March 13, 2015 at 11:33Thomson Filament - the new generation of LED lamps
LED lighting is gradually entering our lives. A few years ago it was hard to imagine that the streets, government agencies, transport would be lit with LEDs. Now this is a fait accompli. With a high probability, the whole world will almost completely switch to LED lighting.
The first household LED lamps for standard E27 and E14 caps had many disadvantages: uncomfortable lighting color, low color rendering index (CRI), which leads to incorrect perception of the colors of surrounding objects, pulsation (flickering) of light, the inability to work with switches that have an indicator and dimmers (dimmers), the directivity of light (for most lamps of the first generation, LEDs are located on a flat board in front of which the ceiling is placed, so the lamp does not shine at all), not very high efficiency (50-70 Lm / W).
A little over a year ago, the first lamps of a new generation appeared on LED filament. I first saw them in November 2013 at Interlight. Then they were shown only by unknown Chinese manufacturers. Now lamps on LED threads have appeared in the assortment of large brands. Thomson invited me to test two types of lamps - a 4-watt candle with an E14 base and a 6-watt lamp with an E27 base.
The first bulb replaces a regular 40-watt bulb; the second replaces a 60-watt bulb.
LED strands are a glass or sapphire substrate on which a plurality of LEDs are coated with a common phosphor (COB). The power of each thread is 1 W.
A six-watt bulb uses six filaments; a four-watt bulb uses four.
In the lamp base there is a miniature circuit board with an electronic driver circuit (a voltage converter that makes an alternating voltage of the mains a constant voltage without ripples to power the LEDs).
Lamps on LED filaments are almost completely similar to classic incandescent lamps, both in appearance and in radiation pattern. Filamentous emitters are very similar to incandescent filament.
The lamps on the LED threads do not have radiators, they are very light - a 6-watt lamp weighs 35 grams, 4-watt - 20 grams.
The efficiency of lamps on LED threads is higher than that of conventional LED lamps (more than 105 Lm / W), and the heating of the housing is noticeably lower.
Most likely, the future of home lighting is precisely with lamps on LED threads.
For both lamps, a declared life of 25,000 hours, an operating voltage of 220-240 V. Brightness control (dimming) is not supported.
For the Thomson TL-60W Classic lamp, the manufacturer claims a power of 6 W, a luminous flux of 560 Lm, a color temperature of 3000K (the color temperature is incorrectly indicated on the package at 2700K).
For the lamp Thomson TL-40W Classic - power 4 W, light output 350 Lm, color temperature 3000K.
The lamps work normally with switches that have an indicator.
The pulsation coefficient of the light of both lamps is minimal - less than 2% (the pulsation coefficient of a conventional incandescent lamp is about 20%). The measurements were carried out by a Lupine instrument .
Measurements on Viso LightSpion showed that the luminous flux of both lamps is even higher than stated.
In terms of brightness, a 6-watt Thomson lamp corresponds to a 65-watt incandescent lamp, a 4-watt lamp corresponds to a 45-watt lamp (a 60-watt transparent incandescent lamp gives 550 Lm, a 40-watt transparent candle - 340 Lm).
Viso LightSpion measurement result for a 6 watt lamp.
Measurement result for a 4 watt lamp.
Comparison of the light of a 6-watt lamp with a 60 W incandescent lamp. Photos were taken in manual mode with the same exposure values and manual white balance setting at 3500K.
Comparison of the light of a 4-watt lamp with an incandescent lamp of 40 watts.
Both lamps have a pleasant and comfortable light, very similar to the light of incandescent lamps. It is whiter, but even more comfortable.
A 6-watt lamp is sold for 890 rubles , a 4 -watt lamp for 690 rubles .
It is hoped that the lamps on LED threads will become cheaper and conquer the world. Already now in Chinese online stores you can find 6-watt lamps on LED threads for $ 7.5, but the following tricks can wait for the buyer of these lamps: a mismatch between the declared power and luminous flux real, ripple (flicker) of light due to the primitive driver (good a driver of such a miniature size is not easy to make), an uncomfortable color of lighting due to the poor quality of the phosphor, the fragility of the LEDs due to overheating.
© 2015, Alexey Nadezhin
The first household LED lamps for standard E27 and E14 caps had many disadvantages: uncomfortable lighting color, low color rendering index (CRI), which leads to incorrect perception of the colors of surrounding objects, pulsation (flickering) of light, the inability to work with switches that have an indicator and dimmers (dimmers), the directivity of light (for most lamps of the first generation, LEDs are located on a flat board in front of which the ceiling is placed, so the lamp does not shine at all), not very high efficiency (50-70 Lm / W).
A little over a year ago, the first lamps of a new generation appeared on LED filament. I first saw them in November 2013 at Interlight. Then they were shown only by unknown Chinese manufacturers. Now lamps on LED threads have appeared in the assortment of large brands. Thomson invited me to test two types of lamps - a 4-watt candle with an E14 base and a 6-watt lamp with an E27 base.
The first bulb replaces a regular 40-watt bulb; the second replaces a 60-watt bulb.
LED strands are a glass or sapphire substrate on which a plurality of LEDs are coated with a common phosphor (COB). The power of each thread is 1 W.
A six-watt bulb uses six filaments; a four-watt bulb uses four.
In the lamp base there is a miniature circuit board with an electronic driver circuit (a voltage converter that makes an alternating voltage of the mains a constant voltage without ripples to power the LEDs).
Lamps on LED filaments are almost completely similar to classic incandescent lamps, both in appearance and in radiation pattern. Filamentous emitters are very similar to incandescent filament.
The lamps on the LED threads do not have radiators, they are very light - a 6-watt lamp weighs 35 grams, 4-watt - 20 grams.
The efficiency of lamps on LED threads is higher than that of conventional LED lamps (more than 105 Lm / W), and the heating of the housing is noticeably lower.
Most likely, the future of home lighting is precisely with lamps on LED threads.
For both lamps, a declared life of 25,000 hours, an operating voltage of 220-240 V. Brightness control (dimming) is not supported.
For the Thomson TL-60W Classic lamp, the manufacturer claims a power of 6 W, a luminous flux of 560 Lm, a color temperature of 3000K (the color temperature is incorrectly indicated on the package at 2700K).
For the lamp Thomson TL-40W Classic - power 4 W, light output 350 Lm, color temperature 3000K.
The lamps work normally with switches that have an indicator.
The pulsation coefficient of the light of both lamps is minimal - less than 2% (the pulsation coefficient of a conventional incandescent lamp is about 20%). The measurements were carried out by a Lupine instrument .
Measurements on Viso LightSpion showed that the luminous flux of both lamps is even higher than stated.
In terms of brightness, a 6-watt Thomson lamp corresponds to a 65-watt incandescent lamp, a 4-watt lamp corresponds to a 45-watt lamp (a 60-watt transparent incandescent lamp gives 550 Lm, a 40-watt transparent candle - 340 Lm).
Viso LightSpion measurement result for a 6 watt lamp.
Measurement result for a 4 watt lamp.
Comparison of the light of a 6-watt lamp with a 60 W incandescent lamp. Photos were taken in manual mode with the same exposure values and manual white balance setting at 3500K.
Comparison of the light of a 4-watt lamp with an incandescent lamp of 40 watts.
Both lamps have a pleasant and comfortable light, very similar to the light of incandescent lamps. It is whiter, but even more comfortable.
A 6-watt lamp is sold for 890 rubles , a 4 -watt lamp for 690 rubles .
It is hoped that the lamps on LED threads will become cheaper and conquer the world. Already now in Chinese online stores you can find 6-watt lamps on LED threads for $ 7.5, but the following tricks can wait for the buyer of these lamps: a mismatch between the declared power and luminous flux real, ripple (flicker) of light due to the primitive driver (good a driver of such a miniature size is not easy to make), an uncomfortable color of lighting due to the poor quality of the phosphor, the fragility of the LEDs due to overheating.
© 2015, Alexey Nadezhin