Ergolux lamp from the Traffic light store: worse than ever

  • Jul 30, 2021

Traffic light stores sell very cheap LED bulbs - 34 rubles 60 kopecks apiece. I bought one in March and the second in June. It turned out that they are radically different.

Ergolux lamp from the Traffic light store: worse than ever

A lot of good things are indicated on the lamp box: power 15 W, luminous flux 1425 lm, analogue of a lamp incandescent 120 W, color rendering index 80+, ripple coefficient <5%, allowable voltage 230V ± 10% (207-253 V).

Ergolux lamp from the Traffic light store: worse than ever

Unfortunately, in the new lamps, all this is not true.

The lamp purchased in March (code EL0512007, release date 07.2020) had a measured power of 7.7 W, luminous flux of 699 lm (equivalent to 70 W), but the LEDs were good there (CRI 81) and at a mains voltage of 230V there was no ripple It was. Despite the linear driver, the lamp more or less withstood the specified voltage range: at 207V, the brightness dropped by 7%, the ripple did not exceed 15%. Here are the results of measurements of this lamp on Lamptest: https://lamptest.ru/review/03775-ergolux-led-a60p-15w-e27-4k-promo.

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The lamp purchased in June (code 3L1162012, release date 12.2020), when turned on, surprised with one hundred percent ripple, clearly visible visually.

Ergolux lamp from the Traffic light store: worse than ever
Ergolux lamp from the Traffic light store: worse than ever

I removed the caps from the old and new lamp, and everything immediately became clear: the new lamp simply does not have a smoothing capacitor: saved on the health of customers (the pulsation of light can lead to eye fatigue, headaches and aggravation of nervous diseases).

Ergolux lamp from the Traffic light store: worse than ever

The boards of the lamps are different, and the LEDs in the new one are different, of a smaller size.

I measured the light parameters of old and new lamps with the Uprtek MK350D spectrometer. The new lamp has a low CRI (Ra) 72 measured color rendering index and a 100% ripple factor.

Ergolux lamp from the Traffic light store: worse than ever

The measured power consumption of the new lamp turned out to be 6.3 W, and the luminous flux was only 494 lm (equivalent to a 50 W incandescent lamp). The power was measured with a Robiton PM-2 instrument, the luminous flux in an integrating sphere of 50 cm using the same Uprtek MK350D spectrometer.

When the mains voltage drops to 225V, the lamp brightness drops by 5%, at 221V by 10%, at 213V by 20%, at 207V (lower level range specified by the manufacturer) the brightness of the lamp drops by 30%, at 202V by 40%, at 197V by 50%, at 190V by 60%, at 183V by 70%.

This means that when used in a real network with a voltage of 210-220 V, the lamp will shine like a 40-watt incandescent lamp.

Unlike the old version, the lamp does not work correctly with switches that have an indicator: it glows dimly when the switch is off.

Compare the manufacturer's promises and the measurement results:

Promised ripple <5%, measured 100%;
Promised 15 W, measured 6.3 W;
They promised to replace a 120 W incandescent lamp, measured 40-50 W, depending on the voltage in the network;
Promised 1425 lm, measured 346-494 lm (at a voltage of 207-230V);
They promised a color rendering index of 80+, measured 72.

Here is such a "modernization" - a light bulb with good LEDs, no ripple, but with half the power and brightness that could still be used turned into a light bulb, worse than which I have not been lately met.

© 2021, Alexey Nadezhin

For ten years I have been writing every day about technology, discounts, places of interest and events. Read my blog on the site ammo1.ru, in LJ, Zen, Mirtesen, Telegram.
My projects:
Lamptest.ru. I test LED lamps and help figure out which ones are good and which are not so good.
Elerus.ru. I collect information about domestic electronic devices for personal use and share it.
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