Gadgetory

AMC nuts Brad Crist do you remember the nano leaf bulb last year it was a crowdfunded bulb looked a little funny looked a little like this well this is the follow-up this is the nano leaf bloom and like that bulb it's a 75 watt equivalent that puts out a lot of light using just a little bit of power but what's new about this year's bulb is that it dims using your regular on-off switch how does it do that well take a look when you first turn the bulb on it's going to fade up from zero over the course of a few seconds if you flip your switch off and then on really quick during that fading up period it'll lock in at that level of brightness so all of a sudden you've got a dimmable bulb on what was previously a non dimming switch circuit that's kind of an interesting feature once the bulb is on you can fade it back down by flipping the switch two more times so just like this if I flip it twice it'll fade back down very slowly and if I want to lock it into the particular brightness I just do a double turn and boom it's locked at about half brightness right now now if you want this bulb and its unique take on dimming you're going to need to pay forty bucks because that's what the Kickstarter campaign is asking of you and that's not a great price for a 75 watt equivalent LED a year ago it might have been but this year prices have come down to twenty even fifteen dollars for bulbs like that and I don't think that that extra dimming functionality is enough to justify the jump to forty dollars there are smart bulbs out there that can do really nice things with dimming and then also bring things like automation and scheduling to the table and they feel like a better value to me if I was really concerned with dimming and wanted precise nice dimming control you can't quite get it with this you can sort of approximate it and think you're getting about halfway on or about ten percent or whatever you can do that really precisely with a smart kit or with a remote or even with a standard dimmer so it's not an ideal solution it's a cool solution but not the best I do appreciate the look of the bulb the inside-out sort of diodes on the outside appearance that it's got going is pretty cool and makes for an attractive conversation starter so if that's the type of thing you wouldn't mind paying for maybe give this bulb a shot but otherwise I say keep your eyes open for smart bulbs that are coming down and praise as well for seeing it I'm right crist you