Product Name: TESS 12W Warm White 60W Equivalent A19 LED Light Bulb
Update: TESS has changed this product. The purchase price has increased, but the efficiency has also increased. The net result is that the value, measured in total annual cost, has remained essentially unchanged.
Is it a good light bulb to buy? It's not bad but there are better ones.
Description
As the provisions of the Energy Efficiency Act come into force, more companies are entering the competition to become the supplier of new light bulbs that meet our needs and the regulations.
As one result, and as predicted, prices are starting to come down for the more esoteric types. LED – light emitting diode – light bulbs are a good example of this trend.
TESS, which stands for Top Energy Saving System Corporation, has entered what appears to be a respectable contender in the race to replace the standard 60W incandescent light bulb. Their 60-watt-equivalent LED light bulb looks more-or-less like an A19 incandescent light bulb, and puts out a full 800 lumens. Its color temperature is 3000 degrees Kelvin, so it's a bit cooler than the 2700 to 2800 that's typical of with a “warm white” light bulbs. In other words, it's not bad. It's close to doing what a standard 60 watt incandescent bulb did.
When I first reviewed this light bulb (or reviewed its predecessor) you could buy one for less than $10.00 US – for just $8.34, in fact. The best price for the bulb now is $10.44. The interesting thing about those prices is what happens to them when you consider the life of the bulbs.
The earlier version was only rated for 10,000 hours, or a bit more than nine years, based on the adopted standard of 1,095 hours of use each year. That meant its replacement cost was close to $1.00 per year. I'm estimating the new version will last an average of 25,000 hours. or nearly 23 years. Yes, it costs more to buy, but the annual replacement cost dropped to forty-six cents.
Is this a good bulb to buy? Let’s run some numbers and find out.
Just the Facts
Analysis
I got interested in this TESS light bulb when I was reviewing the GE 89900 Equivalent A19 LED light bulb. As part of that review, I did a Price Grabber search for 60 watt equivalent A19 LED bulbs. This TESS bulb came in as the least expensive one available, if you just considered the purchase price . I just had to see if I could find enough information to see how it really stood up to the competition.
It turns out I could, and that it stood up OK. It still does OK in its new version. It costs less to purchase and operate than the comparable bulb from GE, for example. At the same time, there are new bulbs from Phillips and Cree that are better values. What's happening right now is good old-fashioned market competition. The light bulb manufacturing companies are trying their best to develop and bring to market the light bulb that will take them into the lead. The good news for us, of course, is that the way they're trying to do that is by making the light bulbs that we most want to use, and buy.
You may have noticed that the competition has become focused on LED light bulbs. Why? Because they are fay and away the most efficient, longest-lasting artificial light source we've developed so far. This competition will result in substantial savings in both materials and energy and in a lower environmental impact from disposal. Just watch your pennies, and you'll be fine.
Plus which, that added operating cost is due to the fact that it’s using more electricity – 13.1 kW vs. 12.0 kW – to produce more light. This bulb puts out 750 lumens, which is much closer to the 820 lumens that the comparison standard 60 watt incandescent bulb produces than the 570 that the GE LED generates. More of the reason that this bulb only costs 13 cents more for its electrical usage is that it’s more efficient. It generates 62.5 lumens per watt while the GE LED light bulb is putting out 51.82 lumens with each watt. So it costs about 9% more in electrical consumption and it’s nearly 21% more efficient. That’s not a bad trade-off.
In light bulbs, energy efficiency generally increases with energy consumption, by the way. That’s because a certain fixed amount that doesn’t vary much with wattage is used just to power the bulb.
The replacement cost is where this LED bulb really stands out though.
What’s not to like then? I’m not fond of the appearance of the bulb, but that’s a matter of taste. More importantly, I could only find it from online sellers and, when I tried to go to the company’s published web site, I got a blank screen. That could be a temporary problem, of course. The lack of any bricks-and-mortar stores where I can walk in and check it out before buying it bothers me more.
That $8.34 purchase price divided by its expected life of 9.1 years means that it actually costs less than $1.00 a year to buy these. $0.91, to be precise. Adding that to the yearly electricity costs of $1.45 gets the total cost per year down to a respectable $2.36.
Compared to a 60 watt incandescent bulb, one of these LED replacements can save you as much as $5.46 every year. You can cut out 70% of your lighting costs.
This is an attractive alternative to the standard bulbs we’re used to. You probably can’t go wrong by installing some of these. The only thing is, the competition is still on, and other companies may come out with even better bulbs. The additional savings with those may be marginal, though. TESS has set a pretty high mark to beat.
Update: TESS has changed this product. The purchase price has increased, but the efficiency has also increased. The net result is that the value, measured in total annual cost, has remained essentially unchanged.
Is it a good light bulb to buy? It's not bad but there are better ones.
Description
As the provisions of the Energy Efficiency Act come into force, more companies are entering the competition to become the supplier of new light bulbs that meet our needs and the regulations.
As one result, and as predicted, prices are starting to come down for the more esoteric types. LED – light emitting diode – light bulbs are a good example of this trend.
TESS, which stands for Top Energy Saving System Corporation, has entered what appears to be a respectable contender in the race to replace the standard 60W incandescent light bulb. Their 60-watt-equivalent LED light bulb looks more-or-less like an A19 incandescent light bulb, and puts out a full 800 lumens. Its color temperature is 3000 degrees Kelvin, so it's a bit cooler than the 2700 to 2800 that's typical of with a “warm white” light bulbs. In other words, it's not bad. It's close to doing what a standard 60 watt incandescent bulb did.
When I first reviewed this light bulb (or reviewed its predecessor) you could buy one for less than $10.00 US – for just $8.34, in fact. The best price for the bulb now is $10.44. The interesting thing about those prices is what happens to them when you consider the life of the bulbs.
The earlier version was only rated for 10,000 hours, or a bit more than nine years, based on the adopted standard of 1,095 hours of use each year. That meant its replacement cost was close to $1.00 per year. I'm estimating the new version will last an average of 25,000 hours. or nearly 23 years. Yes, it costs more to buy, but the annual replacement cost dropped to forty-six cents.
Is this a good bulb to buy? Let’s run some numbers and find out.
Just the Facts
- Type: LED A-line
- Voltage: 120V AC
- Wattage: 12.0 watts
- Size and Shape: A19
- Base/Connection: Medium screw (E26)
- Dimmable? No
- Cost: $10.44 US
- Rated Life: 25,000 hours
- Life in Years (based on three hours of use per day): 22.8 years
- Replacement Cost per Year: $0.46 US
- Energy Consumption (kilowatt hours per year): 10.95 kWh
- Energy Cost/Year (based on $0.11 US per kilowatt hour): $1.20 US
- Total cost/year: $2.35 US
- Initial Light Output in Lumens: 800 lumens
- Efficiency (lumens per watt): 80.00 L/W
- Color Temperature: 3000 degrees Kelvin
- Color Rendering Index (CRI): Not Available
Analysis
I got interested in this TESS light bulb when I was reviewing the GE 89900 Equivalent A19 LED light bulb. As part of that review, I did a Price Grabber search for 60 watt equivalent A19 LED bulbs. This TESS bulb came in as the least expensive one available, if you just considered the purchase price . I just had to see if I could find enough information to see how it really stood up to the competition.
It turns out I could, and that it stood up OK. It still does OK in its new version. It costs less to purchase and operate than the comparable bulb from GE, for example. At the same time, there are new bulbs from Phillips and Cree that are better values. What's happening right now is good old-fashioned market competition. The light bulb manufacturing companies are trying their best to develop and bring to market the light bulb that will take them into the lead. The good news for us, of course, is that the way they're trying to do that is by making the light bulbs that we most want to use, and buy.
You may have noticed that the competition has become focused on LED light bulbs. Why? Because they are fay and away the most efficient, longest-lasting artificial light source we've developed so far. This competition will result in substantial savings in both materials and energy and in a lower environmental impact from disposal. Just watch your pennies, and you'll be fine.
Plus which, that added operating cost is due to the fact that it’s using more electricity – 13.1 kW vs. 12.0 kW – to produce more light. This bulb puts out 750 lumens, which is much closer to the 820 lumens that the comparison standard 60 watt incandescent bulb produces than the 570 that the GE LED generates. More of the reason that this bulb only costs 13 cents more for its electrical usage is that it’s more efficient. It generates 62.5 lumens per watt while the GE LED light bulb is putting out 51.82 lumens with each watt. So it costs about 9% more in electrical consumption and it’s nearly 21% more efficient. That’s not a bad trade-off.
In light bulbs, energy efficiency generally increases with energy consumption, by the way. That’s because a certain fixed amount that doesn’t vary much with wattage is used just to power the bulb.
The replacement cost is where this LED bulb really stands out though.
What’s not to like then? I’m not fond of the appearance of the bulb, but that’s a matter of taste. More importantly, I could only find it from online sellers and, when I tried to go to the company’s published web site, I got a blank screen. That could be a temporary problem, of course. The lack of any bricks-and-mortar stores where I can walk in and check it out before buying it bothers me more.
"How much will these light bulbs cost me every year?"
That $8.34 purchase price divided by its expected life of 9.1 years means that it actually costs less than $1.00 a year to buy these. $0.91, to be precise. Adding that to the yearly electricity costs of $1.45 gets the total cost per year down to a respectable $2.36.
"Will they actually save me money?"
Compared to a 60 watt incandescent bulb, one of these LED replacements can save you as much as $5.46 every year. You can cut out 70% of your lighting costs.
"Will I like this bulb long-term?"
This is an attractive alternative to the standard bulbs we’re used to. You probably can’t go wrong by installing some of these. The only thing is, the competition is still on, and other companies may come out with even better bulbs. The additional savings with those may be marginal, though. TESS has set a pretty high mark to beat.
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