Vintage LED decorative bulbs

I spotted this Feit LED "vintage" bulb at the orange DIY store the other day, so I picked one up because I haven't seen curved LED filament strips before.

The light output is very yellow at 2150k, even though the bulb envelope is clear. I don't know if this is from the phosphor mix, the LED wavelength or both. The LED strips appear to be covered in a rubbery looking phosphor sleeve, slightly different looking from the other LED filament strips I've seen where it looks like the phosphor was sprayed on or dipped. I might take this lamp apart to confirm this.

The carton states that the lamp is dimmable. I see a driver circuit board in the base of the lamp, and there is apparently a decent sized capacitor in there as the bulb fades out when the power is turned off. This would make me suspect that it has low flicker also.

At 250 lumens I won't be using it for general illumination, however it might be good for a nighttime reading lamp or a decorative accent lamp. Or maybe just a teardown experiment to inspect the LED strips and re-purpose the strips for something else.

The range of these LED "filament" bulbs continues to grow. The first and still very popular style was a number of straight LED strips that somewhat approximated to an early metallic filament lamp.
As well as the style illustrated, I have seen a looped "filament" that approximates to a carbon filament.

Also available are lamps with "filaments" in red, green, blue, and pink/magenta, in clear glass bulbs. Not an authentic copy of anything but an interesting and IMHO attractive lamp.

Lamps for 12 volts and for 24 volts are now readily available, in sizes and styles just like line voltage lamps. And a variety of small 12 volt lamps.

Products not yet seen, but that I hope will become available include coloured LED filament bulbs for Christmas lighting sets, and line voltage lamps containing several filaments in different colours, selected so as to give a white light in total, such lamps would give a dramatic multi coloured sparkling effect in cut glass chandeliers but still light the room in white.

broadgage said:

...and line voltage lamps containing several filaments in different colours, selected so as to give a white light in total, such lamps would give a dramatic multi coloured sparkling effect in cut glass chandeliers but still light the room in white.

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Great idea, broadgage. I would snap up some of those in a heartbeat.

Hopefully they will become available, all the components would be stock items in a factory making other types of LED filament bulbs. It should be simple enough to assemble 4 different coloured filaments in a standard bulb and connected to a standard driver circuit.
Any lamp makers in china reading this ?

And here is another idea for a new type of LED lamp. How about a lamp that draws roughly constant current at any voltage over a very wide range, such that the light output is roughly in proportion to the applied voltage.
As an example, consider a lamp that uses say 100ma at 120 volts i.e. 12 watts and emits about 1200 lumens, but the same lamp if connected to 12 volts would still draw about 100ma, or about 1.2 watts and emit about 120 lumens.
Several such lamps lit from the utility supply normally would well light an average room. In case of a power failure, the same lamps could be connected to a 12 volt battery and provide ample light for safe movement. 6,000 lumens in total for a room on utility service, and 600 lumens on battery power. Only about half an amp from the battery, a vehicle battery would give dozens of hours service, even 8 or 9 alkaline D cells would give several evenings use.

The "blue" DIY store in my area is selling pairs of Feit filament LED bulbs in red and blue with a July 4th theme. Both bulbs have a clear envelope; the blue one contains blue LED filaments with no phosphor coating. The red one appears to be a blue LED filament with a yellow-orange phosphor coating that lights up ruby red. If I shine an external blue LED into this bulb, it also glows red. This is the first time I've seen colored LED filament lamps in a local retail store. I'd like to see them carry a green LED filament bulb for the holidays.

I'm guessing that the red phosphor in this bulb might be one of the ingredients used in the formulation for white LEDs.

Here in the UK coloured LED "filament" bulbs are readily available on line, but I have not seen them in stores.
Red, blue and green are readily available, with pink, purple, amber, and cyan available after a bit of searching.
The red ones that I have purchased use red LEDs and not blue LEDs with a red phosphor coating as reported above, so it would seem that both technologies are in use.

It puzzles me why they didn't use red LED filaments for the red bulbs. On the one hand, I guess it lowers the parts count and allows them to use the same driver design for both lamps, but on the other hand it adds the step of coating the blue LEDs with a special phosphor. I guess in the end it's cheaper to dunk the strips in phosphor.

PhotonWrangler said:

It puzzles me why they didn't use red LED filaments for the red bulbs. On the one hand, I guess it lowers the parts count and allows them to use the same driver design for both lamps, but on the other hand it adds the step of coating the blue LEDs with a special phosphor. I guess in the end it's cheaper to dunk the strips in phosphor.

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I find the narrow band emissions of unconverted LED's somewhat sterile, at least compared to old-style filtered incandescents, especially in Christmas lights. I suspect in addition to commonality in the manufacturing process, you can get a similar sense of a "softer" light from a phosphor converted colored bulb.

iamlucky13 said:

I find the narrow band emissions of unconverted LED's somewhat sterile, at least compared to old-style filtered incandescents, especially in Christmas lights. I suspect in addition to commonality in the manufacturing process, you can get a similar sense of a "softer" light from a phosphor converted colored bulb.

Click to expand...

(Plugs in red bulb again and checks)... You might be on to something there. The downconverted phosphor red might look slightly more broadband and thus warmer than a monochromatic native red LED. I should compare the two with a diffraction grating.

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Had a couple minutes to burn before an appointment, so stopped in a Menards
This caught my eye & ended up investing in one..
for a lamppost


800lm @ 6.5W 2700K

*hotlinked image removed.

Interesting, Orbital. Do I see two different color temperature phosphors in there, or are the filament strips yellow on one side and orange on the other?

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I believe it's the same filaments throughout
fired it up & it's a big change from my other led bulbs, interesting for sure
looks really nice

update: price came down a bit to $7.49

It's amazing how fast these exploded onto the DIY store shelves. Today I saw a couple of chandeliers full of candelabra LED filament bulbs in a commercial establishment. They looked really nice.

This technology is so much nicer than the previous plastic base bulbs of this type. these actually look like real filament bulbs from 10 feet away. I put 8 of them in my dining room hanging lamp. The energy savings of an entire Led home is large but to me not changing them is key! that light is a good 15 feet off the floor. One light I cannot even safely get to. It is over 45 feet off the floor. Only an extension ladder can do that but nothing to lay it on. Stupid builder. You can find these at the Dollar store already but I would avoid those