A 3-way LED bulb is now available

THIS & THAT  

A column by Jim Harrison

In case you haven’t noticed, there is finally a 3-way LED standard medium base bulb available. Now you can update all your table lamps to the 21^st century – but it will cost you a bit. I paid $21.95 at Home Depot today.

It is said to yield 320/820/1620 lumens (incandescent ~30/60/100 W equivalent) from 3/8/18 watts and is a nice soft 2700 color temperature. Worth the money? For my bedside lamp, I would say yes.

If you were to run it at top speed for, say, 3 hrs/day, every day, for a year, you would use about 19.7 KWh vs about 110 KWh with your old incandescent. Times 11 cents for a KWh means you might save $9.87 each year – plus you will not have to replace the bulb every 9 months or so. Those incandescent 3-ways don’t last long.

Will you finally find a real 3-way bulb in your hotel room lamp soon. No, forget it. That’s asking too much. (Also see Paul O'Shea's June coverage of this product).