Extensive testing/use of a pre-production and production "warm" and "cool" Light Planet (TESS) EQ60 lamps (in kitchen spotlight and office anglepoise) over two years (2010 to 2012 so far) have been very satisfactory; pleasant solid light, though consumption measured at >7.5W. The bulb is light enough for my anglepoise whereas many CFLs have not been.
As of 2012 the "cool" lamp is in daily use at my desk and is good to work by because of its light volume and colour, and the "warm" in the kitchen for its warm tone where it meets with approval.
A colleague, doing an energy-sensitive refit of his house, found the EQ60 'warm white' too yellow and too narrow a beam for his purposes, (but found the "V3" GU10 spot's output beam remarkably wide and even). Another tester, who had complained about her 'too yellow' CFLs causing headaches found the 'cool' EQ60 too harsh and clinical.
I think that a more 'neutral' (say 4000K) tone would be a useful addition to the range for both the EQs and the V3s (see below), though Light Planet feels there would be some obstacles:
Trying to produce a third product in the range would be difficult, due to the commercial commitments on the current chip sets. May be able to introduce them at a later date.
(More photos.)
The EQ60 production-run packaging as of March 2010 was much cleaner and less fussy than pre-prod though in my opinion should probably be labelled with:
Update 2010-01-11: Just noticed in an ad the EQ60 60W replacement (ie retrofit) bulbs from Light Planet which is 7W/560lm, which is on a par with CFL if so, and these claim to be the same shape and size as an incandescent and at ~£15 could be a very good deal. I had a chat with Light Planet and I am buying one and borrowing another for eval for this page.
Update 2010-01-14: The EQ60 lamps turned up today. Although the specs on the box are more modest than described on the phone to me (though this is from a pre-production sample/test batch), the ~7W ES27 (Edison Screw) spotlight is brighter and gives off significantly less heat than the (slightly aged) 12W "softone" CFLs next to it and is a really nice light, and is small (hardly anything will actually physically fit in that socket). If what's on the box is right then it's 7.5W/450lm (Cree LEDs), which is the same efficiency as a typical CFL. (Here is a US review of the same bulb.) The cool/daylight version is 560lm it seems, thus ~20% more photons for the buck. The box brand is 'tess' (from Taiwan), part T-67004, 200V-240V AC 50/60Hz, colour temperature 2700K ("warm white"), weight 125g, 108mm x 60mm, ES27. I need to measure actual power consumption.
Update 2010-01-16: These new lights are going down well: we may well buy another couple of the EQ60s to replace failing or dead CFLs since we like the (warm) colour and haven't noticed any (eg RFI) problems... My power meter claims that the EQ60 draws 7.7W with a 0.45 power factor.
Update 2010-03-10: Received 'production' EQ60s. No power measurements yet taken. Due to a mix-up a cool bayonet was sent instead of warm, along with the requested cool ES27 screw model, which feels a little harsh/clinical for some of the possible settings. The amount of light is astonishing and feels comparable to a 20W warm CFL, and knocks the socks off, for example, a 9W warm CFL I replaced in one location. Also, I was concerned that even the 120° beam would be too narrow for normal (eg non-spot/anglepoise) fittings, but though the colour didn't immediately appeal, the light spread seems entirely as good as for spiral/globe CFLs in the places I've so far tried these EQ60s. Will try these out in other settings and with other people over the next week.
Update 2010-03-14: One relative who felt that her 'too yellow' (20W) CFLs were inducing headaches nonetheless did not like the 7W 'cool' LED as too dim and too 'harsh'.
Update 2010-03-21: Measured consumption of EQ60 "cool" ES27 bulb at 7.1W--7.8W, power factor 0.57, better than the pre-production sample values (~7.7W with pf 0.45). Consumption starts at 7.1W and varied a little going as high as 7.8W. I think that if this is drawing 7.5W or above on average it should be rated 8W on the box; the '2W' Philips "AccentWhite" seems to actually draw 1.6W for example. It is good that the power factor is increasing/improving; that could ultimately result in less wasted energy upstream on the grid.
Update 2012-03-04: I noticed that the EQ60 (TESS) ES warm light base had separated from the rest of the lamp, and was thus dangling by its wires, so I very carefully unscrewed the base from the socket with my fingertips, took some pictures, then superglued it back together, and after an hour or so screwed it back in the socket, and it worked! Construction looked reasonably robust internally.
Update 2012-08-21: when taking the "warm" lamp out while fiddling with the light fitting a few days ago, the translucent plastic cover/diffuser came away cleanly from the metal base: superglue to the rescue again today...
Update 2013-01: appears to have failed, which would be very premature, but I cannot rule out the possibility that the (crappy) spotlight fitting is at fault instead.
