Philips 60w Dimmable LED bulb

Woohoo, a high-quality, $10 (now $9 at Amazon), dimmable LED bulb!

Philips has been a leader in LED lighting for some time, and their new SlimStyle bulb securely places them at the front of the pack.

While there are other, sexier dimmable LED bulbs, the SlimStyle has the best price/performance that I’ve seen. If you run the numbers, for a high-usage fixture (I define that as 8-hours a day) then you’ll find that this bulb pays for itself in about half a year in saved electricity costs. In my book, that makes it a “no-brainer.” It’s inexpensive, durable, casts a lot of pleasing light and is the first LED bulb that I’d call *cute* 🙂  Really, just look at it. What’s not to like?

The one bit of advice I’ve forgotten in past posts it so remind everybody to switch their dimmers to one of these Lutron dimmers or similar LED compatible units. When properly dimmed, a quality LED light will be silent and provide stable light through their normal range of brightnesses. The Lutron dimmer has an adjustment that allows you to set the minimum dimming level. This is important because LEDs and fluorescent bulbs will, at some point, start flickering or just turn off due to the nature of the dimming circuit. If you’ve ever tried a high efficiency bulb in a fixture with a normal dimmer, you’ve experienced this annoying phenomenon. Then you have to tell your family “don’t turn the dimmer below this point or the light will flicker,” only to have them come to you a day later to tell you that the new high-efficiency bulbs suck! Well, with the Lutron, you set the hidden adjustment so the bulbs always look good. No more complaints!

I’d recommend trying out these bulbs even if you’re using them in a non-dimming fixture, like a desk lamp. At $10, you can’t go wrong.