The fact that your statement above is true shows how ineffective these programs can be. With the government getting involved, irrational and uneconomical behavior can result. If I were to do that for you or anybody else (and I would, just PM me), in the overall scheme of things, the total cost of the bulbs is as high as anywhere else plus the added expense of the postage and the effort to pack and ship them. Add to that is the cost of the bureaucracy of the government and an item that is supposed to conserve ends up wasteful.
It’s all the high taxes in CT that pays for it. So unless I load up on these bulbs, I’ll becheated. 
(I bought 4)
BTW, the competitors color is blue, that would mean Lowes. So there are 2 reasons for the low price. Government subsidy and competition. I am for the latter, not the former
Here are some other displays.
You are incorrect, this does not prove this program is ineffective, it proves they are subsidized and should sell more because of the low price leading to more energy saved. Around here energy programs are calculated by the TRC (total resource cost) and the rebates are designed to be less in cost then the energy saved, so its cheaper to give the rebate then to generate the energy the incandescent would have used over its lifetime.
Also they are home depot exclusive, they are comparing to another brand Lowes sells but these bulbs are only sold by Cree to Home Depot, and these were designed to be cheaper then the competition even without subsidies (i suspect cree got into this because there was no real competition so LED profits were sky high along with the prices)
Any idea of CRI in the 5000K 100W bulb?
Update: I got an email back from Cree saying it’s 82 CRI.
Sweet, I wonder if my local stores have any bulbs that cheap. I still have a few fixtures left to convert.
I don’t need the 100W ones though… even the 60W ones hurt my eyes unless I dim them down quite a bit.
The five that I ordered from Home depot arrived yesterday. Gives me about 200 lux in my workshop. Lots better than the 60 W eq that I had in before.
I have many of the Cree bulbs in the house, mostly the 40 W eq in ceiling fans throughout the house. They are all the 2700 K soft white versions.
I also have three of the 100 W eq ones on a dimmer, and they will dim much lower than the competition (read Lowes Utilitech).
What dimmer are you using?
Looks like Cree made some new high-CRI versions of their bulbs. 93 CRI, but I think they only come in 2700K and they’re nowhere near as efficient as the original Cree bulbs. The original 2700K bulbs were 84 lm/W, and the high-CRI ones are only 59 lm/W.
I think I’m just going to rig up some Nichia 219s somehow, connected to a switched wall outlet. Probably just a copper star bonded to an old aluminum CPU heat sink, maybe with a removable cover to shield it from dust. It won’t be more efficient than Cree bulbs, but at least it’ll be a good color temperature and high CRI.
Or maybe MT-G2s would be better. I wonder how hard it’d be to make my own “puck” lights with a single MT-G2 on each. Or perhaps a XP-G2 triple on each, with three vastly different tints in the triple. And probably a NLITE driver, no mode memory, with a level selected by flipping the wall switch on/off for low/med/high. That sounds nice.
The 60W equivalent Cree should have been reduced from $12.97 to $6.97 at your local store. The 40W should have been reduced from $9.97 to $6.97. Here are the links
My local store has in stock 111 of the newest 100W equivalent (the subject of this thread) at $19.97 each. Here is the link to that bulb.
60W equivalent has a new lowered price of 9.97
It is the Lutron Diva LED/CFL dimmer. DVWCL-153PH-WH
I can´t find from specs if these can take 240V?
A19 might just fit with a bit of luck to E27 socket…
The 100 W Cree bulbs in 2700K state 1600 lumens.
My local Home Depot doesn't have any of the 100 watters in stock yet. That said, I'm not going to pay $19.99 for them. I'll wait until the price comes down
I agree. Even $10 is too much.
I don't even want to think how much I've spent on LED bulbs in the last year! I own over 20 of the CREE 40 and 60 watters, also a couple of the CREE BR30 flood hi-hat bulbs, and 10 of the Philips latest 60 watters... My wallet is screaming at me "Glenn, you're retired living on a limited budget!" Does that stop me??? NO IT DOESN'T!!
Meh… my house has over 300 light bulbs in it… and they are now all LED bulbs…
you win!
The 100W equiv is rather large. Here it is next to the 60 for comparison. At $19.97, I’ll wait awhile before I get any.
Interesting, i assumed they were the same size, but i don’t really care if they are a bit bigger, as long as they fit my fixtures and if i can afford it i will never buy a 60W for household use.
I own about a dozen of the CREE light bulbs from Home Depot in both 40W and 60W. I like the 2700K tint. They are nice. They will supposedly pay for themselves in the long run. 
But I agree that they are priced too high for the average homeowner. I, like you are retired and living on a limited budget. 