As someone concerned with energy efficiency, I decided to try out some LED lamps on sale at Sam’s Club in Leesburg, Florida. The price was three for 14.97 for the 30 LED 1.5 watt version and two for 14.97 for the 60 LED 3.5 watt version. As I’m now at home and have the necessary measuring equipment, I decided to make some comparisons.

LED 30 lamp                                        LED 60 Lamp                                       CFL 23 watt

117 volt AC                                          117 volt AC                                          117 volt AC

0.01 amp                                              0.05 amp                                              0.28 amp

0 watt                                                   2 watt                                                   21 watt

1 volt amp                                           6 volt amp                                           34 volt amp

0.19 power factor                            0.34 power factor                            0.67 power factor

42.7 grams                                          68.1 grams                                          86.4 grams

The readings were done with a Kill A Watt power meter. I have two and each had similar readings. The zero reading of watts from the 30 lamp unit just means that the power is below the resolution of the instrument.

The light from each is rather directional, much like the multi-LED flashlights. The color, in my opinion is rather harsh compared to the CFL lamp. During the recent ice storm, we used LED headlamps for reading and for our meals. The blue/white light from all of these is about the same, useable but not flattering. The addition of a few LEDs of different colors may have given these a more comfortable light for reading or color rendition of subjects. I was hoping to use these as replacement for CFLs in some of our lights, but they are really not suitable due to the directional bias of the lamps. I will use them in the garage and outside where I really don’t care about the quality of the light.

They certainly are more energy efficient although I think the power factor is pretty bad and should be corrected if these come into general use. I tried the usual method of a rotating mirror to see if a single half wave rectifier was used to convert the AC line to DC. I didn’t see any flickering so they may be filtering the DC with a small capacitor.