Review: GE Crystal Clear Double Life 40 Watt Candelabra Light Bulb
This is one more of the incandescent light bulbs that we’ve used and loved for years, but that are now being replaced by more efficient bulbs. In particular, these bulbs are the small flame-shaped or blunt-tipped bulbs with the small screw base that we use in many candelabras and some other ceiling and wall fixtures.
We have two fixtures that use candelabra bulbs in our house, and these are the bulbs that I’ve always used in them.
They’re good bulbs. They put out plenty of light and they’re attractive to look at. The only real problem has been that they don’t seem to last very long. That’s true even when they’re controlled by a dimmer, which is one of my favorite ways to help light bulbs live longer.
There’s also the problem, which has nothing to do with the bulbs themselves, that the fixtures that take these bulbs are sometimes hard to reach. One of ours hangs at the top our stairwell. The only way to change a bulb in that fixture it is to set a ladder on the upper landing (the second floor corridor) and reach out over the stairs. That’s not my favorite position to work in. When you add that to the need to change them often, it starts to get annoying.
But I never really gave it a lot of deep thought. That is, until I got an email telling me that Cree was making an LED replacement. That’s what I’ll be switching to, but I wanted to do an analysis of each of the bulbs to see what the real difference is. Especially when I saw the price of the LED replacements.
$19.97 for a pack of three. Really? One of those bulbs costs more than a 4-pack of these.
Hmmm… analysis needed, if only for peace of mind.
So let’s start with the numbers:
Product Name: GE Crystal Clear Double Life 40 Watt Candelabra Light Bulb
It turns out these are pretty good bulbs. It also turns out that they’re really not a very good deal.
First, the money: The $4.27 price for a 4-pack of these bulbs turns out to cost me 39 cents a year, given that these bulbs are rated to last for less than three years. That’s a dime – 10 cents – more than the LED replacement bulbs I’m replacing them with. That’s nearly 35 percent more, per bulb, per year. No, it’s not awful, but it’s still more. And frankly, I had to do the math to see it. Just looking at the selling price, my instinct would have been to stick with my old standbys.
The real difference, though, is in the energy cost. We all expect LED light bulbs to be more efficient than any other bulb that’s available, but the comparison to these bulbs is pretty amazing. It turns out that each one of these 40 watt incandescent bulbs has been costing me $4.82 per year in electricity, based on three hours of use each day. The Cree LED bulbs that I’m using to replace them will cost me only 60 cents in electricity for a year, for the same three hours per day. That’s $4.22 cents less for each bulb, which is as savings of more than 87 percent.
I’ve written before about how little savings on your electricity you are likely to get by changing your light bulbs. That’s not the case with these. These are ripe for replacement.
To make this a little more real, one of the two fixtures we use these bulbs in – the one over our stairs – is only off when everyone’s in bed. It may average 20 hours of use per day. That’s 20 hours times 40 watts times three bulbs times 30 days for an average month, and that adds up to 72,000 watt hours, or 72 kilowatt hours (kWh). At eleven cents per kWh, that’s nearly eight dollars ($7.92, to be exact) for that one fixture, every month. Since the LED replacements are only drawing 5 watts each per hour, that’s only a total of 9 kWh for the month. That costs just about a dollar.
These GE incandescent candelabra bulbs put out 360 lumens each, which is essentially the same as the 350 lumens from the Cree 40-watt-equivalent LED candelabra light bulbs. The color temperature of these bulbs is 3500 degrees kelvin and the color temperature of the Cree bulbs is 2700 degrees kelvin, so the light from the Cree bulbs will be a bit cooler, but it’s too close to really notice.
If you’ve got ‘em you might as well burn ‘em. If it’s time for replacing them, I’d go to the new LED bulbs without a second thought.
We have two fixtures that use candelabra bulbs in our house, and these are the bulbs that I’ve always used in them.
They’re good bulbs. They put out plenty of light and they’re attractive to look at. The only real problem has been that they don’t seem to last very long. That’s true even when they’re controlled by a dimmer, which is one of my favorite ways to help light bulbs live longer.
There’s also the problem, which has nothing to do with the bulbs themselves, that the fixtures that take these bulbs are sometimes hard to reach. One of ours hangs at the top our stairwell. The only way to change a bulb in that fixture it is to set a ladder on the upper landing (the second floor corridor) and reach out over the stairs. That’s not my favorite position to work in. When you add that to the need to change them often, it starts to get annoying.
But I never really gave it a lot of deep thought. That is, until I got an email telling me that Cree was making an LED replacement. That’s what I’ll be switching to, but I wanted to do an analysis of each of the bulbs to see what the real difference is. Especially when I saw the price of the LED replacements.
$19.97 for a pack of three. Really? One of those bulbs costs more than a 4-pack of these.
Hmmm… analysis needed, if only for peace of mind.
So let’s start with the numbers:
Just the Facts
Product Name: GE Crystal Clear Double Life 40 Watt Candelabra Light Bulb
- Type: Incandescent Candelabra Bulb
- Voltage: 120V AC
- Wattage: 40 watts
- Size and Shape: CA10
- Base/Connection: Candelabra screw (E12)
- Dimmable? Yes
- Cost: $1.07 US
- Rated Life: 3,000 hours
- Life in Years (based on three hours of use per day): 2.7 years
- Replacement Cost per Year: $0.39 US
- Energy Consumption (kilowatt hours per year): 43.80 kWh
- Energy Cost/Year (based on $0.11 US per kilowatt hour): $4.82 US
- Total cost/year: $5.81 US
- Initial Light Output in Lumens: 360 lumens
- Efficiency (lumens per watt): 9.00 L/W
- Color Temperature: 2500 degrees Kelvin
- Color Rendering Index (CRI): Not available
Analysis
It turns out these are pretty good bulbs. It also turns out that they’re really not a very good deal.
First, the money: The $4.27 price for a 4-pack of these bulbs turns out to cost me 39 cents a year, given that these bulbs are rated to last for less than three years. That’s a dime – 10 cents – more than the LED replacement bulbs I’m replacing them with. That’s nearly 35 percent more, per bulb, per year. No, it’s not awful, but it’s still more. And frankly, I had to do the math to see it. Just looking at the selling price, my instinct would have been to stick with my old standbys.
The real difference, though, is in the energy cost. We all expect LED light bulbs to be more efficient than any other bulb that’s available, but the comparison to these bulbs is pretty amazing. It turns out that each one of these 40 watt incandescent bulbs has been costing me $4.82 per year in electricity, based on three hours of use each day. The Cree LED bulbs that I’m using to replace them will cost me only 60 cents in electricity for a year, for the same three hours per day. That’s $4.22 cents less for each bulb, which is as savings of more than 87 percent.
I’ve written before about how little savings on your electricity you are likely to get by changing your light bulbs. That’s not the case with these. These are ripe for replacement.
To make this a little more real, one of the two fixtures we use these bulbs in – the one over our stairs – is only off when everyone’s in bed. It may average 20 hours of use per day. That’s 20 hours times 40 watts times three bulbs times 30 days for an average month, and that adds up to 72,000 watt hours, or 72 kilowatt hours (kWh). At eleven cents per kWh, that’s nearly eight dollars ($7.92, to be exact) for that one fixture, every month. Since the LED replacements are only drawing 5 watts each per hour, that’s only a total of 9 kWh for the month. That costs just about a dollar.
What about the Light?
These GE incandescent candelabra bulbs put out 360 lumens each, which is essentially the same as the 350 lumens from the Cree 40-watt-equivalent LED candelabra light bulbs. The color temperature of these bulbs is 3500 degrees kelvin and the color temperature of the Cree bulbs is 2700 degrees kelvin, so the light from the Cree bulbs will be a bit cooler, but it’s too close to really notice.
The Bottom Line
If you’ve got ‘em you might as well burn ‘em. If it’s time for replacing them, I’d go to the new LED bulbs without a second thought.
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