Ecosmart’s Replacement for the 50W Incandescent Flood

About a week ago one of the small indoor flood lights in the recessed fixtures over our kitchen counter burned out. My wife immediately asked “Oh, can we get an LED for that?” My thought exactly, so off to our local big-box home improvement center I went.

When I got there and started looking through the stock, I was disappointed by not seeing any LED BR20 indoor flood light bulbs from Cree, since I’ve been satisfied with other bulbs made by them.


I talked to a couple of the associates in the department, and they told me they’d never seen one either. Our assumption was that Cree doesn’t make one, since the store has an arrangement with Cree to carry pretty much their entire line. (I checked online after I got home and confirmed that. Oh, well)

What they did have was a choice of two: One from Sylvania and one from Ecosmart. The two light bulbs looked pretty much alike and the specs were also pretty similar. I bought the Ecosmart because I’ve also been pleased with other light bulbs from them, such as the dimmable 23 watt (100 watt equivalent) CFL bulb in the globe on the fan over our dining room table. Plus, it cost a dollar less.

Back home, I killed the power, screwed the new light bulb into the fixture, and turned the switch back on. Wow! The first thing I noticed was that it was really bright. Checking the bulb that had burned out, I confirmed that it was a GE Reveal® halogen R20 bulb. Well, yeah, no wonder the new bulb looked really bright.

The initial lumens put out by the GE bulb were 350. The new bulb was cranking out 550. That’s an increase of nearly 60%. Plus, the other over-the-counter light bulbs are still the same Reveal® halogen bulbs as the one I had to replace. Definitely, there was a contrast in intensity.

The next thing I noticed was that the new LED light bulb seemed to be putting out light that was a lot bluer than the other bulbs. In fact, I wasn’t sure I was going to like it. I double-checked the packing and it clearly said 2700K, but it still looked very cool – blue – to me.

These bulbs are on a dimmer switch, so I played around with that a bit. What I got was either having the new light bulb putting out enough light to feel like a glare while the others were looking normal, or having the new light bulb at a comfortable level while the others looked and felt too dim.

Then I realized I was comparing an LED bulb to a Reveal® incandescent (halogen) bulb. I’d recently become more aware of the pink tint of the light that Reveal® light bulbs give off. This was a clear reminder of the difference. Once I got that, I figured I’d probably be OK with the new light once I replaced the other bulbs. In the meantime, we could live with it.

Ok, I figured it was time to stop fooling with the thing and write this review. And, as always, I like to start with the numbers:

Just the Facts

Product Name: Ecosmart 50 Watt Replacement BR20 Indoor Flood

• Type:  LED Indoor Flood
• Voltage:  120V AC
• Wattage:  8 watts
• Size and Shape:  BR20
• Base/Connection:  Medium screw (E26)
• Dimmable?  Yes
• Cost:  $16.97 US
• Rated Life: 25,000 hours
• Life in Years (based on three hours of use per day): 22.8 years
• Replacement Cost per Year:  $0.74 US
• Energy Consumption (kilowatt hours per year):  8.76 kWh
• Energy Cost/Year (based on $0.11 US per kilowatt hour):  $0.96 US
• Total cost/year:  $1.71 US
• Initial Light Output in Lumens:  550 lumens
• Efficiency (lumens per watt):  68.75 L/W
• Color Temperature:  2700 degrees Kelvin
• Color Rendering Index (CRI):  Not Available

Analysis

Since this Ecosmart BR20 is the first R20 or BR20 light bulb I’ve reviewed, I’ll just compare the numbers for it to those for the bulb it replaced – the GE Reveal® halogen R20 bulb.

The GE bulb uses 45 watts of electricity. This bulb only uses 8 watts. Based on standard usage and utility costs, the GE Reveal® will run up $5.42 per year on your electric bill. The Ecosmart halogen knocks a healthy $4.46 off that. While I’m not a big fan of the concept of significantly saving money on your electric bill by doing things with your lighting, that’s a pretty impressive number. Enough to get me to thinking about changing all of my countertop light bulbs right away.

With all that power, the GE bulb only puts out 350 lumens. The Ecosmart bulb is putting out 550 lumens. So the efficiency comparison is 7.78 lumens per watt for the GE halogen, and 68.75 lumens for the LED replacement. Almost 9 times as efficient. Yes, that’s an improvement.

The Ecosmart BR20 is pricey, like many LED light bulbs -- $16.97 each, but the GE Reveal® halogen flood lights aren’t exactly cheap either. They’re listed right now for 9.94 each. So the Ecosmart LED flood lights cost nearly $17 and last for nearly 23 years. That works out to a cost of  less than 75 cents per year. The GE Reveal® halogen floods cost a little less than $10, but they’re only rated to last for a little more than two years – 2,250 hours, to be exact. Replacing those as they burn out is costing me, or you, $4.84 every year.

The total annual cost, then, is $1.71 for one Ecosmart LED flood light, and $10.76 for one GE Reveal® halogen flood light. I’m not sure I can afford to keep the others!

One Little Problem

These LED floods offer a great deal. There’s just one small remaining problem I have with the one I bought. I’m looking at the receipt and it says I paid for it at about 4:00 in the afternoon. It burned out before I went to bed at about 11:00. Seven hours of service does not meet my expectations for any light bulb. Of course, it doesn’t meet the manufacturer’s either.

I’m going to give them another shot by taking this one back to the store and exchanging it. We’ll see how the new one does.

The Bottom Line

If you need indoor R20 or BR20 flood lights, the LEDs are the ones to get. These sell for a decent price, and hopefully none of you will have the experience I did with the early burnout. I expect that bulb had been damaged.