May. 06, 2024
Lights & Lighting
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There are plenty of reasons to use floodlights around your house, whether for security purposes or aesthetics. Finding the best LED floodlight bulb can be a daunting task when considering the right brightness, color temperature and energy-saving capabilities. You can't just buy any old smart light and hope it works.
Overhead BR30 (or bulging reflector) floodlights in recessed-lighting setups are what you'll get for an indoor or outdoor space. If that's what you're working with and you're looking to upgrade wide-beam light bulbs like those, you'll almost certainly want to go with an LED over incandescent bulbs or a fluorescent model. You'll find plenty of LED floodlight bulb picks in your local lighting aisle that are bright, dimmable, efficient, durable and more affordable than ever.
And because your typical LED light has a lifespan that lasts years or even decades, it'll be a long while before you have to break out the ladder again to replace a bulb. Don't worry about whether or not these things offer easy installation -- all you have to do is screw them into your existing fixtures. That means if you already sprung for something like a solar light or a floodlight with a motion sensor, upgrading the bulb won't negate the improvements you've already made.
So are you looking for security lighting, energy-saving bulbs, higher wattage or some other illumination for your outdoor space but are unsure which LED floodlight is right for you? Glad you asked, because I've got plenty of suggestions if you're looking for the best LED floodlight.
Read more: Best Smart Bulbs for Less Than $20: Wiz, Wyze, Cree, GE and More
After countless hours spent testing floodlights in CNET's lighting lab, the Cree 65W Replacement Floodlight LED emerged as our Editors' Choice for the best LED floodlight. It's brighter than advertised (and super bright compared with most of the competition), it's energy-efficient enough to pay for itself in energy savings within a year and it'll work with a dimmer switch without flickering or buzzing. Best of all, Cree's LED bulb comes with a category-leading 10-year warranty to back up the 22.8-year life span. These light bulbs are seriously great for either an indoor floodlight or an outdoor space.
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$45 at Amazon $45 at Amazon
The BR30 floodlight LEDs from Philips match Cree's outstanding and durable 10-year warranty. They're also super bright, a bit more efficient and a bit better at heat dissipation than Cree. They don't flicker or buzz on dimmer switches and they get warmer and more candle-like in tone as you dim them down, which some will appreciate. On top of all that, they're less expensive than Cree at about $4.50 per bulb.
So why don't they get the top spot? It's honestly neck and neck, but to my eye, Cree offers a slight uptick in color quality (my Twitter followers agreed when I put it to a vote). And if you want the full 10-year warranty, you'll have to register your bulbs -- otherwise, you only get five years of coverage. In addition, the Philips bulb's lumen output topped out at a too-low average of 92% of its actual brightness on the dimmer switches I tested it with. That undercuts the brightness and efficiency selling points to a small extent. But make no mistake, this bright light is still a terrific choice for almost everyone.
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$25 at Lowe's $25 at Amazon $25 at Lowe's
If you need to replace a bunch of floodlights and you want to keep the cost as low as possible, then put the GE Basic floodlight LED at the top of your list. Available in a six- or 12-pack at Lowe's for around $4 per bulb, it's one of the lighting aisle's best values. And don't let the Basic branding fool you -- these bulbs are energy efficient, fully dimmable, durable and they manage heat surprisingly well.
Their light output isn't quite as bright as Cree and they won't last as long, but those tradeoffs are fair at this price -- especially given that each energy-efficient GE Basic LED will pay for itself in energy savings in less than six months if you're upgrading your outdoor security lights or indoor LED floodlights from incandescent bulbs.
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$24 at Amazon $24 at Amazon
It's a relatively pricey illumination option at $9 each, but the Philips SceneSwitch Floodlight LED is actually three bulbs in one: A yellowy, soft white bulb, a bright white, daylight bulb and a dimmed-down nightlight. Want to change between the three? Just switch the bulb off and then back on again within a few seconds. Leave it off longer than that and it'll turn back on to the setting you left it at when you return.
That's a great pitch for anyone who doesn't have dimmer switches but still wants to be able to dim the lights for movie night or illumination for late-night trips to the bathroom. The bulb also aced pretty much every one of our tests and with a power draw of just 8 watts (or a lot less if you're running it on the nightlight setting), it'll still save you money over the long run despite the higher-than-average entry cost.
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$12 at Walmart $19 at Target $18 at Walmart
Some light bulbs are better than others at making colors look accurate and vivid -- but few of today's LEDs do as good a job with color quality as the GE Reveal line of light bulbs, which make color quality the main point of focus.
I've tested several GE Reveal bulbs over the years and they always deliver on their promise of better-looking colors. The latest BR30-shaped bright light wide beam floodlight versions, now available in a two-pack at stores such as Lowe's and Target, are no exception. Unlike previous-gen GE Reveal bulbs, which filtered out excess yellow light, these new versions achieve better-looking colors by boosting the product's ability to render reds, a longtime LED sticking point. It works -- and it also means that the bulbs are both super bright and more efficient than before, making them ideal outdoor floodlights if you're looking for a better outdoor security light.
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A BR30 bulb is a specific type of floodlight and one of the most common. The "BR" bit stands for bulging reflector, which means the light source inside of the bulb sits over a metallic, reflective bowl that bounces all the downcast light back up and straight out the top. Like the name also suggests, that top of the bulb typically bulges outward, which helps put out a fairly wide pool of illumination -- perfect for a security light or indoor floodlights. It's the same trick your car's headlights use to light up the road in front of you as you drive at night.
The "30" part refers to the diameter of the bulb in eighths of an inch. At 30 eighths of an inch, a typical BR30 bulb will be just shy of 4 inches wide.
Typically used in overhead, recessed lighting setups, BR30 floodlights are designed to cast a wide pool of bright illumination in a single direction.
LED prices have fallen steadily over the past five years or so, with most dimmable LED floodlight options settling in the $5 to $8 price range and some available for even less. That's great, since swapping in an LED floodlight for a 65-watt incandescent floodlight will knock an average of about $7 per year off your power bill. That means it won't take long at all for any of these LEDs to pay for themselves in energy savings.
Given how many durable options you have for $7 or less, I don't think you should spend any more than that per bulb without good reason. And keep an eye out for multipacks: Manufacturers use them to help bring down the cost per bulb, so they can make for an especially good deal if you need a bunch of bulbs anyway.
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AmazonBasics BR30 Floodlight LEDCree BR30 Floodlight LEDGE Basic BR30 Floodlight LEDGE Reveal BR30 Floodlight LEDPhilips BR30 Floodlight LED Brightness (lumen output) 792732659799749Power draw (watts) 9.58.58.599Efficiency (lumens/watt) 83.486.177.588.883.2Yearly energy cost ($0.11 per kWh, 3 hrs of use per day) $1.14 $1.02 $1.02 $1.08$1.08 Color temperature (degrees Kelvin) 2,972 K2,646 K2,659 K2,838 K2,716 KAverage dimmable range 12 to 92.8%9.5 to 96.6%1.7 to 99.8%11 to 94%4.7 to 92.4%Flicker and buzz-free dimming? No (persistent buzz)YesYesNo (faint buzz, flicker on older rotary dials)YesBrightness lost to heat 14.6%6.3%7.1%8.3%4.6%Lifespan 13.7 years22.8 years6.8 years13.7 years22.8 yearsWarranty 3 years10 years2 years5 years10 yearsRetail price $12 (2-pack)$10 (2-pack)$17 (6-pack)$17 (2-pack)$13.45 (3-pack)Price per bulb $5.99 $4.99 $2.83 $8.50$4.48Payback period (if replacing a matching incandescent) 0.9 years0.74 years0.42 years1.26 years0.67 yearsCNET overall score 6.18.88.47.38.7I've tested several LED floodlights over the years, including brand-name options from the likes of Cree, GE, Sylvania and Philips, as well as store-brand bulbs from Walmart, Target and Amazon. I honed in on dimmable, soft white-toned, 65W replacement LEDs since those are the most popular option, but if you want something nondimmable or daylight-tinted for your outdoor light fixtures, you'll find bulbs like those in the lighting aisle too.
In other words, you've got more options than ever these days. Many of them are excellent and most don't cost much.
Read more: The Best LED Light Bulb for Every Room in Your House
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No matter what you pick, you'll want to look for a durable bulb that puts out at least 650 lumens of brightness from a power draw of 10 watts or less. I'd also advise sticking with a product that offers an average lifespan of at least 10 years and a warranty of at least five years if possible.
Need to buy a bunch? Start with one, keep the receipt and make sure you like the quality of light and the way it dims in your home before going all in. Most major retailers are pretty accommodating with light bulb returns, so it's fine and sensible to try one or two out before committing to the next decade or more of in-home lighting.
Remember, you're going to live with these super bright LED lights every day for a long time. So it's worth getting a bulb type that you like and avoiding the ones that'll annoy you.
Watch this: Coolest alternative smart light fixtures
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Good question!
First, a little about me: I'm not a lighting engineer, but I've tested and reviewed light bulbs for CNET for over five years now. That includes hundreds of hours in our homemade lighting lab -- a climate-controlled room equipped with a spectrometer and an integrating sphere that lets us run the most scientific and accurate light bulb tests we can possibly run. I've also visited and written features about major North American lighting manufacturers such as Cree and GE to get a better understanding of their methods and standards. This is one of numerous LED buying guides and roundups that I try to update as often as possible.
A peek inside our integrating sphere.
We load each bulb we test into the center of our integrating sphere -- a big, hollow ball with special, reflective paint coating the inside. Our spectrometer peeks in through a tiny hole in the side of the sphere, with a "baffle" that blocks it from looking directly at the light bulb. Instead, the bulb's light bounces around inside, which lets our spectrometer take reliable, calibrated measurements for things like brightness and color temperature.
We log those brightness measurements every 10 minutes for 90 minutes, then take a final reading at the end. At that point, I plug the sphere's power cord into a variety of dimmer switches, then measure for the average maximum and minimum settings across all of them while also keeping a close lookout for flicker or buzz.
Once a bulb we're testing is done in the lab, we take a close look at things like light spread, tone and color quality. Our photo and video team (Tyler Lizenby, Chris Monroe and Vanessa Salas here in Louisville) are a huge help at this point, with standardized photography that lets us take a really close look at those metrics. They're also just really damned good at taking pictures of light bulbs.
All of that said, the most important thing isn't what I think when I'm taking readings in our lighting lab -- it's what you and your family think after screwing the bulbs in and turning them on in your living room or other area. Like I said, LEDs like these are designed to be durable and waterproof and last years, so it's well worth buying ones that you'll actually like living with. You've got a lot of good options these days, so there's really no need to compromise. I'm just here to help you find those "just right" bulbs a bit faster -- or more efficiently, you might say.
This new floodlight LED from Sylvania isn't available outside of California yet, but it's efficient, putting out 93.7 lumens per watt. It'll be one of the next bulbs I review.
Show moreMustang51js said: Click to expand...
I thought I would never spend $100 for a flood light... sure enough the $50 POS I bought 2 years ago was rusting already...By recommendations on here with the RAB I can honestly say it's nicely built. It works and that's that.That's the one I bought. I can rest assured now that if it does break after ten years it will have only cost me 10 a year to own... which is cheap. It's solid as far as the construction is built.Comes with lens covers if you don't want complete scan coverage. At night and during the day you can see red LEDs scanning like night rider. This lights up the entire one side of my yard and my neighbors.I can say that I should have gone with this brand first, but I didn't even know about them. When I put a another light on the other side of the house I will be buying the exact same light.Has manual mode, sensitivity, hour, dawn dusk..etc. It's a really nice fixture!-Nigel
If you are looking for more details, kindly visit flood light supplier.
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