I was at the Home Depot picking up some miscellaneous tools, and decided I'd try out one of the new LED bulbs.  I've been using one of those horrid CFL bulbs for awhile, and although I'm not completely dissatisfied with it, I've been looking for something more natural.

Before installing the LED bulb, I figured I'd do a tiny comparison between three bulbs.  Disclaimer: this is completely unscientific and flawed.  I'm pretty much comparing apples to oranges, but I just wanted to see how they match up.

I pointed my camera at one of my lamps, set the exposure to manual (f/8.0, 1 second exposure, ISO 200, 41 mm), and took a shot per bulb.  I also happen to have a Kill A Watt that I used to get the real-life power consumption of the lamp for each trial.

The first test was the LED.  It's an EcoSmart A19 8.6 Watt (40-Watt equiv.) bulb that was roughly $18.  According to the Kill A Watt, it consumed 8.7 Watts.

The second test was the CFL.  It's a GE 13 Watt (60 Watt equiv.) that I don't think is sold anymore.  I got a couple of them awhile back from Duke Power.  I had to let this thing sit for a couple minutes to warm up.  Kill A Watt indicated it consumed 10.2 Watts.

The last test was a plain ol' GE 40 Watt blub.  41.4 Watts according to Kill A Watt.

So, which looks the best?  I picked the CFL.  Isn't that sad?

Anyway, on another topic.  Look at the above photo.  What is with the wasteful packaging on the single LED bulbs compared to the six pack of incandescents?  Think cardboard vs. cardboard and thick plastic.  Aren't the LED bulbs supposed to be green?  Silly and annoying.

New comments are currently disabled for this entry.