A bigger, brighter Ledare LED from Ikea (pictures)

Ikea is expanding its Ledare line of LED light bulbs, including this new version that puts out 1,000 lumens worth of light. Click through to see what else this bulb is capable of.

The Ledare LED is a pretty simple-looking light, with a frosted globe made of plastic. Last year's 600L model also offered a version with a clear globe, but that option's gone.

The 1000L version of the Ledare LED puts out its 1,000 lumens from a power draw of 13 watts -- good for an efficiency score of 74 lumens per watt. That's a lot better than what you'll get from an incandescent or a CFL, but it's less efficient than most other major LED competitors.

The Ledare LED is designed to work with most common dimmer switches. We didn't have any trouble dialing the light back when we tested it out.

Like its predecessor, the 1000L Ledare LED scores surprisingly high on the color rendering index. That means that its a lot better than the average LED at making the colors in your home look vivid and true.

How much better? Take a look for yourself. On the left is the Cree 75W Replacement LED, with a color rendering score of 80 out of 100. You can see that the yellow tones are a little overpowering, and that the reds and oranges are a bit dull.

On the right is an incandescent bulb, which scores just shy of a perfect 100. The whites look white, and the colors pop.

The Ikea LED sits in the middle, with a color rendering score of 90. To me, it looks a lot closer to the incandescent than it does to the LED.

Here's a closer look at that Ikea-lit bowl of M&Ms. Looks good to me.

The 1000L Ledare LED can be found in Ikea retail outlets worldwide. It sells for $11 in the US, which is good price compared with 75W replacement LEDs. The value dips a bit in Australia and the UK, where the bulb sells for AU$18 and £10, respectively.