Saffron is a new company that’s bringing beautiful and intelligent LED lighting to the consumer. They have LED light bulbs that look exactly like traditional incandescent bulbs, “Smart” LED bulbs that automatically turn on when it gets dark or dim over time to simulate a sunset. These energy efficient and long-lasting bulbs are available now and start at $12.
LED light bulbs are attractive to the average consumer because they provide the same look as traditional incandescent bulbs but provide an extended lifespan and save on energy costs. LED bulbs can last up to 45,000 hours, while incandescent bulbs last around 1,000 hours. You can replace a 60-watt incandescent bulb with an 8-watt, which is an obvious 52-watt electricity savings. These two facts alone are the reason that households all over the country are switching to LED lighting. Because LED bulbs last so long, that means fewer bulbs used over your lifetime, less waste, and less time and money spent changing out your light bulbs.
The way that LED light bulbs are able to save so much energy is that LED diodes provide more lumens per watt of energy. Lumens are an important number when considering the switch to LED. Lumens are a measure of how much light a bulb outputs, so the lumen number is how you want to compare your new LED bulbs to your traditional incandescent bulbs side by side.
I had the opportunity to review three of Saffron’s new LED bulbs: their standard 6W LED Non-Dimmable Bulb, their Drift Light, and their Sense Light. Keep reading to learn about each bulb and about my thoughts on each one.
Standard 6W LED Bulb (Non-Dimmable)
Saffron’s 6W LED Bulb is meant to replace your 40W incandescent bulbs, however I tested it against a 60W incandescent and the light output looked very comparable to me. Check out the photos below to see what I mean. The 6W LED bulb comes in warm white and cool white and looks almost identical to your standard incandescent bulb.
Comparison between 60W incandescent (left) and 6W LED (right).
These bulbs are an excellent option for straight incandescent-to-LED upgrades without noticing a single difference. The only difference between standard incandescent bulbs and this 6W LED bulb is the cute light blue accent on the screw base.
The 6W LED bulb pumps out 400 lumens, will last for around 30,000 hours, and sells for $12 each but is available in 4-packs. If you’re looking for more oomph in your standard LED lighting, you can also purchase the premium 8W LED bulb for $14 that’s dimmable and is meant to replace a 60W incandescent by pumping out 810 lumens.
6W Standard LED Bulb
6W Standard LED Bulb
6W Standard LED Bulb
Drift Light
Saffron’s Drift Light is a very interesting concept; it is meant to help you get to sleep easily by mimicking the average sunset and dimming the light over the course of 37 minutes until its off. In order to activate this “midnight mode” as its called, you flick the light switch on and off twice, after which the Drift Light will blink once to confirm that it’s been set properly. The Drift Light also has a “moonlight mode” that dims the light to a low setting and the low setting stays on all night. This is good for a child’s bedroom or hallway instead of using an outlet for a nightlight. To activate moonlight mode, you flick the light switch on and off three times and the Drift Light will blink twice to confirm. And obviously, the Drift Light has an “always on” mode, which acts like a normal light, when you turn the light switch on or off.
Check out Saffron’s promotional video for the Drift Light here for a peek at how it works:
The Drift Light pumps out 530 lumens when fully on, will last for around 30,000 hours, and uses 7W of electricity. The Drift Light sells for $29 each and comes in 4-packs and 10-packs.
Drift Light
Drift Light
Drift Light in action.
Sense Light
Saffron’s Sense Light is the perfect solution for outdoor LED lighting at your home. Quite simply, the Sense Light senses when its dark outside and turns on by itself when it becomes dark enough. The Sense Light turns itself on at 30 lux. Lux is a measure of the brightness of outdoor light. So for comparison, direct sun is 70,000 lux while daylight is 20,000 lux and heavy overcast light is only 100 lux.
All you need to do is screw in the Sense Light in an outdoor light fixture and it will do the rest! The Sense Light is perfect for homes without outdoor lighting timers. I was excited to use the Sense Light in our house until I remembered that we installed a $30 automatic lighting timer when we moved in. If I had the Sense Light at the time, I could have saved that $30 on the timer, paid $25 for the Sense Light and not had to worry about buying new bulbs for a while!
The Sense Light pumps out 480 lumens, has an enormous lifespan of around 50,000 hours, and uses 6W of electricity. The Sense Light sells for $25 each or can be purchased in 4-packs or 10-packs.
Sense Light
Sense Light
Sense Light in action. (Notice that it’s light in the room, so it’s not turning on)
All-in-all Saffron has an impressive array of LED lighting options for any home and I’d love to have my house outfitted with every one of them! Check out Saffron’s site at SeeSaffron.com to learn more about this fresh new lighting company.
Source: The Saffron 6W LED Bulb, Drift Light, and Sense Light were provided to me as a review sample by the manufacturer.
What I Like: Beautiful lighting options; Long lifespan; Energy Efficient; Smart-dimming; Light-sensing; Light output is comparable to standard incandescent.
What Needs Improvement: Nothing, except that I don’t have enough of them to light my entire house!
