$3 gets you an Osram LED light bulb that lasts for 10 years

By Chloe Olewitz February 19, 2016

New 10-Year LED Lighting Family from OSRAM SYLVANIA

Most LED bulbs last for about 20 years of average use, but a new approach from Osram Sylvania says that’s way more than we need. By cutting the life expectancy of its A19 LED bulb from the standard 20,000 or 25,000 hours to about 11,000 hours, Osram brings the price of its 60-watt equivalent bulb down to a $3 price tag. Hopefully, that will help even more people make the jump to LED technology.

“When LEDs get more efficient (and emit more lumens per watt), you don’t need as many LEDs,” said Osram LED product group manager Alfred LaSpina in a press release. Although LEDs get a lot of attention as the lighting solution of the future, it has taken some time for them to become an affordable option. Even in 2008, most 60-watt equivalent LED bulbs cost in the $100 range. Almost 10 years later, major LED manufacturers are working to keep their competitive edge against mass producers threatening to take on the industry.

Osram’s approach is to keep the subtle details of high quality LEDs at the forefront, while trimming off a few years of each bulb’s life expectancy. After all, 10 years is still a very long time to keep a $3 bulb. And in terms of subtlety, Osram believes the most successful LED bulbs are the ones that mimic traditional incandescent options. People don’t typically notice unless the features go missing, but things like light distribution and reflection, and the semicircle of light produced by the bulb, all influence how people react to LEDs.

If Osram is right, focusing on those discreet features will make the transition from standard incandescent lighting to LED bulbs even easier for consumers. And if energy savings, sustainability, and a 10-year lifespan aren’t enough to encourage you to make the leap, Osram hopes that the $3 price tag on their popular A19 bulb will be that last missing piece. You can find the bulbs on shelves as part of the Sylvania 10 Year LED Lighting portfolio.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Chloe is a writer from New York with a passion for technology, travel, and playing devil's advocate. You can find out more…

Smart Home

Smart light bulbs vs. smart switches: The pros and cons

Woman having glass of wine with Govee Smart LED light bulb on.

Updating your home lighting is a big project, and it may be easy to lean toward smart lights. However, smart light switches can deliver much of the same convenience at a lower cost. Let's put these two categories of products head to head and figure out which makes the most sense for your setup.
Do I need smart light bulbs with a smart switch?
You do not need smart bulbs to install smart switches. That's really what's so convenient about smart switches. They provide connectivity to lights without needing to change the bulbs themselves, so you can control them remotely from your phone, via voice assistants like Alexa and Siri, or by setting automations so they turn on at sunset. This feature is especially helpful when light fixtures are set at inaccessible locations, making bulb replacement challenging. Smart switches are also handy because they can activate other outlets that are connected to different appliances. This can give you the chance to remotely control a lot more than just lights.
Do smart switches work with normal light bulbs?
The vast majority of smart switches work with normal light bulbs. You'll need to check the packaging, though. Some smart light bulb manufacturers make switches specific to their light bulbs. For example, Philips has a dedicated switch that communicates wirelessly to all of the Hue bulbs in the house.

The smart switches that work with normal bulbs will have their own apps and setup processes where you'll have to wire them into your home's electrical. They'll also need Wi-Fi or Bluetooth to connect to the home network so you can control the switch from your devices and build automations. On that note, you'll want to make sure smart switches are in range of your Wi-Fi router to ensure consistent connectivity. So you may need to move your Wi-Fi router or get a network extender to ensure coverage.
Are smart lights or smart switches more expensive?
Smart switches tend to be cheaper than smart lights. You can certainly find cheap smart lights, and the fanciest smart switches can crest the $100 mark. Those higher-end smart switches will often have features like built-in speakers and microphones so you can use voice assistants like Alexa.

Smart Home

Smart light bulb buying guide

Philips Hue sync box.

Finding the perfect smart light bulb is a major challenge. Between the multiple brands to wade through, to figuring out the style you want, and assessing which features you need, we're going to help you find the smart bulb that's right for you.
What is the point of smart light bulbs?

First and foremost, smart light bulbs offer convenience. By being able to turn on an entire room's worth of lights without having to go to each lamp individually is worth the price of admission alone. Connecting the bulbs with voice assistants like Alexa, Siri, and Google Assistant, you don't even need to access the mobile app to do it.

Smart Home

Philips Hue vs. Philips WiZ Smart Light Bulbs

Philips Hue sync box.

If you're just getting started with smart light bulbs in your home, Philips Hue is one of the names likely on your radar. This brand has become synonymous with smart home lighting thanks to robust app support, a wide range of functions, and a routinely growing product lineup. What may confuse you when taking the plunge on a purchase is seeing another Philips brand on the store shelf called WiZ. In 2019, Signify (the lighting company spun off from Philips proper) acquired WiZ to bolster its lighting lineup. Unfortunately, WiZ and Hue smart light bulbs operate differently, so you really need to go all-in with one or the other to have a properly unified smart home lighting setup.

Hue uses a wireless standard called Zigbee, which has been around for a while as a means for low-power connections. Zigbee devices run on a different frequency than Wi-Fi and require their own physical hub. This hub connects to a Wi-Fi router, which in turn connects to your phone. The internet connection also allows for remote connectivity, so lights can turn off automatically as you leave the house, for example. Since its launch, Hue has added Bluetooth to its bulbs, so the hub isn't strictly necessary. Though the Bluetooth range is basically limited to within the same room as you, this can save the bit of time it takes to connect to the hub via Wi-Fi.