Philips Scene Switch 2-in-1 LED bulb product reviews

I freakin love this bulb! Because it got sent to my old address it took a while to get to me but finally it arrived and I was hoping it would be worth the wait. It was. I now live in a small caravan on the work site so having good lighting in the early mornings is important to help me wake up but I also don't want sharp light when I am trying to get to sleep. It was either going to be having two different lights, swapping bulbs around, or, this. Guess which one I really wanted to go for.

Turning the light on in the morning is something I can do on autopilot so I was really pleased this bulb starts off at cool white. In the evenings, I can quickly flip the light switch and the bulb is now putting a warmer, more soothing light that doesn't sting my eyes or keep me awake and alert when I have an early start, because you know the other guys aren't going to take kindly to me snoozing away the working day when it's my job to get everything ready for them to kick off.

I have since gone and bought a couple more of these bulbs for myself, and when the boss saw them in action he decided to pay me back for them (but this review one is mine to keep) and he's also putting them in all the other site-watch caravans so that the employees who, like me, are on-site throughout the night in case of incident, can have a better lighting environment. Very neat technology in action.

I was recently tasked with going down to our local hardware store to get a new bulb for something, sending my on my own is not the safest option as I tend to find new things and buy them. This time it was the 2-in-1 bulb, the concept was intriguing to me and I knew the exact fitting it would be ideal for, the one that lights up the bedroom doorways but is also a small alcove that we store things in so the option to shift light frequencies was very appealing.

The cool white light makes using the area really easy, it's nice and bright and lights the area well. The switch to warm white is really simple and the kids love changing it, although it is hard to change the habit of telling them not to play with the light switch! The warm white is a lovely tone for the evening, lights up the doorways but doesn't interfere with the kids going to sleep.

The only draw back I have found is I would prefer it to start warm and switch to cool as often I would prefer the less harsh light first, especially first thing in the morning or when we come into a dark house. The price is comparable to bulbs that don't have this function so if you have a fitting that you can't decide which you'd prefer then this is the bulb to get for it.

Overall if you've been hesitating about switching over to LED then get one of these and give it a go, the versatility of it, and the instant light (as opposed to CFL's) is sure to make a convert out of you, the electricity cost savings is just a really nice bonus.

Having trialled, and reviewed, a number of LED bulbs, I was aware that 'cool white' - that 'white' light with a faint blue-green tint to it - was more conducive to productivity and alertness, while 'warm white' - with the orange tinge to it - was better for winding down at the end of the day and more restful on tired eyes. The tough bit when you work from home, is trying to cover both situations in the same room. I spend a lot of time in the early evening working on my PC, but as the evening wears on I tend to recline the office chair, grab something fizzy and sweet to drink, and chill out watching a movie or two. Same room. This one bulb became a godsend for me.

Now, I am able to flip the light on and get the 'cool white' light I need to get the work done, and when I am ready to settle back and start winding down, a quick toggle of the switch and I am now bathed in warmer tones that help me prepare for slumber. And I can do it all, knowing that it's costing me less power than running two bulbs, even LED ones!

This bulb give you up to 806 lumen - more than a standard 60w bulb - for just 9.5 watts of draw, so 84.8 lumen/watt. This is quite a respectable output, well within the range of a high quality bulb, but at under $20 it's priced at the higher end of the 'budget' market making it a stunningly good deal for those who want to save power without sacrificing light. Assuming an average power cost of $0.20 per unit (1,000 watt/hours) you would need to save 100 units of power to pay off the cost of the bulb. By replacing a regular 60w bulb with one of these it will take you just 19 hours of use for the bulb to pay itself off and start saving you money... 3-4 days of average use, and you actually get MORE light!

But hang on... that's true of the bulb in 'cool white' mode - 'warm white' is less intense, and provides a softer, dimmer light. To test that I used a bit of MacGyvering. My PC keyboard is solar powered - it recharges itself using two built-in solar panels. I found that if I put the bulb in an adjustable desk lamp, and moved it to around 50cm away from the keyboard and covered up one of the solar panels, I was getting a reading of bang on 500 lux (another unit of light measurement) with the bulb in 'cool white' mode. Flipping the bulb to 'warm white' the reading dropped to 402 lux - pretty close to a 20% drop in light. That provides light roughly equal to a 50w bulb, meaning you'd need to run it in this mode for an extra day before it paid itself off... not a problem!

Overall, testing this bulb for a week has convinced me that I need to fit a few more of these in my house. The bul;b fires up in 'cool white' by default, but the best bit is that it will only flip to warm white if it is powered off for LESS than 6 seconds, meaning you won't need to constantly do a double-flip of the light switch if you prefer cool white most of the time. It really is a well designed, very well thought out system and I for one am very, very impressed.