Pharox 300 Dimmable LED
Just got a Pharox 300 dimmable LED bulb after my nephew (thanks Jason!) reported success with his. Guess what? It actually works as advertised! The thing dims right along with a conventional incandescent bulb – finally!
This is a standard Edison bulb, so you can use it in just about any fixture. The light is bright white and it stays that way as it dims. I know we’re all used to the dull yellow-orange light from an incandescent as it dims, so seeing a dim white might at first be a little disconcerting but over time, I suspect people will get used to it.
The Pharox is surprisingly bright for a bulb that only uses 6 watts. Remember that the output of LEDs is somewhat directional, so you’ll get the most light if you use this in a desk lamp that points towards your work surface or put it in a light fixture above you that’s pointing down. In this application, it works really well.
The dimmability is really impressive. I’ll have to do a video showing how it dims along with a conventional bulb. I’ve never seen an efficient bulb work this well. Every other one that I’ve used cuts out after it dims just a little bit but this one actually provides useful dimming. Very cool!
I’ve ordered another four to try in more fixtures around the house. At under $30, they may seem expensive (ok, they ARE expensive) but they’re a steal compared to other high quality LED bulbs. And for the energy savings, you’ll pay it back in a year if you put some in the kid’s rooms!
I’ll do more reports about it when I get some longer term tests. But for now, it’s definitely worth a try!
Other Pharox Resources
LED Insider – review of an older version of the bulb
1 Green Product – News and reviews. One of the longer reviews of the Pharox
Ted's Energy Tips 
Not sure if this is the best link but I recently purchased a Phillips 12.watt, 800 lumen dimmable ambient LED. Wow – it seems very bright and has the 2700k color of incandescent bulbs. I see that it might be sold at Home Depot (I ordered mine online).
http://www.google.com/products/catalog?hl=en&safe=active&client=firefox-a&q=philips+dimmable+ambient+led&cid=13816059723532640450#p
Wow, that’s great news. 800lm is very bright indeed. And I just ordered another box of Pharox bulbs. I’ll get a Phillips and try it out. Thanks for the link!
Update 3/22/2011
I just go a box of these bulbs to replace some of the remaining incandescent bulbs around the house. When the box came, it was clear that the shipper hadn’t packaged them right and there was all sorts of metallic rattling coming from inside the box.
When I opened the box, I found most of the lights had come out of their shipping tubes. But, unlike CFL bulbs, none of them were damaged! These things can clearly take a beating.
So now I’ve got another five LED bulbs, drawing 6 watts each, replacing the five incandescent bulbs, each rated at 60 watts! So all five of the new lights uses as much as one-half of one of the bulbs I replaced. Excellent!
Pingback: Energy Geek Video – New CREE CR-6 LED Downlight Replacement « Ted's Energy Tips