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Light emitting diode (LED) light bulbs have become the absolute standard for lighting at home, in the office, and in public places like stores or outdoors. 2008 is when LED bulbs were first shown to have widespread usage in schools and hospitals. The popularity of LED lighting is three-fold: they consume less energy, produce less heat, and have a much longer product life as compared to older types of bulbs. Our list of the top five best LED lightbulbs most recommended by experts will help you find the right bulbs for the job.
LED bulbs are considered by some as one of the easiest ways to enact a more sustainable home as a way to combat waste and climate change. Nearly seven in 10 Americans believe climate change will be catastrophic within their lifetime (68%), according to new research. A survey of 2,000 U.S. adults looked at their sentiments around environmentalism and found that Gen Z (84%) and millennials (75%) are especially likely to feel like climate change will affect their future. However, just over a third of all respondents feel informed about environmentalism (35%). And one in nine admit they’re not confident in understanding how waste affects the environment, but most would be interested in learning more (77%).
Living sustainably requires more effort than you might think. Thoughtful care must be taken to reduce waste and make environmentally friendly purchases. While many are making strides to do so, there is still plenty of work to be done. In fact, seven in 10 Americans admit that they treat their own home better than they treat the planet. However, there is hope as people are trying to reduce their carbon footprints by taking steps like installing energy-efficient appliances (55%), cutting down on single-use plastics (47%), and buying locally sourced and organic produce (44%), according to a survey of 2,000 Americans.
In addition to contributing to better sustainability in the home, some LED lightbulbs are just straight-up cool. They can offer a myriad of colors and ambience settings to make your living or work area just right. We turned to our sources to discover the top five best LED lightbulbs most recommended by experts. Let us know your favorite brands in the comments below!
Philips sets the gold standard for lighting. Their line of frosted A19 bulbs is considered the best of the best by our sources. “Philips came up most often with our experts as the best source for a standard E26-base screw-in lightbulb that closely mimics the warmth and dimming of an incandescent… Interior designer Olivia Stutz says that her clients ‘have been extremely satisfied with the price and performance’ of Philips LEDs,” according to The Strategist.
Bob Vila.com chimes in with a rave review, “Philips has been creating lighting for over 125 years and is one of the most well-known brands in lighting. This set of 16 efficient and long-lasting bulbs is a helpful purchase, especially when making the initial switch to LED light bulbs throughout a home. The Philips LED range offers a lot of perks with no visible flicker, long lifetime, energy savings, and instant ‘on.’ These bulbs can be used for up to 10,950 hours, lasting over 10 years in most homes.”
“The Philips Dimmable A19 Smart Wi-Fi Wiz bulb offers loads of value and convenience for its low price. It works with Wi-Fi for app control without needing a separate hub, it supports voice commands, and it features plenty of customization options. Its companion app lets you create Scenes to set the mood for different occasions, Rhythms to automate lighting adjustments based on the time of day, and Schedules to enable your preferred light mode on certain days and times,” details PC.
Feit bulbs were called out for their excellent light output capabilities. They are especially well suited for work areas within a home, school, or office. Real Simple explains, “While soft, dim lighting might be apt for some spaces, the kitchen is not one of them. Reliable kitchen lighting is key whether you’re following a new recipe, opening a wine bottle, or writing your grocery list. The Feit light bulbs have a 5,000K or bright white temperature that resembles daylight. Plus, they can be used indoors or out and are suitable for damp locations, making them durable as well as versatile. They’re also cost-efficient as they come in a 10-bulb pack, each with a 11,000-hour lifespan.”
“Everything in your home looks great under the light of these Feit bulbs, which have a high color accuracy that make fruits and decor appear natural and realistic. Both the Soft White and Daylight versions performed equally well across all our tests, with some of the best dimming ranges we’ve seen on LED bulbs, although they struggled a bit at the absolute lowest light levels,” according to Wirecutter.
Treehugger adds that, “These Feit Electric bulbs outshine the competition by offering a soft, warm color quality at affordable pricing. They are easy to find, compatible with dimmers, and easily screw into any fixture with a medium screw base. They’re suitable for enclosed fixtures or outdoor use. EnergyStar rated, the manufacturer claims they can last an average of 25,000 hours. They use up to 85% less energy than standard incandescent bulbs.”
Amazon offers a wide array of branded products that have established a reputation for affordability and quality. Their Basics line of LED bulb is no exception. “Add light bulbs to the staples that Amazon’s house brand has covered, with Amazon Basics LED bulbs that can find a place in just about any room. They’re available in a variety of brightness ratings and light colors, with the soft white 75-watt equivalent delivering a pleasantly bright 1,100 lumens. Each bulb can produce strong light for bathrooms and other places where you need good, detailed visibility,” details The Spruce.
“Looking for a bulb that saves up on energy costs? Meet the Amazon Basics LED Bulb that has a built-in sensor that turns it on and off based on how well-lit the surrounding environment is. This means you won’t ever forget to turn off the lights when you want to go to bed. It also helps you out when you’re away from the house and aren’t there to turn them on manually… Its long-lasting lifespan of nearly ten years is more than enough for most households. Overall, they’re perfect for both indoor and outdoor lighting needs,” notes Old House.
Bob Vila.com states, “These bulbs require no time to warm up, offering full brightness at the flick of the light switch, making them handy for darker areas of the home, like a basement. The 2700 K color temperature offers a soft white light that creates a warm and cozy atmosphere, an ideal choice for living rooms, dining rooms, or bedrooms.”
General Electric is a well-established brand in the United States. Although younger consumers might not consider GE’s brand reputation, for many others GE is a strong choice at-a-glance. “GE Lighting traces its roots to the famous Thomas Edison. Founded in the early 20th century, the company is the lighting division of the General Electric Company, which Savant Systems Inc. acquired in 2020,” explains Attainable Home.
CNET offers a personal reviewer’s take, “My LED lighting tip: Just stick with GE Reveal bulbs, because after about six years of reviewing light bulbs for CNET, I’ve yet to test one that hasn’t delivered on its promise of better-looking colors. That includes standard 60-watt replacement LEDs, floodlights, weird-looking stick-shaped LEDs, dimmable LED bulbs and more.”
Bob Vila.com suggests that GE bulbs are great for the bathroom. “Rated to last up to 13 years, these GE LED light bulbs have longevity on their side, keeping the bathroom well lit and functional long-term. The bulbs have a frosted finish, making them gentler on the eye than clear bulbs. They may resemble traditional incandescent bulbs, but that’s where the similarity ends.”
Cree lightbulbs receive specific praise for the way they make colors seem to “pop.” This is especially useful for dining rooms. The Spruce offers an explanation, “One area where the Cree bulbs particularly excel is how accurately they show the colors of objects they shine on. Out of a maximum Color Rendering Index (CRI) of 100, the bulbs’ 90+ CRI means rich, natural colors all around your room.”
“You may not always want your lights on full blast, so selecting dimmable light bulbs allows you to adjust brightness and tailor the lighting to your preferences. This Cree light bulb is dimmable, has a soft white light, and can be used in fully enclosed fixtures like lamps and sconces without hazard. They also have a 22+ year lifespan, so you don’t need to worry about changing a hard-to-reach light bulb for a long time,” posits Real Simple.
“Cree has established itself as a top-tier manufacturer of LEDs creating affordable, effective lighting solutions to energy-sucking incandescent bulbs. With a manufacturer rating of 25,000 hours of use, they’re long-lasting alternatives to similar incandescents and have a very pure, bright white light,” writes Treehugger.
Note: This article was not paid for nor sponsored. StudyFinds is not connected to nor partnered with any of the brands mentioned and receives no compensation for its recommendations.
14 items in this article 3 items on sale!
Illustration: Marcus McDonald
Ask a designer or electrician about LED lightbulbs, and prepare to get a longer answer than you expected. In the last decade, LEDs bulbs — which contain an array of light-emitting diodes (a type of semiconductor) — have replaced filament-lit incandescent bulbs for a slew of reasons. LEDs consume up to 90 percent less energy, save households hundreds of dollars, and can achieve effects with color and automation that were previously the realm of high design. For example, architect Daniel Frisch recalls a Herman Miller Leaf lamp he bought in 2007 for $500. “It had little dials, and you could mix the color temperatures yourself. It was really cool,” he says. Now, “I replace that with fixtures that cost $25, and it is ten times as good.”
Still, LED lights are very much a technology in transition. “Five years ago, I pretty much refused to use them, because they weren’t dimmable,” says designer Michael Yarinsky. “They were really cold in comparison” to incandescent bulbs — one of the more common complaints about making the switch to LEDs. There are better options on the market now, both in terms of dimmability and warmth, but buying the right LED lightbulb for your space often requires more research than walking into a hardware store and buying whichever option fits your fixture. To help sort the good from the bad, we spoke to nine experts (including lighting designers and LED hobbyists) about their favorites and I tested four of the top-recommended bulbs in my own home. For even more of our favorite, expert-recommended lighting solutions, visit our Lighting District.
What
we’re
looking
for
Brightness
The first measure to look at when buying an LED lightbulb — whether you’re converting from an incandescent or swapping one LED for another — is brightness. Traditional incandescent bulbs list brightness in wattage. (A standard home bulb might be 60 to 75 watts.) But that metric is less useful for LEDs. “Wattage doesn’t have a one-to-one relationship in terms of light output. Wattage is power consumption,” says Yarinsky. Since LEDs use comparatively less energy, their wattage will be much lower than that of an incandescent while producing the same amount of light. Instead, look for lumens, which more directly track the amount of light emitted. A brightness of 800 to 1,100 lumens will be roughly equivalent to a 60- to 75-watt incandescent — good for a floor lamp or fixture. Look for a brightness of around 400 to 600 lumens for a desk or bedside lamp.
Color
Color distinguishes a good LED from one that fills your home with a pallid, Matrix-like cast. Finding the right tone is more of an art than a science, but there are two specs to look for. The first is color temperature, which is measured in Kelvins (K) and ranges from the icy glare of a headlight (4,000 to 6,000 K) to warm candlelight (1,000 to 2,000 K). A color temperature around 2,700 K creates a soft white glow, and 3,000 K is a cooler white. “Offices are best at 3,000 K (though standards used to be 4,000 K for those terrifyingly bright cubicle offices of the ’80s), and residential high-function areas like kitchens are best at 2,700 K,” says architect Ming Thompson. “Rooms with more than one bulb or with a calm atmosphere are best at 2,200 K.”
The second metric is the color rendering index (CRI), a measure of how faithfully a bulb replicates how colors appear in natural light. “The color rendering index is the thing that people don’t understand the most, and it’s the thing that they should probably look at,” says Yarinsky. That’s due to the complexity of LED circuitry: For incandescent lights, “if you buy a 2,700 K bulb, it’s 2,700 K. In LED, it’s all based on whatever their code is. So little differences in the code can make a big difference in terms of the actual warmth.” The maximum CRI is 100, which is equivalent to daylight. So when buying LEDs, Frisch looks for a CRI of 90 or above, and some options on this list have CRIs as high as 95. Not all brands list CRI, but we’re including it wherever possible.
Dimmability
If you’re planning to install an LED bulb in a fixture with a dimmer switch, be sure to buy a dimmable bulb. Otherwise, it can flicker, strobe, emit a buzzing noise, or simply not work.
Some brands offer bulbs that become warmer in tone as they dim: “It turns out that people really like seeing it go to dusk or orange light, and that kind of mimics what happens to the sun as it drops in the horizon,” says Frisch. Lightbulbs with ambient dimming tend to be more expensive due to more specialized hardware and the need to code a change in light temperature as the dimmer moves — “The diode is more expensive, the code is more expensive, you have to have a much more expensive integrated circuit in it,” says Yarinsky — but may be a worthwhile upgrade for home lighting.
Philips Dimmable Frosted A19 LED Bulbs (4-Pack)
now 5% off
$20
Brightness: 1,100 lumens | Color: 2,700 K, 90 CRI | Dimmable: Ambient dimming
Philips came up most often with our experts as the best source for a standard E26-base screw-in lightbulb that closely mimics the warmth and dimming of an incandescent. “Philips owns the space right now,” says Frisch. The bulbs have a five-year life span and reliably non-buggy performance, and their CRI is 90 — the baseline number Frisch looks for when he’s buying bulbs. Interior designer Olivia Stutz says that her clients “have been extremely satisfied with the price and performance” of Philips LEDs, which create “a nice soft light that perfectly emulates an incandescent bulb.”
You can get these Philips LED bulbs in a few different brightnesses, depending on your preference and need — including an ultrabright 1,600-lumen bulb and an 800-lumen bulb. I tested out the brand’s 1,100-lumen bulb in a bedroom floor lamp — roughly equivalent to an old 75-watt incandescent — where it replaced an inexpensive Feit Electric LED bought several years ago. I hadn’t realized how much I disliked the old color until I swapped it for the Philips bulb. It emanated a bright, cheerful light — cooler than a peachy old-school halogen burning in my living room but still warm enough to make the previous bulb seem gray and clammy by comparison. The bulb’s ambient dimming function works well for bedroom light: I can fade the bulb from bright, sunny white to dim peach with no flickering or buzzing at all.
$20
at Amazon$20
at Amazon
Brightness: 540 lumens | Color: 2,700 K, 95 CRI | Dimmable: Ambient dimming
Brightness: 150 lumens | Color: 2,200 K, 95 CRI | Dimmable: Ambient dimming
British brand Tala makes high-quality LEDs in a range of standard sizes along with beautiful, dramatic shapes that can function as stand-alone fixtures. I tested two of the brand’s bulbs — the Sphere bulb and the handblown Voronoi II — and was impressed with how they resolved the design puzzle of crafting a nice-looking LED. The Voronoi is lit by a single long filament, which is refracted in the irregular curves of the glass bulb’s surface — the DNA of an Edison bulb without being fully skeuomorphic. Another reason I like Tala’s bulbs is their CRI of 95 — on the higher end of options on this list. They are pricey, but you’re not just paying for design: The bulbs provide better color rendering and a richer, more complex warm tone.
Tala bulbs are a favorite of Roman and Williams co-founder Robin Standefer, who especially likes the brand’s Pluto faux-Edison bulb: It’s “warm for an LED,” she says, and emanates “an ambient glow.” Thompson uses handblown Tala bulbs in her home and describes them as “warm and subtle” — good for bedrooms and dining rooms. In general, she notices clients asking for “smooth, matte bulbs” as well “large ovals or spheres, which can be feature objects on their own without a shade or globe.” Strategist senior editor Simone Kitchens uses two of the brand’s oval bulbs as wall sconces in her bathroom, where they produce “the most incredible soft light,” she says. “The color temperature is very warm — almost like candlelight. It’s exactly the kind of low light I want when I take a shower at the end of the day.” (Kitchens installed them with simple matte-black fixtures, which is a quick hack to create an “instant unfussy sconce.”)
Soraa Vivid 3 LED Lightbulb
$25
$25
Photo: Retailer
Brightness: 410 lumens | Color: 2,700 K, 3,000 K; 95 CRI | Dimmable: Yes
Soraa makes “best-in-class halogen-replacement lights for downlights,” says Frisch. The brand occupies a similar position for bi-pin halogen-replacement lightbulbs (a style of light that fits into a fixture with two prongs rather than a screw-in base, often used in downlights) as Philips does for incandescents. “Soraa is gonna lead the halogen bi-pin market for a while,” Frisch says. Its Vivid line comes in a range of specifications, including multiple color temperatures, and the bulbs have an impressively high CRI of 95.
$25
at Lightology
Brightness: 1,100 lumens | Color: 2,700 K | Dimmable: Ambient dimming
Brightness: 800 lumens | Color: Adjustable color, default 2,700 K | Dimmable: Yes
Chris Person, a writer at the Verge and advanced LED hobbyist, is currently working on automating his home LED system with a Raspberry Pi miniature computer with the Home Assistant SkyConnect dongle. For a less DIY-heavy smart-home system, he recommends Ikea. “The Ikea bulbs are really good,” he says. “They’re cheap, and they have their own hub. They also have a lot of buttons that are useful if you’re trying to design a smart-home system.” The devices can be operated via app or integrated with voice control via Amazon Alexa, Apple Home, or Google Home.
A note on dimmer switches
In a home with older wiring, even dimmable LEDs may not be compatible with standard wall switches. Bulbs may flicker, flash, or buzz when you install them. One solution is to install an LED-specific dimmer switch. Both Frisch and lighting designer Noele de Leon recommend Lutron, which makes wall switches and plug-in dimmers for lamps. Its Caséta dimmer kit is Wi-Fi-enabled and comes with a remote control, so you can change your lighting setup from anywhere. I own the Credenza plug-in dimmer, which has worked reliably for more than two years and was glitch-free when I used it to test both the Philips and Tala bulbs.
If Wi-Fi-enabled switches offer too many bells and whistles, Kitchens likes the simple, sleek Legrand option below, which dims to produce a candlelightlike glow without the lights going haywire.
Our experts
• Daniel Frisch, principal architect of Daniel Frisch Architecture
• Simone Kitchens, Strategist senior editor
• Noele de Leon, lighting designer and co-founder of Cosine
• Chris Person, writer at the Verge
• Kyle Schurman, Strategist contributor
• Robin Standefer, co-founder and principal at Roman and Williams
• Olivia Stutz, interior designer
• Ming Thompson, architect at Atelier Cho Thompson
• Michael Yarinsky, co-founder of Office of Tangible Space
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