It has been a busy 12 months within the lighting aisle, with the debut of new, low-price LED gentle bulbs that promise to cut your private home's energy draw with out breaking the financial institution. The latest, from GE, is the Brilliant Stik LED, which bucks the bulb altogether in favor EcoLight brand of a push-pop-shaped construct. The fee: $10 for a 3-pack (a GE representative tells me that they don't plan on selling the bulbs individually just but). Like the opposite main participant on the cheap end of the spectrum, the Philips 60W Alternative LED , the Vivid Stik provides a reasonably compelling value proposition. Whereas a 60W incandescent will add about $7 per year to your power bill, the 10W Bright Stik will add just $1.20. Spend $10 on that three-pack and use them for a year, and your total cost is $13.60. Spend a buck on three incandescents, long-life LED and you'll find yourself spending another $21 over the course of the year -- and then you may must exchange them, since that's about as long as they final.

The Bright Stiks will final properly over a decade. There are a few commerce-offs, though. The Vivid Stik isn't fairly as vivid or as efficient as different LEDs and, just like the Philips bulb, it isn't an option that'll work with dimmer switches. Still, it's a very stable fit for primary lighting setups, EcoLight and EcoLight solar bulbs at a cost of about $3 per bulb (or, um,"Stik"), it's a very strong value, too. If I simply wanted to change one gentle, I'd probably persist with Philips, but if I'm replacing my bulbs in bulk, I'm going to offer the Vivid Stik some severe consideration. The GE Shiny Stik isn't the first massive brand LED that desires you to think outside the bulb. For over a 12 months now, the flattened-down Philips SlimStyle LED has been promoting on Dwelling Depot shelves, and its success would possibly function proof of idea for the odd-looking Brilliant Stik LED. You will quickly see the two promoting facet-by-aspect in the house Depot lighting aisle.

Nonetheless, the SlimStyle LED a minimum of attempts to approximate the general silhouette of a mild bulb (from certain angles, anyway). With the Vivid Stik LED, you are all in on newfangled design, no incandescent nostalgia crucial. Whether or not that's a good factor is entirely as much as you. We're probably missing the purpose, although. Bulb or no bulb, the Vivid Stik remains to be, EcoLight nicely, a mild bulb. In most cases, you are not going to see the factor after you screw it in and EcoLight lower the lampshade. The type issue really would not matter much in and of itself. What does matter is how that form factor impacts the quality of mild, which is where my issues lied as I prepared to test the Bright Stik out. None of that cylindrical plastic is angled downward, EcoLight the best way the bottom half of a spherical bulb is. I puzzled if that may keep the Shiny Stik from casting the type of downward mild people usually want to learn below.

Thankfully, EcoLight that wasn't the case. With the LED hidden underneath a lampshade, EcoLight I could not distinguish the quality of the Vivid Stik's light from another standard, omnidirectional bulb. That applies to the look and feel of the light, too. At 2,850 Ok, it is as heat and yellowy as you'd expect from a regular, household light (a 5,000 Ok "daylight" version is accessible, too, for an extra buck). The 760-lumen gentle output -- while a bit short of the best 800 lumen benchmark for a 60W replacement -- is lots shiny for most basic needs. Really, the only difference this design makes is on GE's finish -- the slimmed down determine makes it a breeze to package deal the Shiny Stik, EcoLight and simpler for GE to ship them in bulk (especially when packaged three at a time). All of that helps shave cents off the upfront price, and EcoLight reviews there's nothing to not like about that.