EvoLux Review
June 16th, 2008UPDATE: May 31, 2009
Both of the EvoLux lights that I purchased are now dead. One of them failed several months ago. The second one just died tonight.
Buyer beware.
—End Update—
When the news about the Advanced Lumonics EvoLux made headlines recently, I wanted to order a couple of the units to test out around the house. We pay the highest rates for electricity in all of New Zealand, so these bulbs seemed like a good way of going. The company had a 10% off sale, so I decided to take the plunge and buy two of them. (Why not use fluorescent lights? Becky and I are both driven nuts by the flicker and the grey-green colors given off by fluorescent lights. They’re out.)
So, is the EvoLux 13 watt LED system really comparable to a 100 watt incandescent bulb? Is this really a “No Compromises” solution, as the company claims?
Unfortunately, not only is the answer NO, but it’s not even close.
I have no idea how the company claims that you can replace a 100 watt incandescent bulb with their product—“Replace 100 Watts with 13 Watts”—but there’s no comparison. Just eyeballing it, the EvoLux might be comparable to a 60 watt incandescent bulb, but that’s a very, VERY generous assessment. I actually don’t feel comfortable saying that it’s as bright as a 60 watt incandescent.
I didn’t have a 100 watt incandescent bulb on hand, but I did have a 75 watt incandescent bulb. Since the EvoLux is allegedly as bright as a 100 watt bulb, it should easily trounce a 75 watt bulb. Right?
I know, you’ve probably looked at the photos on the EarthLED web site and thought, “Yep, they look pretty similar.” When I saw the obvious differences in brightness between the bulbs when I tried them for myself, it hit me. Having previously worked in photography for years, I can’t believe how stupid I was to fall for the comparison on the company’s site…
Autoexposure systems in cameras can make just about any wattage bulb look like just about any other wattage bulb. I don’t know what the company’s photographers did, but here’s what I did to demonstrate the difference between the lights.
I photographed the same scene, USING THE SAME EXPOSURE SETTINGS, with the two different light sources (a 75 watt incandescent and the EvoLux S LED). I actually can’t dial in manual settings on my camera, so I used the auto exposure lock instead. That is, I metered the the scene using the 75 watt bulb, locked the exposure, made the image, switched the incandescent bulb for the EvoLux and made the second image.
So here you go: Our dining room table, with an arrangement of debris that I collected from around the room in about thirty seconds. Same scene, same exposure, two different light sources. The exposure on both images is .8 sec at f/2.8 (ISO80, white balance set to tungsten). The full resolution images contain the EXIF data, for anyone who’s interested.
75 Watt Incandescent:
The scene above is lit with a single 75 watt Osram incandescent bulb. (Click here for the full resolution image, direct from the camera, no processing applied)
EvoLux S LED:
The scene above is lit with a single EvoLux S (Warm White) LED. (Click here for the full resolution image, direct from the camera, no processing applied)
It’s not that bad, it’s worse.
I ordered the “warm white” version, but the light has a very cool quality. It’s not the same level of harsh, grey-blue that normal LEDs put out, but it’s similar. You can see this in the images above. With the white balance set to tungsten, the EvoLux is much bluer than the incandescent. This plays out in real life and not just photometrically.
The next claim is silent running. The EvoLux has a tiny fan built in, which you’re not supposed to be able to hear. In the fixture above my desk, I can hear the fan running. The bulb’s base actually touches the fixture and the fan is causing something to resonate. Silent running is possible with the right fixture, though. I tried it in different fixtures and as long as nothing at all is touching the base, it’s silent.
Is there any good news?
While it’s no replacement for a 100 watt incandescent bulb (not even close), the EvoLux seems bright for 13 watts. There’s no flicker at all. This might make a descent desk or reading lamp, until you consider the US$80 price tag.
While I’m disappointed with these EvoLux bulbs, I’ll be keeping them. The company offers a 30 day return policy, but with international shipping fees and a nonsense 15% restocking fee—forget it. I’ll just keep them.
Hmm, there’s always TradeMe.
Thanks for the review. I got a set of 5 of these 5W LED bulbs. The major difference with your 13W bulb above is that they are $6 instead of $80 including shipping so you can get several and won’t cry when one breaks. I wish I knew if there was prison labor involved at the HOng Kong company because they’re cheap, and I appreciate their board where people share reviews. One type was bluish and one was yellow/white. They definitely have directional beam light best for reading lamps or outside lighting that you might forget to turn off rather than fil,ling a room. Earlier, some 1.3W ones on ebay were advertised as comparable to 40W incandescent, but they are extremely weak. These 5W definitely don’t fill the room, but three of them in different lamps do. http://www.dealextreme.com/products.dx/category.907
I use 20W+ “warm white” CFLs in a few places. I still find the light harsher than the black-body radiation of an incandescent, however by bouncing the light off white walls or ceiling it eliminates the dazzling of looking at an exposed bulb.
Hi Kevin,
I actually work as a test engineer for luminaires and fixtures in an independent test lab. We are being deluged with LED lights of all types and sizes. There are some real good ones, and some not so good ones.
My advice to the retail customer, give it a little more time. Commercial customers have a much better quality of LED product available to them already. Soon, more reputable manufacturers will be offering very good residential quality LED lighting. I have seen their early work. I have tested it. Best of all,the really good stuff doesn’t use fans.
Keep your eyes open, good stuff will be coming and it will be a better alternative to other lighting sources.