Plenty of homes keep things lit using overhead floodlights in recessed lighting setups. BR30-shaped bulbs like those are ideal for overhead lighting because they cast all of their light downwards, thanks to the "bulging reflectors" that make up the "BR" of BR30.

If you're looking to upgrade bulbs like those, or if you've just had one burn out on you recently, then the answer is almost certainly to go with an LED, where your choices are on the rise as prices continue to fall. But which one should you go with?

The answer will depend on what you need out of your lights, but the good news is that you've got a lot of good options. All you need to do is sort through them to find the best light for your living space -- and hey, that's where I come in!

First things first: How much should I spend?

Like I said before, prices have fallen pretty steadily over the past few years, with most dimmable LED floodlights settling in the $5 to $8 price range. That's great, since swapping in an LED for a 65W incandescent will knock an average of about $7 per year off of your energy bill. That means it won't take very long at all for any of these LEDs to pay for themselves in energy savings.

Given how many options you have for $8 or less, I really don't think you should spend any more than that per bulb unless you've got a really good reason. Also, keep an eye out for multi-packs. Manufacturers use them to help bring down the cost per bulb without having to sacrifice too much on quality, so they can be a very good deal on some very good LEDs, especially if you need multiple bulbs anyway.

	Cree	GE	GE Reveal	Osram Sylvania	Philips	Target Up & Up	Walmart Great Value
Brightness in lumens (measured/stated)	655 / 665	810 / 700	711 / 650	641 / 650	639 / 650	624 / 650	669 / 650
Energy consumption	8 watts	10 watts	11 watts	9 watts	9 watts	10 watts	10 watts
Efficiency (lumens per watt)	82	81	65	71	71	62	67
Yearly energy cost (3 hours of use per day at $0.11 per kWh)	$0.96	$1.20	$1.32	$1.08	$1.08	$1.20	$1.20
Color temperature	Soft White (2,621 K)	Soft White (2,673 K)	Soft White (2,693 K)	Soft White (2,805 K)	Soft White (2,669 K)	Soft White (2,699 K)	Soft White (2,618 K)
Dimmable	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Dimmable range	2.7 - 99.9%	10.4 - 100%	0.6 - 100%	0.0 - 100%	0 - 100%	0 - 99.5%	21.1 - 100%
Expected lifespan	25,000 hours	25,000 hours	15,000 hours	10,000 hours	10,000 hours	25,000 hours	25,000 hours
Warranty	10 years	5 years	5 years	3 years	3 years	3 years	3 years
Average price per bulb	$8	$7	$13	$5	$5	$8	$7

OK, so what are my options?

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

No matter what you pick, you'll want to look for a bulb that puts out at least 650 lumens of brightness from a power draw of 10 watts or less.

At this point, ask yourself what you want from your lights. Is brightness the most important thing? Dimmability? Color quality? Do you just want the cheapest acceptable option? No matter your answer, I've got a bulb for you.

I want something cheap I won't hate

Two of the dimmable LEDs I tested came out to five bucks per bulb: the Philips floodlight LED and the Osram Sylvania floodlight LED. The similarities between the two are pretty striking -- both put out about 640 lumens from a power draw of 9 watts. Both promise to last 10,000 hours (about 10 years, on average), and both come with a three year warranty. They even look alike.

But the Philips LED is your best bet. Of all the floodlights I tested, it was one of the best in my dimming tests, consistently dimming down lower and smoother than the competition, and in most cases without any noticeable flicker. The Osram bulb did pretty well in the dimming tests, too, but it didn't dim down as low as the Philips bulb, and it flickered noticeably when I tried it on an old rotary dial.

Even if you don't care about dimmability, the Philips bulb is the better choice. It was mediocre-at-best when I tested out how well it handles heat build-up (not surprising or disqualifying for a bargain-priced bulb), but it did a heck of a lot better than Osram, which finished dead last in the test by a substantial margin.

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I just want something really bright

Easy enough -- go with the standard GE floodlight LED. It claims an impressive light output of 700 lumens, but finished way above that in my tests with a whopping 810 lumens to its name. That makes it the brightest bulb I tested (by a lot), and with a power draw of 10 watts, it was one of the most efficient, too. It sells at a bunch of different retailers and pricing will vary, but I bought my test bulb at Target for about $7.

Aside from the butt-kicking brightness, GE's bulb was also the top finisher in that heat management test I mentioned before, which is strong evidence of a well-engineered light bulb, and one that would likely be a great pick for an enclosed fixture, where heat gets trapped. It performed reasonably well in my dimming tests, too -- although it wouldn't dim down any lower than 10 percent on any switch I tested, which isn't a great result.

One last note: I'm featuring a picture of the bulb packaging here because GE sells an awful lot of light bulbs, which sometimes gets confusing. If it helps, the specific model number of this bulb is "LED10DR303/827W".

I want the best dimmable option

This is a close one. If dimming is truly the only thing you care about, then you might as well go with that $5 Philips bulb from before, because it was the most consistently strong performer in my dimming tests.

That said, the Cree floodlight LED was right behind it, and it's a much more well-rounded bulb overall. With a power draw of just 8 watts, it still manages to get up over 650 lumens bright, making it the most efficient floodlight LED I tested. It was also the runner up in my heat tests, losing less than 10 percent of its initial brightness as the bulb heated up in the first 30 minutes of use, then stabilizing like a champ for the remaining 60 minutes of the test.

Other reasons to go with Cree include the category-leading 10-year warranty along with the above average color rendering capabilities, which keeps the light from distorting the colors in your home or looking too yellowy. But, hey, since we're talking about color quality...

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I just want something that'll make my home look prettier