DOE Releases Special CALiPER Summary Report on Retail Replacement Lamp Testing

The Department of Energy has completed Retail Replacement Lamp product testing through the Solid-State Lighting (SSL) CALiPER program. A Summary Report containing the results is now available for download.

This special testing was undertaken to identify and test performance of SSL replacement lamp products directly available to the general public through retail outlets (stores and websites). Product testing covered a limited sample of 33 SSL replacement lamps, including five A19, four B10 (candelabra), two C7 (night light), 11 MR16/PAR16, four PAR20, and seven PAR30. The 33 different lamps represented products by 10 different manufacturers and were anonymously purchased from eight different retailers.

Key points are:

• The disparities between high performing and low performing products are striking.
• To be able to discern whether an SSL replacement lamp would meet performance expectations, consumers would have to be highly informed about lamp performance in general and would have to develop mechanisms to recognize and understand factual information from product labeling.
• There are wide differences among manufacturers. Some have SSL replacement lamps that are fairly consistently meeting expectations; others are not at all consistent.
• Likewise, there are wide differences among retailers. Some appear to screen the SSL lamps they carry such that most of the products perform well and have suitable labeling; others apparently do not.
• While there are some high performing SSL replacement lamps available through some channels today, most of the replacement lamps tested fail to meet basic performance levels of the incandescent or halogen lamps they appear to replace.

Craig DiLouie

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