10M dollar L-Prize winning bulb from Philips, review and teardown

[Jarhead]

I've done a review giving education, review, and teardown on the new high performance LED light bulb from Philips, if anyone is interested:
http://www.molalla.net/members/leeper/L prize bulb.htm

 

[AnitaPeterson]

This is great! Seriously, this is impressive. Too few people here could claim to be able to put together such extensive research...

 

[SAWYER]

Hold on to your pocket protectors damn!

Joking but that is an impressive review

 

[MrX8503]

Sweet review! Thanks. Just one suggestion, are you able to make the pictures smaller?

 

[pm]

Excellent review. I read all the way through it. Nice work. I didn't realize the efficiency curves were that steep in the very low end. That's pretty cool.

It's a neat design but they need to reduce the BOM and thus the price. It's great that they put a good fuse in it and it looks like high build quality (minus that accordian fold thing), but they need to get the shelf price below $30 - ideally below $20, even more ideally under $10 - really move a lot of volume.

 

[Zebo]

Have a lifetime of incandescent. Helps when you were a home builder that went broke. Have pallets full of wire, bulbs, plumbing, brick you name it. But very intesteing. Hope they get prices down to commoditized lvls.

 

[soccerballtux]

Excellent review. I read all the way through it. Nice work. I didn't realize the efficiency curves were that steep in the very low end. That's pretty cool.

It's a neat design but they need to reduce the BOM and thus the price. It's great that they put a good fuse in it and it looks like high build quality (minus that accordian fold thing), but they need to get the shelf price below $30 - ideally below $20, even more ideally under $10 - really move a lot of volume.

that's the price of buying American. These parts are cheap but the high wages and working environments Americans command make running a business here very expensive. No way we can get the newest lightbulb tech for $20, let alone $10. LOL.

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I think it's very odd they use an Electrolytic capacitor. Not that they can do anything about that seeing as it's 22uF, but only good for 3-4000 hours??? Yikes! $50 buys you only 3000 hours?

 

[soccerballtux]

Have a lifetime of incandescent. Helps when you were a home builder that went broke. Have pallets full of wire, bulbs, plumbing, brick you name it. But very intesteing. Hope they get prices down to commoditized lvls.

can you sell me some before that stupid CFL bill kicks in? Want a couple for the closets.

 

[destrekor]

that's the price of buying American. These parts are cheap but the high wages and working environments Americans command make running a business here very expensive. No way we can get the newest lightbulb tech for $20, let alone $10. LOL.

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I think it's very odd they use an Electrolytic capacitor. Not that they can do anything about that seeing as it's 22uF, but only good for 3-4000 hours??? Yikes! $50 buys you only 3000 hours?

3000hrs?

You forgot a zero. 30,000 hours. Wee bit of a difference there.


Also, they definitely have me curious.
"Assembled in America"
That's something of an interesting distinction, because it's a phrase that is completely legal but also *may* (not necessarily) be highly misleading. Corporations can claim Assembled in America when only the final component assembly happened with American workers; as in, all the sourced components may be made in China, but shipped here before being assembled into the final product.

I do like Philips quite a bit, and it could be that most of the components are manufactured here (Sylvania is good for that too), if not all of them, but why not state exactly that. I wonder if there are requirements for every single little component to be made here before "Made in America" can be stamped on the product, yet only allowing the "Assembled" phrase if a single part is sourced from another country.

 

[soccerballtux]

3000hrs?

You forgot a zero. 30,000 hours. Wee bit of a difference there.


Also, they definitely have me curious.
"Assembled in America"
That's something of an interesting distinction, because it's a phrase that is completely legal but also *may* (not necessarily) be highly misleading. Corporations can claim Assembled in America when only the final component assembly happened with American workers; as in, all the sourced components may be made in China, but shipped here before being assembled into the final product.

I do like Philips quite a bit, and it could be that most of the components are manufactured here (Sylvania is good for that too), if not all of them, but why not state exactly that. I wonder if there are requirements for every single little component to be made here before "Made in America" can be stamped on the product, yet only allowing the "Assembled" phrase if a single part is sourced from another country.

That's what assembled means. Parts assembled. Still sourced from China.
In addition, "in America" means anywhere in the continents of north, central, and southern America. It's how GM is getting away with stamping "Made in America" on all their cars, even though they're outsourcing all the production to Mexico now.

3000 hours-- just going off the review-- "For the bulk storage, Royal Philips even chose a RX30 series 22uF 250V Rubycon -25 to +130 degree C rated Electrolytic capacitor (2,000 or 4,000 hour lifetime):"

 

[Jarhead]

Thanks for the kudos.

The 2,000 to 4,000 hours is based on if that capacitor is running at 130 degrees C.

It is probably at 50C, which would put it's lifetime around 128,000 hours. This isn't one of those junk capacitors your find in most failing CFL bulbs, motherboards, and computer power supplies. The capacitor is also nowhere near it's ripple current rating, so that would also extend the bulb's lifetime even further yet.

I've added a section on the top award winning CFL for comparision.

Philips business plan is supposed to have the prices down to 9.99 in three years.

 

[soccerballtux]

cap-- oh, ok, great!
ripple current-- oh, maybe that's why they made it 22uF? Good point never thought of that...

 

[stormkroe]

Good job man. I've been dealing in induction lighting with my company for about a year now, 100,000 hour life and about 15 % more efficient than LED, but induction can't go where LED can. I'm happy to get to use both.

 

[NL5]

that's the price of buying American. These parts are cheap but the high wages and working environments Americans command make running a business here very expensive. No way we can get the newest lightbulb tech for $20, let alone $10. LOL.

Damn Americans are ruining it for everybody!

Funny how in the "golden years" EVERYTHING was made in America, and workers were paid far better than now.

 

[soccerballtux]

Damn Americans are ruining it for everybody!

Funny how in the "golden years" EVERYTHING was made in America, and workers were paid far better than now.

I didn't mean it like that, I was just pointing out that we've ridden a carpet ride thanks to having been the sole manufacturer after WW2 for about 30 years, rode the technology wave for 20 years, the financial wave for 10 years, but now we've outsourced everything so making it in America is going to be a costly shock.

If China would hurry up and unpeg their currency from ours, it might help us save some American jobs....not gonna happen though we all like our cheap gadgets!

 

[adamantinepiggy]

Nice teardown and review!

So I have a question..

So what good does the fusible link do for the consumer? So maybe there's a power surge for whatever reason. Blamo, the fusible link blows. What good is the fusible link? The light's still dead, the consumer can't replace it. It still has to get sent back to the factory for fix/replacement.

Now what's the factory going to do? Send you new one's or fix the fusible link and send them back. I assume they will simply fix the fusible link and send it back (which extends the time it will take to get your lights back). Why do I assume they will fix it rather than replace with new? Because; a. they are expensive b. they can't legally reuse the old parts with a new fusible link and sell it as "new" to another customer. Or perhaps they expect to pass it down the line as replacements for the next customer with issues.

Oh, and since all the LED's are underdriven for efficiency, can we overclock/drive it! I need some cheap bright flood lights that last a long time!

 

[Denithor]

Nice teardown and review!
Or perhaps they expect to pass it down the line as replacements for the next customer with issues.

Bingo. That's what all of the GPU/HDD manufacturers do after all. Fix the previous guy's problem item and send it to you as a 'refurb' when yours breaks. Then fix yours and send to the next guy in line. Much faster turnaround time to get you a replacement than if they took the time to fix your actual card when it arrived.

 

[Rubycon]

Nice overview but the quality of the PCB/soldering is very questionable particularly in these shots:

In most if not all the cases of premature LED capsule failure the sore spot is the driver circuity. Understandably they have to come in at a price point and it's obvious where corners get cut.

 

[soccerballtux]

That's weird, some of those contacts look wave soldered others hand soldered.

Solder is solidified metal. I bet in most applications those joints will be fine. I honestly can't see them failing.

 

[adamantinepiggy]

Looks to me like a area where the OP removed a connection as part of the tear down for photos. If it was a simple heat and pull-out part disconnect performed by the OP, it's not going to look pretty until it's cleaned up. Reason I think the OP did it as part of the tear-down is I doubt production boards would have solder flux left on the board, even if it was made with ugly solder joints.

If the OP did not do it himself, then Phillips is pretty damn cheap/lazy to not even bother cleaning dirty solder flux off.

Nice overview but the quality of the PCB/soldering is very questionable particularly in these shots:

In most if not all the cases of premature LED capsule failure the sore spot is the driver circuity. Understandably they have to come in at a price point and it's obvious where corners get cut.

 

[Rubycon]

That's weird, some of those contacts look wave soldered others hand soldered.

Solder is solidified metal. I bet in most applications those joints will be fine. I honestly can't see them failing.

Questionable soldering practices is one of the largest culprits leading to product failure.

 

[sygyzy]

After the massive European company acquired the US home-grown LumiLEDs from HP/Agilent

What does this mean? Who is the massive European company? CREE? I thought CREE was American.

 

[Doppel]

I saw these bulbs at home depot recently and they were by far the best of those plugged in. Seriously bright and not a nasty white. I look forward to reading this hugely long review later! Only thing keeping me from them is the 23 dollar starting price for the starting price.

Edit: nice review...I think the ones I see at home depot are the older gray ones. I any case, these are really nice bulbs.

You have noticed that cfl don't last as long as claimed. Is it safe for us to trust the lifetime ratings of led bulbs--at least those from good brands?

 

[destrekor]

I saw these bulbs at home depot recently and they were by far the best of those plugged in. Seriously bright and not a nasty white. I look forward to reading this hugely long review later! Only thing keeping me from them is the 23 dollar starting price for the starting price.

Edit: nice review...I think the ones I see at home depot are the older gray ones. I any case, these are really nice bulbs.

You have noticed that cfl don't last as long as claimed. Is it safe for us to trust the lifetime ratings of led bulbs--at least those from good brands?

CFL has trouble lasting as long as claimed for one reason and one reason only: ballasts tend to suck.
And when combined into a single package, a failed ballast ruins the whole bulb. Excess on/off cycles seriously kill the bulb, and I'm assuming because the on/off cycles hit the ballast (and basically only the ballast in this case). If you leave good CFLs on for long periods of time, and only have a few on/off cycles (at most) every day, they should last a good length of time.

As for LED bulbs, they shouldn't have any of that problem. I'd reckon, except for low-quality electrical parts, that they should easily last a good portion of the MTBF rating (# of hours stated). I haven't owned any, but I wonder if they tend (these Philips bulbs too) to fail BEFORE the LEDs themselves stop functioning.

When it comes to interior lighting, I do prefer a good soft-white bulb. But I'd love to replace the accent light I have behind my monitors (semi-functional bias lighting setup) from the CFL in there to a good 6500k daylight LED bulb.

 

[MagickMan]

That looks amazing, very cool.

However, I'm not spending $45 for a bulb.