How to Choose the Right Light Bulbs for Your Home

While it’s easy to grab a bulb at the store and choose based on watts, you should also consider lumens and kelvin levels. The brightness of a room can make or break how it feels.

Edison tested a variety of metals to find the perfect filament for his incandescent bulbs. He settled on tungsten for its durability and low melting point.

1. GE 3-Way Soft White Bulbs

There’s a lot to consider when choosing light bulbs. The color temperature, which ranges from warm white to daylight, is one of the most important factors. This color temperature determines the hue and feel of a room, so it’s important to choose a bulb that matches the overall style you want for your home.

For example, soft white bulbs are best for dining rooms because they have a warmer, more yellowish glow that creates a cozy feeling in the space where you and your family enjoy meals together. On the other hand, daylight bulbs have a brighter, white-to-blueish glow that pairs well with spaces with cool color palettes and contemporary designs.

GE relax HD LED 3-Way bulbs are a great option for frequently used fixtures in your home because you can click the light to toggle between three settings—low mood lighting, general purpose lighting and task lighting. These bulbs also have an instant full brightness and are free of mercury.

The GE relax bulbs have a color rendering index (CRI) of 90, which means colors appear true under these lights. Compared to the old florescent bulbs in my kitchen, which had a CRI of 60 or 70, these bulbs look amazing and make food, drinks and decor colors pop.

2. Linkind Dimmable LED Bulbs

Featuring a calming daylight white color temperature and dimming capabilities, the high frequency motion Sensor Linkind A19 LED Light Bulbs offer a stylish lighting solution for your home. They are a great value in terms of price and energy efficiency, making them a smart investment for your home. They are compatible with most dimmer switches and can easily replace traditional bulbs, reducing your energy consumption. Nevertheless, it is important to note that these bulbs are not suitable for enclosed fixtures.

Another great option is the GE Relax 8-Pack 60W Equivalent LED Light Bulb. These bulbs are designed to fit your existing light fixtures and lamps, ensuring that you don’t have to pay for costly upgrades or installation costs. They come with a frosted finish, are dimmable and can be used with most dimmer switches. Additionally, these bulbs are energy efficient and can last up to 13 years.

Another feature that sets this bulb apart from the rest is its music sync feature. This allows you to sync the lights with your music, creating a dynamic atmosphere that can set the mood for any occasion. Additionally, this bulb is easy to set up and can be controlled using your phone or tablet. You just need to connect it to your home WiFi and follow the instructions on your app. In addition, these bulbs are UL Listed and FCC Certified to guarantee world-class quality.

3. Ecosmart Dimmable LED Bulbs

Four years ago, it was common for smart bulbs to require a bridge to communicate with your home network. That’s still true of many of the GE and Philips Hue bulbs we tested at the time, but there are now lots of options that skip the hub altogether, using Bluetooth radios to connect directly with your smartphone or tablet.

This Ecosmart bulb is a good example. Its 840 lumen rating means it produces the same amount of light as a light bulbs traditional 60-watt incandescent, yet it draws only 9 watts. That saves you an estimated $62 in energy costs over the bulb’s lifetime, assuming it is used an average of twelve hours per day.

These LED bulbs operate quietly and generate no heat, so they don’t raise your air conditioning bills. They also stay bright over their lifespans, a major advantage over filament bulbs and CFLs that lose luminosity as they age.

This model comes with three color temperature settings (soft, bright and daylight). Use the soft setting for warm, inviting rooms like bedrooms or living rooms. The bright setting works best in areas where you want a more energetic lighting effect, such as kitchens and offices. And the daylight setting provides a crisp, bright appearance for utility spaces like basements or garages. These bulbs have an A19 medium screw-in base that fits most standard fixtures.

4. Philips Soft White LED Bulbs

Philips offers a wide range of smart LED bulbs, but their cheapest models are still more expensive than competitors such as GE and Cree. They justifies that price by claiming an extra 80 lumens of brightness and superior dimming capabilities. But our tests didn’t show any significant differences in either category, and Philips only backs its bulbs with half the warranty that you get with other brands.

You’ll need a Philips Hue Bridge to control these, which connects to your Wi-Fi network and lets you set schedules, time lights for sunset and sunrise, activate vacation mode, and create geofences to turn your lights off when you’re leaving the house. You can also pair the bulbs with a variety of voice assistants, such as Alexa or Google Home, for additional functionality.

The BR30 bulb in this package is the one we tested, and it performs well. It’s a bit brighter than the average LED bulb, and it produces a fairly warm 2700K light. Unlike many older CFLs, which were known for emitting a garish yellow light, these are fairly close to the general look of traditional incandescent bulbs and even halogen lighting. They don’t have the same blueish tint of some recent LED bulbs we’ve tested, and their color rendering score is 91.4, putting them ahead of most other affordable LEDs on the market.