Scott Beute, account manager at Mission, said, “I was looking for equipment that we could use to do finish grinding operations on cast iron parts for a customer, and two different companies were doing demos that directly applied to that application. I spoke with representatives from both companies and now have a couple different options to evaluate as we put together a proposal.”

LED prices have fallen steadily over the past five years or so, with most dimmable LED floodlight options settling in the $5 to $8 price range and some available for even less. That's great since swapping in an LED floodlight for a 65-watt incandescent floodlight will knock an average of about $7 per year off your power bill. That means it won't take long at all for any of these LEDs to pay for themselves in energy savings.

Once a bulb we're testing is done in the lab, we take a close look at things like light spread, tone and color quality. Our photo and video team (Tyler Lizenby, Chris Monroe and Vanessa Salas here in Louisville) are a huge help at this point, with standardized photography that lets us take a really close look at those metrics. They're also just really damned good at taking pictures of light bulbs.

The next Automate show will be on May 12-15, 2025, in Detroit, Michigan. Until then, Mission looks forward to participating in the upcoming shows:

So why don't they get the top spot? It's honestly neck and neck, but to my eye, Cree offers a slight uptick in color quality, and if you want the full 10-year warranty, you'll have to register your bulbs -- otherwise, you only get five years of coverage. In addition, the Philips bulb's lumen output topped out at a too-low average of 92% of its actual brightness on the dimmer switches I tested it with. That undercuts the brightness and efficiency selling points to a small extent. But make no mistake, this bright light is still a terrific choice for almost everyone.

I think that about covers it, but if you want to know more about the bulbs I tested for this roundup, here they all are:

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This new floodlight LED from Sylvania isn't available outside of California yet, but it's efficient, putting out 93.7 lumens per watt. It'll be one of the next bulbs I review.

Need to buy a bunch? Start with one, keep the receipt and make sure you like the quality of light and the way it dims in your home before going all in. Most major retailers are pretty accommodating with light bulb returns, so it's fine and sensible to try one or two out before committing to the next decade or more of in-home lighting.

Need to illuminate outdoor areas or dark indoor spaces such as garages or basements? Check out the best LED floodlight bulbs from well-known brands like GE and Philips.

Unfortunately, there's a big issue. As with most lighting, there are many options on the market. Plenty of LED floodlight manufacturers are out there, and it can be difficult to tell which ones are good, apart from bog-standard bulbs that may lack brightness or the particular color temperature you need. If you have a smart home system and you want to add something a little extra for the holidays, you’ll want to make sure your new smart light is compatible with what you’ve already got installed

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As for my tests themselves, feast your eyes on my data. Up first, the results of that heat dissipation test I mentioned a few times earlier. This isn't ranking the brightness of each product, but rather the percentage of initial brightness each bulb lost during the test as they heated up. The higher each bulb finishes, the stronger the result.

Beyond that, you could always smarten up any of the dumb bulbs recommended in this post by pairing them with a smart switch that's wired into your wall. If you've got a bank of floodlight bulbs overhead that are all wired to one switch, smartening up one switch instead of several bulbs might be the better way to go, anyway. The best I've tested is still the Lutron Caseta line of smart switches, but keep an eye out this year for new, relatively low-cost smart switches from GE.

All of that said, the most important thing isn't what I think when I'm taking readings in our lighting lab -- it's what you and your family think after screwing the bulbs in and turning them on in your living room or other area. As I said, LEDs like these are designed to be durable and waterproof and last years, so it's well worth buying ones that you'll actually like living with. You've got a lot of good options these days, so there's really no need to compromise. I'm just here to help you find those "just right" bulbs a bit faster -- or more efficiently, you might say.

I've tested several LED floodlights over the years, including brand-name options from the likes of Cree, GE, Sylvania and Philips, as well as store-brand bulbs from Walmart, Target and Amazon. I honed in on dimmable, soft white-toned, 65-watt replacement LEDs since those are the most popular option, but if you want something nondimmable or daylight-tinted for your outdoor light fixtures, you'll find bulbs like those in the lighting aisle too.

I've tested several GE Reveal bulbs over the years and they always deliver on their promise of better-looking colors. The latest BR30-shaped bright light wide beam floodlight versions, now available in a two-pack at stores such as Lowe's and Target, are no exception. Unlike previous-gen GE Reveal bulbs, which filtered out excess yellow light, these new versions achieve better-looking colors by boosting the product's ability to render reds, a longtime LED sticking point. It works -- and it also means that the bulbs are both super bright and more efficient than before, making them ideal outdoor floodlights if you're looking for a better outdoor security light.

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No matter what you pick, you'll want to look for a durable bulb that puts out at least 650 lumens of brightness from a power draw of 10 watts or less. I'd also advise sticking with a product that offers an average lifespan of at least 10 years and a warranty of at least five years if possible.

Some light bulbs are better than others at making colors look accurate and vivid -- but few of today's LEDs do as good a job with color quality as the GE Reveal line of light bulbs, which make color quality the main point of focus.

A BR30 bulb is a specific type of floodlight and one of the most common. The "BR" bit stands for bulging reflector, which means the light source inside of the bulb sits over a metallic, reflective bowl that bounces all the downcast light back up and straight out the top. Like the name also suggests, the top of the bulb typically bulges outward, which helps put out a fairly wide pool of illumination -- perfect for a security light or indoor floodlights. It's the same trick your car's headlights use to light up the road in front of you as you drive at night.

Parker Bos, applications engineer at Mission, echoed this sentiment, stating that the show is beneficial because you’re able to see and talk to many vendors you may not have known about otherwise. It allows for exposure to technology that could be the missing piece on your next project.

If you need to replace a bunch of floodlights and you want to keep the cost as low as possible, then put the GE Basic floodlight LED at the top of your list. Available in a six- or 12-pack at Lowe's for around $4 per bulb, it's one of the lighting aisle's best values. Don't let the Basic branding fool you -- these bulbs are energy efficient, fully dimmable, durable and they manage heat surprisingly well.

“Going to an event like Automate really shines a light on the abundance of partnership in our industry. It wasn’t new information to me, but seeing from a broader view how much of an impact the power of partnership has on our industry is amazing. For example, we’ll meet with customers and supplier partners at a booth to discuss upcoming potential projects, and then be able to join back up for dinner later in the night,” said Sami Birch, marketing director at Mission Design & Automation.

Automate 2024 highlighted the significance of partnerships in driving innovation and efficiency. For Mission Design & Automation, collaboration is key to delivering robust automation solutions.

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“You also see a lot of component suppliers, AI vision system providers, or robot manufacturers partnering up with integrators for booth demos and beyond. It’s a great way to exemplify how partnerships impact end-product systems in the real-world, but on a demo scale,” Birch added.

First, a little about me: I'm not a lighting engineer, but I've tested and reviewed light bulbs for CNET for over five years now. That includes hundreds of hours in our homemade lighting lab -- a climate-controlled room equipped with a spectrometer and an integrating sphere that lets us run the most scientific and accurate light bulb tests we can possibly run. I've also visited and written features about major North American lighting manufacturers such as Cree and GE to get a better understanding of their methods and standards. This is one of numerous LED buying guides and roundups that I try to update as often as possible.

Just keep in mind that, except for Lifx bulbs, which communicate using Wi-Fi, all of these smart lights require a Zigbee hub that can translate the bulb's signals into something your router can understand. Hue bulbs require the Philips Hue Bridge, an Amazon Echo Plus or a second-gen Echo Show. Those three can all control Sengled and Sylvania bulbs too, as can other Zigbee controllers like the SmartThings Hub.

CNET’s expert staff reviews and rates dozens of new products and services each month, building on more than a quarter century of expertise.

CNET’s expert staff reviews and rates dozens of new products and services each month, building on more than a quarter century of expertise.

We've tested the top options on the market to find the best LED floodlight bulbs for your home. Whether you’re after a budget bulb, security lighting or energy-saving models to keep down the electricity bill, we've found top picks to meet your needs.

Given how many durable options you have for $7 or less, I don't think you should spend any more than that per bulb without good reason. Keep an eye out for multipacks: Manufacturers use them to help bring down the cost per bulb, so they can make for an especially good deal if you need a bunch of bulbs anyway.

Mission Design & Automation encouraged team members from every department to attend Automate 2024 to expand their industry knowledge. Attendees gained valuable insights into our customers, competitors, and partners, and an enhanced understanding of different products.

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The BR30 floodlight LEDs from Philips match Cree's outstanding and durable 10-year warranty. They're also super bright, a bit more efficient and a bit better at heat dissipation than Cree. They don't flicker or buzz on dimmer switches and they get warmer and more candle-like in tone as you dim them down, which some will appreciate. On top of all that, they're less expensive than Cree at about $4.50 per bulb.

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Last week, team members from Mission Design & Automation had the opportunity to attend Automate 2024 at the McCormick Place in Chicago. Organized annually by the Association for Advancing Automation (A3), Automate is North America’s largest automation showcase, featuring over 800 exhibitors. This four-day event highlights the latest advancements in automation technology as well as their applications, which can be used to solve manufacturing challenges across many industries that keep the world moving.

Remember, you're going to live with these super bright LED lights every day for a long time. So it's worth getting a bulb type that you like and avoiding the ones that'll annoy you.

That's a great pitch for anyone who doesn't have dimmer switches but still wants to be able to dim the lights for movie night or illumination for late-night trips to the bathroom. The bulb also aced pretty much every one of our tests and with a power draw of just 8 watts (or a lot less if you're running it on the nightlight setting), it'll still save you money over the long run despite the higher-than-average entry cost.

Smart bulbs are a great choice if you're picky about dimming. With bulb-specific dimming hardware built right in, most smart bulbs will dim with flawless, flicker- and buzz-free precision via their app or through some other integration like an Amazon Alexa voice command. You won't need to use dimmer switches associated with those light fixtures at all. You might need to teach your kids to leave the switch up so your automations will work as planned, but there are new solutions for that age-old problem coming out this year, too.

After countless hours spent testing floodlights in CNET's lighting lab, the Cree 65W Replacement Floodlight LED emerged as our Editors' Choice for the best LED floodlight. It's brighter than advertised (and super bright compared with most of the competition), it's energy-efficient enough to pay for itself in energy savings within a year and it'll work with a dimmer switch without flickering or buzzing. Best of all, Cree's LED bulb comes with a category-leading 10-year warranty to back up the 22.8-year life span. These light bulbs are seriously great for either an indoor floodlight or an outdoor space.

The insights and connections gained at Automate 2024 are invaluable to our team as we continue to deliver advanced automation solutions to our customers.

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The "30" part refers to the diameter of the bulb in eighths of an inch. At 30 eighths of an inch, a typical BR30 bulb will be just shy of 4 inches wide.

It's always important to have good lighting, but some spaces require a little extra -- and that's why you should have an LED floodlight bulb. To name a few places that would benefit from one: your porch, driveway, yard, garage, basement, etc. The LED floodlight bulbs provide better security outside your home, allowing you to see more clearly outside in the dark. Furthermore, a bright light is sure to deter trespassers from entering your space, especially when paired with a good security camera. Plus, you typically get a 10-year warranty with your new bulb, so you won't have to replace them for a long time.

It's a relatively pricey illumination option at $8 each, but the Philips SceneSwitch Floodlight LED is actually three bulbs in one: A yellowy, soft white bulb, a bright white, daylight bulb and a dimmed-down nightlight. Want to change between the three? Just switch the bulb off and then back on again within a few seconds. Leave it off longer than that and it'll turn back on to the setting you left it at when you return.

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“It was fascinating to see the various applications,” said Fabian Venegas, controls engineer at Mission Design & Automation. “For example, in previous years, I had problems with vacuums clogging up. At Automate, I discovered positive pressure vacuum systems that only create a change in pressure on the surface needing vacuuming, which would be especially helpful for applications that produce a lot of debris. Small details like this show why Automate is so important.”

“If we know who to talk to for a certain application, we can rely on our suppliers’ expertise to make sure we give the customer the solution they need and avoid trying to reinvent the wheel,” Beute added.

We log those brightness measurements every 10 minutes for 90 minutes, then take a final reading at the end. At that point, I plug the sphere's power cord into a variety of dimmer switches, then measure for the average maximum and minimum settings across all of them while also keeping a close lookout for flicker or buzz.

Their light output isn't quite as bright as Cree and they won't last as long, but those tradeoffs are fair at this price -- especially given that each energy-efficient GE Basic LED will pay for itself in energy savings in less than six months if you're upgrading your outdoor security lights or indoor LED floodlights from incandescent bulbs.

Typically used in overhead, recessed lighting setups, BR30 floodlights are designed to cast a wide pool of bright illumination in a single direction.

The majority of smart bulbs are the common A-shaped bulb type, but you've got a growing number of floodlight options, too. Lifx and Philips Hue are probably the two most notable names here. Each offers smart floodlights that change colors and work with all of the major voice platforms (Siri, Alexa and Google Assistant), but both are expensive. Want something cheaper? Look for white-light floodlight options from names such as Sylvania and Sengled that cost $10 per bulb or less.

Need advice about outdoor security, solar lights and outdoor lighting? Read about how to convert your yard lighting to outdoor LED lighting or an outdoor floodlight. Or about our favorite outdoor security cameras.

We load each bulb we test into the center of our integrating sphere -- a big, hollow ball with special, reflective paint coating the inside. Our spectrometer peeks in through a tiny hole in the side of the sphere, with a "baffle" that blocks it from looking directly at the light bulb. Instead, the bulb's light bounces around inside, which lets our spectrometer take reliable, calibrated measurements for things like brightness and color temperature.

“It’s no secret that manufacturing has been a male-dominated industry and it’s so encouraging to see more voices being celebrated and highlighted,” Birch said. “We have so many brilliant minds in the advanced manufacturing space.”

Automate 2024 provided a platform for engaging with current professionals in manufacturing automation, enhancing industry accessibility and awareness. This year’s event also featured a keynote event called Empowerment Forum: Women Leading Change. The panel aimed to bring women in the automation industry together to share their experiences and aspirations and build valuable connections and leadership skills.