Last week I stopped by Home Depot and picked up two Cree soft white 100W-equivalents (model A21). I had two specific spots in mind to put them: one in the back porch light, which casts a surprisingly dim light, and the other in the laundry room, where we never seem to have enough light for folding clothes and looking through cleaning products.

After installing the bulbs, they did not disappoint. The bulb in back lights up most of the back yard now, whereas before I couldn't see past about 8-10 feet. The bulb in the laundry room might be TOO bright, but it's good to have there.

I have to admit, as I was standing on the step ladder to reach the laundry room bulb (we have high ceilings), it struck me that I would probably never change that bulb again. That light is on for perhaps 3 hours per week at most, so that bulb is probably going to last longer than the house its self.

I now have my eyes set on replacing the garage bulbs with Cree A21s. The garage ceilings are about 10-11 feet high, so it would be nice to never have to change those bulbs again either. We also need more light in there at night.

I just have two criticisms of these bulbs, one for Home Depot and one for the bulbs themselves:

Home Depot: seriously, I get that these bulbs are great and that you're trying to push them pretty hard, but you need to get these onto your shelves immediately. Stop sticking them in cardboard standups around the store floor. I checked ahead of time to see if my local store had the A21 soft white bulbs in stock (their site said they had 120 of them), but when I got there I simply couldn't find them. The people at the info desk didn't know, and they had to get someone from electrical to point out that there were additional cardboard standups in the electrical wiring aisle, where there are no other light bulbs. I was about to walk off with two A21 bulbs when I realized that they were the daylight models (I hate the color on those), and I had to get them to bring a box of the soft whites down from the high shelves. I'm sure this will all work its self out when these bulbs get more commonplace, but I really wish they'd all be put in the same place.

The complaint I have about the A21 model itself is that they're very heavy. I get that incandescent 100W bulbs are larger than 60-75W bulbs, but these seem a good deal heavier than the Cree A19 bulbs. It made me slightly worried about putting it in the laundry room fixture, which is the kind with a glass bowl you remove and the light is hanging horizontally, held up by nothing more than the socket. I think it'll be fine, but I doubt that socket was designed with that weight in mind...


One last note: I'm thrilled to see that Home Depot and/or Cree seem to be really getting behind the product. My local Home Depot had at least 10 boxes of A19 bulbs, holding around 48 bulbs in each box. They're well stocked!