Philips releasing $50 LED bulb this Earth Day

Philips is releasing their new EnduraLED 10W A19 Dimmable Bulb this Sunday, Earth Day.  It was the winner in the Department of Energy's $10 million Bright Tommorrow Lighting L Prize competition.

It has some amazing features such as an estimated lifespan of 30,000 hours.  If used an average of 4 hours a day it should last 20 years.  It consumes only 10 watts of energy but yet produces the equivalent of 60 watts.  This means it's 83% more efficient than a 60 watt incandescent bulb.  It also has some other nice features such as the ability to be dimmed, is mercury free, omni-directional, and it also has no glass components so is very rugged.  

The price for the bulb is $50 which is not really bad when you consider the lifespan and the cost savings from lower energy use.  It seems it was not even long ago that Compact Flourescent Bulbs began to replace Incandescent bulbs.  CFL bulbs have become much more common and the price has decreased significantly.  With LED bulbs having a longer lifespan than CFL bulbs and being more energy efficient it should be interesting to see if they begin to replace CFL bulbs and decrease in cost.