recessed housing up in the ceiling. Then, I just screwed the bulb into the socket and pushed the whole bulb and housing thing up into the recessed can. It stayed up there without any problem at all. The trim is attached and looks perfect. In fact it looks better than the recessed housing that was in there before. And no tools were required for any of the installation. Oh yeah, you're supposed to turn off the power before you do any of this but I forgot.
This might sound more complicated than it really was. I've never done more than replace a light bulb in one of these recessed lights and I already told you how quickly these installed. We already had a dimmer on the first two lights, so I didn't have to install a dimmer switch. You have to make sure your dimmer is made for LED lights. The one we had for the CFL's works perfectly. I probably won't use a dimmer on the one in the kitchen. I bought this brand because it's the first one that I've found that has the brightness of an incandescent 65 watt bulb and the warm color of the light. It's also a light that's on lots of hours each day so it'll be nice not to have to replace it. Other things I like about it is that it's supposed to last 35,000 hours. That means I could leave it burning continuously for almost 4 years without ever turning it off. Or I could use it 4 hours a day for about 24 years. I'll let you know in 24 years if the bulb is still lit.
LED bulbs have come a long way in the last year or so. If you've given up on them ever being bright enough, or warm enough in color, like I almost had, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised by this one.
12/16/12 We're still using these bulbs and are very happy with them. We have one in the kitchen above the sink that's on for at least 5 hours per day and still looks as bright as ever.
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I bought the Cree Ecosmart LEDs for my hallway. I have a wide hall with 9' ceilings. My lights are 8' apart. Originally, I had 65 watt incandescent floods. I replaced one of the floods with the Cree. Even though the box says that the Cree is equivalent to a 65 watt incandescent bulb, and even though the Cree has a shield covering the bulb, it was much brighter and whiter than my 65 watt incandescents. With all of the LED lights in, my hallway was too bright.
The man at Home Depot said Cree isn't yet making lower wattage lights because, right now, they are addressing the market for 65 watt bulbs. He sold me a dimmer to put on the hall lights. I still miss the welcoming warmth of my more yellow incandescents but the electric bills will be much less.
The physical look of the lights is clean, modern and very attractive. You can't look up around the light bulb into the ceiling which always bothered me. My husband, who doesn't usually notice these things, was really pleased with the look and he wants to use Crees for the rest of the house -and we will as soon as our incandescent bulbs burn out.
Before settling on the Cree, I bought four other kinds of LED bulbs to replace my incandescents and I didn't like any of them in the slightest. The Cree LEDs are a snap to install (as described by other reviewers) and the design is really clever.
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I fully endorse and support PT cruisers review of this product. I am a common nobody just like the rest of you, I don't know how many other products that claim "does dimming just like an incandecent bulb" only to find that it maybe dims like 1 lumen and that's it.
I'm here to tell you, this is the real deal.
It can do bright, soft, and very dim. At it's dimmest, you can see the multi-colors that make up the led to give you that bright white at full power, a few reds and greens and a ton of whites, (but thats if you're staring directly into the light in a pitch black room, don't let me give you the wrong impression that you'll be getting "mood lighting" I'm just saying what you can see if you look hard enough, just full disclosure)
Just like PT said,I wouldn't have bought a single one if I hadn't had a chance to see how well it works at Home Depot. Now I'm trying to figure out how many more I can retro fit ALL the cans in my house with this!
Not sure how much more I can actually say this: It really does work!
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I bought these to replace the CFL's that were currently in my kitchen. I bought 5 of them from my local home center. Sorry Amazon, they were cheaper there and if I didn't like them less work to bring them back.
These lights rock! They are nice a white and light up the kitchen well. The light is a natural color. When you dim them they seem to dim in stages but will dim down nicely. Turning on the lights are a treat too, instant on. Actually it comes on in stages but the whole process takes about a half a second. Not long enough to worry about.
One word of advice, read the instructions that come IN the package, not ON the package. Reading these makes all the difference in the world on the install. (I'm telling on myself here.)
If the price is a factor for you think of it this way...... I needed to replace the out-dated faded trim around the lights anyways. I figured the trim for the can lights would be around $15-20 each. This drops the cost down to about $10 per light. Factor in the lenght of life for the bulb and these pay for themselves.
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We were looking for LED Floodlights for our front porch so we could leave them on all night to light up the front of our house (No street light) without using too much energy. These fit the bill perfectly as we could dim them also(three on the front porch was brighter than expected!!).
Added Bonus #1; During the summer months we had problems with wasps flying into the lights trying to make a nest. Since these are sealed units (trim, light and cover all in one) it stopped that problem.
We liked the look of them as well as saving energy so we bought some more for the inside can lights.
Added Bonus #2; We noticed that they stopped the drafts we had coming through the lights into the room from the attic since they are a sealed unit and don't have a air gap like the old bulbs had.
