Guest Post by Jim Brodrick, U.S. Department of Energy
It’s been a while since I’ve written about DOE’s Lighting Facts® program in these Postings, and there have been some major milestones and developments, so I thought I’d give you an update on what’s been going on. You’ll recall that we launched the program in December 2008 to provide a tool to help buyers, specifiers, and lighting designers sort through the confusing flood of LED lighting products entering the market, because even today these still range all over the map in terms of quality and the accuracy of the manufacturer claims. The heart of that tool is the Lighting Facts label, which presents independently verified LM-79 performance data on LED lighting products in a standardized way that’s easy to read and understand, in order to facilitate accurate product comparison.
Lighting Facts is a purely voluntary program, in which manufacturers pledge to use the Lighting Facts label on their products, while retailers, distributors, lighting professionals, utilities, and energy efficiency organizations pledge to look for and use products bearing this label. I’m excited to report that there are now more than 1,000 LED lighting products registered with Lighting Facts – making it the largest database of its kind.
What does that mean? Quite simply, it means that Lighting Facts has become a real “go to” resource for those who are interested in purchasing or specifying LED lighting products – and that the label is fast becoming a “must have” for manufacturers who want their products to reach the widest possible audience. So far, nearly 400 manufacturers have signed on as Lighting Facts partners, along with more than 125 retailers and distributors and more than 160 lighting professionals (designers, specifiers, utilities, and energy efficiency organizations).
Right now, the Lighting Facts label lists product data on five parameters: light output, power consumption, efficacy, correlated color temperature (CCT), and color rendering index (CRI). These figures are verified by DOE before permission to use the Lighting Facts label is granted – and we’ve just begun a new quality assurance program to selectively monitor all these products for performance consistency over time.
But from the start, our intention has been to add more parameters to the Lighting Facts label as the program evolves. One of those parameters is lifetime, and adding it will be easier, thanks to the guidelines recently published on that thorny topic by a special working group created by DOE under the Quality Advocates umbrella.
The products registered with Lighting Facts run the whole gamut in terms of applications – from undercabinet lights, to portable desk lamps, to outdoor wall-mounted porch lights, to cove lights, to parking garage fixtures. Nearly half are replacement lamps, roughly an eighth are recessed downlights, and just under one-tenth are outdoor area and roadway fixtures.
You can find these products listed on the products page of the Lighting Facts website, right along with the data from their Lighting Facts labels. This online list is searchable not only by product name, but also by manufacturer and application. In addition, it includes special qualifications or awards that each product has received – e.g., being evaluated in a GATEWAY demonstration project, being ENERGY STAR-qualified, or winning the Next Generation Luminaires or Lighting for Tomorrow design competitions. To make it easier to compare multiple products, the entire list is also available as a downloadable spreadsheet.
To make the spreadsheet an even more useful tool, we have added a number of other metrics from the LM-79 test reports – such as power factor, zonal lumens, beam angle, and center beam candlepower. These metrics, which many people have requested, will not be listed on the Lighting Facts label, but where applicable they will be included on the spreadsheet.
Another new tool we’ve already added to the Lighting Facts website is the Residential Product Performance Scale, which compares performance values for the five characteristics identified on the Lighting Facts label to performance values for those same characteristics in conventional residential lighting technologies. In other words, this tool gives added meaning to the Lighting Facts label data by letting you make benchmark comparisons between SSL and other lighting technologies. A similar tool for commercial lighting technologies, the Commercial Product Performance Scale, is in the works and will be added to the Lighting Facts website when it’s completed. And we’ll soon release the first of what will be biannual “snapshots” of the LED replacement lamp market, based on Lighting Facts data. A summary based on that snapshot is already available online.
The Lighting Facts program has come a long way since we first launched it less than two years ago – and it’s got a ways to go, as we continue to adapt it in response to the feedback we receive, the evolving technology, and the changing demands of the marketplace. The more the program grows, the more useful it becomes, because with each new registered product, the database becomes even more comprehensive.
But it’s important to keep in mind that the Lighting Facts label is just a tool, not an endorsement or stamp of approval. It’s up to its users to do their part by wielding it diligently, comprehensively, and correctly. Those who do will find that it’s easier to identify LED lighting products that are right for the application, perform well, and result in substantial energy savings.
