Good question!
First of all, a little on me: I am not a lighting engineer, but I tested and examined the bulbs for CNET for more than five years. This includes hundreds of hours in our homemade lighting laboratory – a climate controlled room equipped with a spectrometer and a Integration of the sphere This allows us to perform the most scientific and precise bulb tests that we can possibly carry out. I also visited and wrote features on the main North American lighting manufacturers such as Cree and GE to better understand their methods and standards. This is one of the many LED and roundup guides that we are trying to update as often as possible.
A glance inside our integration sphere.
We load each bulb that we test in the center of our integration sphere – a large hollow ball with a special and reflective paint coated from the inside. Our spectrometer throws a glance through a small hole in the side of the sphere, with a “chicane” which prevents it from directly looking at the bulb. Instead, the light of the bulb bounces inside, which allows our spectrometer to take reliable and calibrated measurements for things like brightness and color temperature.
We record these brightness measurements every 10 minutes for 90 minutes, then take a final reading at the end. At this stage, I plug the power cord from the sphere into a variety of gradation switches, then I measure the maximum and minimum parameters on all while keeping a flicker or a buzz.
Once a bulb that we test is finished in the laboratory, we examine things closely such as light propagation, tone and color quality. Our photo and video team (Tyler Lizenby, Chris Monroe and Vanessa Salas here in Louisville) were of great help, with a standardized photograph which allows us to take a look at these metrics. They are also very good for taking pictures of bulbs.
That said, the most important thing is not what I think when I take readings in our lighting laboratory – that’s what you and your family think after lowering the bulbs and turning them in your living room or in your other area. As I said, LEDs like these are designed to be durable and waterproof and in recent years, so it’s worth buying those with whom you will like to live. You have a lot of good options these days, so there is really no need to compromise. I’m just here to help you find these “just” a little faster bulbs – or more efficiently, you might say.
This new Sylvania projector is not yet available outside California, but it is effective, turning out 93.7 lumens by Watt. It will be one of the next bulbs I reville.
