Best LED light bulbs

How to choose

Shop by lumens

Lumens measure brightness, and they replace watts as the number to compare. You need at least 450 lumens to replace a 40W bulb, 800 for 60W, 1,100 for 75W and 1,600 for 100W.¹⁵ If the room felt dim with the old bulb, step up one size.

Don't look for the ENERGY STAR label on bulbs. EPA ended its lamp specification on December 31, 2024. The FTC's Lighting Facts label still shows brightness, yearly energy cost, life and color temperature.⁸

Use 2700K where you spend the evening

Color temperature is measured in Kelvin, and a lower number means warmer light. Soft white is around 2700K, close to an old incandescent, while daylight is around 5000K.⁵ Use 2700K in bedrooms and living rooms, and save 4000K to 5000K for garages, closets and work areas you don't use late at night. Part of this is taste: lighting engineers at Feit told a Wirecutter writer they prefer about 3500K at home.⁵

Evening light can affect sleep. Researchers who measured light in 59 Melbourne homes estimated that nearly half were bright enough to suppress melatonin, the sleep hormone, by 50 percent, though individual responses ranged widely.¹⁶ Homes with energy-efficient lights had nearly double the sleep-relevant light of homes with incandescents.¹⁶ Dimming warm bulbs in the last hours before bed will probably help more than choosing a brand.

Warm white home bulbs carry a low risk to your eyes. France's health agency ANSES rates them as no different from traditional lighting, and an EU scientific committee found no evidence of direct harm from LEDs in normal use by healthy people.^{17 18} ANSES does warn that even low levels of blue light in the evening disrupt sleep rhythms.¹⁷

On a dimmer, test one bulb first

Never use a non-dimmable bulb on a dimmer. When the Department of Energy ran one on four dimmers, its output was erratic on three of them.¹⁹ One homeowner reported non-dimmable bulbs flickering and smoking on a dimmer.²⁰

Dimmable bulbs vary too. In the same study of 14 dimmable bulbs, 3 couldn't reach 10 percent of full output on average, and no dimmer worked best with all of them.¹⁹ So if a dimmed room gives you trouble, change the bulb model before you change the dimmer. DOE says trying a bulb yourself is likely the best way to judge it.¹⁹ Buy one, run it at the bottom of the range, then buy the rest. That study used five bulbs per dimmer on basic dimmers, so a single bulb or a smart dimmer may act differently.¹⁹

If flicker bothers you, buy a bulb someone measured

The words flicker free on a box prove little. The Hook Up bought 25 best-selling soft white bulbs in 2023 and measured them with a flicker meter. An incandescent scored 9.5 percent. Many bulbs claimed to be flicker free, but only the Waveform, at under 1 percent, lived up to it, and only the Philips Ultra Definition, at 1.5 percent, also beat the incandescent.²

That was one person's test, but others point the same way. ANSES reports that a high proportion of LED lamps vary significantly in light output, which may cause headaches and visual fatigue in some people, and DOE found one bulb that flickered heavily even on a plain switch.^{17 19}

Check the enclosed fixture rating

If a bulb goes inside a sealed globe or jelly jar fixture, the package must say it's rated for enclosed fixtures. DOE warns that enclosed fixtures and other hot settings can make LEDs fade or shift color well before their rated life.²¹ If bulbs keep dying in a closed ceiling fixture while the same model lasts in a lamp, suspect heat first.²²

Pay for CRI 90 where color matters

The federal minimum CRI is 80, which is fine for a closet or basement.⁸ Buy 90 or higher for kitchens, baths and rooms where you judge paint, food or skin tones.

CRI is an average, so it can hide weak reds. R9 is the score for pure red, and even the two bulbs that topped 96 CRI in The Hook Up's test struggled on it.² If a bulb lists R9, higher is better. California's code for new homes asks for at least CRI 90 and R9 of 50, which is a fair yardstick.²³

Treat rated hours as a comparison, not a promise

Rated life usually means the point when output falls to 70 percent, and it assumes the electronics keep working.^{7 24} The light source usually fades slowly, but the electronics around it can fail first. DOE's test of 200 samples of Philips's L Prize competition bulb shows how good LEDs can get: average output was still 100 percent at 25,000 hours, and the 31 bulbs left passed 50,000 hours at 93 percent.²⁵ DOE says that competition entry shouldn't be taken as typical.²⁵

Ordinary bulbs varied far more. When DOE ran 15 LED models for over 7,500 hours at 113°F (45°C), three kept above 99 percent of their light, two fell below 65 percent, and seven looked unlikely to hold 70 percent at their rated life, usually 25,000 hours.²¹ Bulbs of the same model behaved much alike, so if one model does badly in a fixture, change the model.²¹

Feit's sheet works 25,000 hours out to 22.8 years, while a Wirecutter writer said to expect five to seven.^{1 5} CHOICE, an Australian consumer group, judged most claims fairly reliable at the 15,000 hour end.²⁶ Owners describe bulbs that flicker or dim within months or a year, often in ceiling fixtures.^{22 27} Plan on the low end, and keep the receipt and the box so you can use the warranty.

Expect these models to change

A federal rule raises the minimum for the most common bulbs from 45 lumens per watt to more than 120, for bulbs made from July 2028.²⁸ The Feit works out to about 91 lumens per watt and the Sylvania to about 94, so both are likely to be redesigned.^{1 7} Bulbs already made can still be sold, so there's no need to stock up.

Watch out in garage door openers

Some LEDs can cut remote range. Chamberlain tells owners with poor range to check for LED interference, and one owner couldn't close the door by remote after switching to an LED, until the opener's antenna was extended.^{29 30} Use a bulb the opener's maker lists as compatible, and if range drops after a bulb change, swap the bulb first.

Check old bulbs in a house you just bought

Two old recalls could still matter in a used house. In 2013 Lighting Science Group recalled about 554,000 LED bulbs sold under the Definity, EcoSmart, Sylvania and Westinghouse names, in 6, 8 and 9 watt sizes, because they can overheat and start a fire. Look on the neck of the bulb for a date code from L4010 through L1111, which may end in CH or MX. Remove them from sockets and lamps immediately and contact the company for replacements.³¹ Also in 2013, Philips recalled about 99,000 Endura 12-watt and Ambient 12.5-watt LED bulbs, with model 9290001829 on the gray band at the neck, because the whole lamp can become electrified. Stop using them, unplug the fixture, remove the bulb and contact Philips for free replacements.³² Neither recall covers the bulbs we suggest here.