Philips’ MASTER LED – the first commercial LED bulb

LED or Light-Emitting Diodes have long been seen as the “Holy Grail” of general household lighting. However, up until now, no manufacturer has been able or willing to put LED technology to the test in the market place to see if it can actually deliver on the on-going hype.

Well, it looks like Philips is set to try this year with its new MASTER LED. (Don’t you love how everyone now is capitalising their product names?)

Rated at up to 45,000 hours, the MASTER LED series will feature versions – a standard E27 lamp, GU10 accent lamp and an NR63 spot lamp. Each uses the 7W LUXEON Rebel LED module that Philips claims is the smallest LED module available and the one offering the best lumens per package rating.

The new LED lamp consumes around seven-watts however when you check the specifications of the lamps themselves, you’ll see that the light output isn’t that spectacular. Unfortunately, there is no bayonet-cap (BC) version available so it may be a little while before they arrive in Australia but looking at the basic E27 unit, the light output is only 155 Lumens for the 3100-degree-Kelvin colour temperature model.

One of the real problems with compact fluroscent lamps (CFLs) has been, until recently, their high colour temperature that can make you feel like you’re back in the office rather than sitting in your loungeroom.

The release of new 2700-degree-K CFLs has helped this somewhat so the fact the MASTER LED only gets down to 3100-degree-K may mean the colour of the light could be a bit too “cool” or “blue” for some although only time will tell.

As for the light output, that level even Philips says is the equivalent to a 40-watt incandescent lamp so while it is a start, it’s still too early to get carried away with LED lighting just yet. You’d probably use this in your bedside lamp but unless you’ve got multi-lamp fittings, you’re unlikely to get enough light out of one of these to fill a decent-sized room.

But if you hate the flicker of CFLs, LED lighting is going to be something well worth keeping an eye on.

At this stage, there is no word on pricing but don’t expect these little babies to be cheap. Philips says that in 24-hour useage applications, the lamps will pay for themselves within a year.

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