Philips updates the technology in the Rebel LEDs several times a year. In fact, they have on several occasions demonstrated record-breaking output in this form factor up until earlier this year.
The reason that flashlights are updated so much more frequently than light bulbs is that flashlights don't require any consumer safety ratings. Where a company can release a battery-powered flashlight with no safety testing, a light bulb running on line voltage has to be brought through a rigorous UL, CSA and FCC standards compliance testing.
Yes, you are correct. I overlooked that important fact. It'd still be nice if they moved faster.
Re:Philips LED bulb Tear-down
by mixmastamyk on Monday August 08, 2011 @03:59PM
(#2861367)
From the article it appeared that the selling point of the bulb was omnidirectional light at a certain power. In that case a large number of weak leds makes sense.
The reason they are so bright is they don't need to worry about color accuracy. I bet these bulbs are very blue.
Also, their efficiency is about 57.8 lm/w which isn't very good (it's not terrible - but once you try to get a good color the efficiency drops a lot). http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=800+lumens+%2F+%288*250...
They aren't blue at all, they are 2700K - and this is a big part of the reason they are 57.8 lm/w. The remote phosphor, while creating a very uniform photometric distribution, reduces the overall light output by filtering the very monochromatic blue light into warm white light.
Looking at the pictures, there's 3 sections and each section has 6 Rebel LEDs. Total of 18 LEDs. All for output of 800 lumens.
A recent LED flashlight can produce 800 lumens with just 1 (CREE XM-L) LED. For example, http://www.fenixlight.com/viewproduct.asp?id=141 If you want a warmer white tint, it's a little less lumens, but you can always use 2 LEDs..
LEDs have come a long way in the last couple of years. It's just unfortunate that light bulb manufacturers do not make and sell new models as quickly as flashlight companies. There seems to be a new model every week with the latest LED for crazy light output.
Another example, http://www.fenixlight.com/viewproduct.asp?id=149 It does over 2,000 lumens with 3 LEDs!! This is just one company. There are many more that also have crazy flashlights.
If you want to learn more about LEDs or flashlights, head over to http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/forum.php