The Best LED Light Bulbs: a house log

I am, shall we say, particular about my light bulbs. And as we switched over our whole house to LED bulbs lately, I hoped to make sure I got it right (especially since one big pro of LEDs is that you will not have to replace them for years – perhaps even decades. So in this post we will cover everything from our go-to general use LED light bulb to some fancy-schmancy, special use bulbs too.

“Buying Bulbs Used To Be So Straightforward“

That is a direct quote from my mom when she texted me about what LED bulbs to buy. While I am not 100% certain what “heyday” of light bulb shopping she’s referring to, I can fully relate to the sentiment. The classic incandescent light bulbs are being phased out and the once-newfangled CFL bulbs are looking downright oldfangled these days compared to LEDs.

LEDs used to be crazy pricey, but have come down in cost considerably, meaning it is at last practical for everyone to make the switch. Our go-tos still are not as low-cost as CFLs (they are about $5/bulb) but they say the average person recoups that cost within a year or so by lowering their electric bill with their use. So off we set to upgrade our house to LEDs.

A Plain Way To Read A Light Bulb’s Label

Let us talk about two intimidating terms on LED packaging: Kelvins and Lumens. They are not nearly as complicated as they sound and (spoiler alert) you can mostly get away with ignoring them.

Here are a couple of stupid word tricks I use to remember what those two mean (warning: cheesy mnemonics coming up):

• Lumens are about brightness, or how much light a bulb gives off (both L words!). Alternately, you can think of it as how much it will illuminate a space. More lumens = more light.
• Kelvins is about color temperature, or how warm (yellow) or cool (blue) the light is. The more Ks a bulb has, the kolder the temperature will be (both K words…sorta). So a 4000K bulb is cooler (bluer) looking than a 3000K bulb.

But the good news is that most light bulb packaging still includes familiar shorthand. “Lumens” frequently correlates to a “wattage equivalent.” So if you are right now using a 60 watt bulb in a fixture, you should be fine putting a 60-watt-equivalent LED in its place (typically around 800 Lumens). There are exceptions (like specialty LED Edison bulbs that have much lower light output) so it is helpful to double-check the lumens on a label. But if that is too much for your noggin to process – like it is for me sometimes – do not fret.

Kelvins also has a plain English correlation, and that is to terms like “warm white,” “soft white,” or “daylight.” Although these descriptors seem to be applied somewhat standardly, I am a true maniac about color temperature so I consistently verify the Kelvin rating. Our go-to is a 2700K bulb, which is typically called a “soft white” bulb.

Here are the 5 types of bulbs you will find in our house, starting with the heavy hitters and then moving to more special-use bulbs:

Our Go-to General Use LED Light Bulbs

Our Go-To Light Bulb For Most Locations

You will find this Cree 60W Equivalent Soft White LED light bulb in most of the fixtures in our house – lamps, overhead lights, sconces, etc. The price is one of the most affordable we have found, they sell them in bulk (so stock up on 4-packs!), and there is not any sort of delay or humming that we have had with other brands.

We stick to 2700K bulbs for the sake of consistency and simplicity, and only in some cases use corresponding 40W equivalents for a slightly dimmer light (like in sconces). There is also a candelabra version if you need that. And if you have recessed lights, here is a soft white dimmable version of those that we enjoy.

The Best LED Bulb For Exposed Fixtures

This Philips 60W Equivalent Clear Glass bulb offers the same light as our go-to Cree bulb, but the clear glass cover and Edison-esque filaments made it a better choice for exposed fixtures where the bulb is visible. There is also a candelabra version of this bulb for chandeliers and such.

Our Go-to Speciality LED Light Bulbs

The Best Dusk-To-Dawn LED

This specialty Philips Dusk To Dawn LED bulb incorporates a light sensor (that red dot) which allows the bulb to automatically turn itself on as the sun sets and then off when the sun rises. We put these in our front porch lights, meaning we no longer need to flip them on and off each day.

The Best LED Utility Light

This is one area where I make an exception to my soft white rule. In work spaces or storage spaces like closets, garages, attics, or sheds, we are not after that cozy “warm glow” of a soft white bulb – we need a bright, crisp light to find what we are looking for! Our garage used to have two bare, incandescent bulbs struggling to illuminate the space. We swapped in two of these LED Flushmount Replacement fixtures that screw into a plain ol’ light bulb socket, making it look a bit more wrapped up AND giving off a brighter cast (here is a similar version that Amazon Prime-able). Suddenly things that were barely seen before are a lot easier to clearly find/see/use (which is a good thing when it comes to saws). They also sell a version with a pull-chain, in case you need that option too.

The Best Smart Bulb

Lastly, for anyone else who is incorporating smart home technology into our house, I have found these Philips Hue White bulbs to be an affordable way to go (I have also more lately tried these TP-Link Smart Bulbs, which do not require an additional hub). They offer the same basic benefit of other smart bulbs: you can control them with your phone or your smart home speaker like an Amazon Alexa or a Google Assistant. We even set up special routines so when we say “Alexa, Goodnight” downstairs as we walk out of the living room, our living room lights turn off and our bedside table lamps turn on upstairs to light the way as we walk in. I know, I have gone full nerd (and I could not be happier). But unlike the pricier Hue Color Ambiance ($50), which can change to any color in the color spectrum, or the Hue White Ambiance ($29), which can change to any color temperature, these basic Hue White bulbs only produce my go-to 2700K, soft white light… and are downright low-cost by comparison ($15).

So those are all of my time-tested, picked up-them-with-my-own-money, go-to LEDs. And while they are ideal for our house and our eyes (or at least my “special” eyes as Sherry likes to call them when I am being particularly neurotic), I would recommend testing out a bulb or two in your home before committing to a houseload of new light bulbs. You may find that you have a distinct preference than us, and that is fine… simply as long as it is not Daylight bulbs.

Simply kidding.

Sorta. Perhaps not. ;)

P.S. For another post all about lights (and how to make certain fixtures look good together if multiple rooms open to one another) here is a post all about that.

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