Photo by Adam Voorhes
LEDs have long been hyped as guilt-free, supergreen successors to squiggly compact fluorescents. One problem: They usually suck, casting a dim bluish light. Not anymore. The glow from the Philips EnduraLED is as comforting as Mom’s cooking, thanks to a special phosphor coating that absorbs the blue glare and transforms the light into a warm, golden hue — 2,700 degrees on the Kelvin scale. And using just 12 watts, the lamp matches the brightness of a 60-watt incandescent. Yet putting out all that shine exposes the LED’s kryptonite: heat. If diodes get too toasty, they’ll go supernova. So the Endura features cast-aluminum heat sinks to dissipate thermal energy from the LED panels. The result is a bulb that can screw into any socket, turn on instantly, and last 25 times longer than an equivalent incandescent, all while using 80 percent less power. Brilliant!