Below is my contribution to the March issue of tED Magazine, the official NAED publication. Reprinted with permission.
Downlights are popular luminaires used for general, accent, and wall-wash lighting in commercial, hospitality, and residential applications. Traditionally, incandescent and halogen lamps dominated these luminaires in the residential market, while compact fluorescent lamps (CFL) and to a lesser extent high-intensity discharge (HID) lamps dominated in the commercial market. The CFL is omnidirectional, however, resulting in lower luminaire efficiencies, in addition to certain lighting quality issues. Because of this lower energy efficiency, downlights were a leading market for LED adoption.
Available in new construction luminaires and retrofit trims and kits, LED offers the benefits of directional light output, high efficiency and life, good lighting quality, and controllability.
Scott Roos, VP Design, Downlight, Accent, and Trac Products, Acuity Brands Lighting, estimates the downlight market at $2 billion, making it one of the largest luminaire categories. “Residentially, downlights continue to be the preferred fixture for providing general and accent lighting throughout the home,” he said. “Commercially, downlighting is seeing increased use throughout the variety of applications from hospitality and retail to corporate, municipal, and healthcare interiors, in large part because of the increased performance and capabilities that LED technology affords.”
“Positive growth in new construction and ongoing remodel work continues to push the demand higher for downlights,” added Glenn Siegel, Director, Marketing and Product Development, Eaton. The growing restrictiveness of energy codes is promoting highly efficient options that can deliver good lighting quality while being cost-effective.
Image courtesy of Acuity Brands.
Trends
LED’s primary value proposition is superior efficiency delivering energy cost savings and code compliance, though this category pays quite a bit of attention to lighting quality, such as color rendering, so as to compete with incandescent and halogen. In all respects, downlights have come a long way since their early challenge to traditional downlights. Products continue to develop along several trends to offer more choices for distributors.
“To meet the ever-evolving regulatory codes, specifier design challenges, and end-user preferences, fixtures are incorporating reduced aperture sizes, increased lumen outputs, more adjustable and beam pattern options, easier installation methods, and connected capability,” said Siegel.
Form factors: Alfred LaSpina, LED Product Group Marketing Manager, LEDVANCE, said form factors have expanded. “Where before it was primarily 5- and 6-inch downlights, now we have 4- and even 8-inch for high-ceiling applications,” he said. “Slim-profile LED downlights are also now available with a 1-inch thin design that allows for installation directly under joists in new and remodel construction. The high-performing IC design allows for installation without a housing, which means the light can be placed in more locations.”
Besides flexibility, LaSpina pointed out, this type of design can also reduce labor costs as a downlight can is not being installed—savings that can be marketed back to the customer as a selling point.
Smaller, “quieter” apertures: Roos noted that 3-, 2, and even 1-inch aperture sizes have moved from specialty to mainstream, while lower-brightness reflector options and bevel-style trims and mudded-in trimless installation have become more common.
“These small-aperture fixtures are also available in surface and pendant-mount cylinders for use in the increasingly popular open ceiling formats,” he said. “And this miniaturization is enabling new linear format downlights with the lumens spread across multiple low-brightness cells, some with the capability of individualized optical control and aiming.”
LaSpina added, “Trim options are available for some products for those looking for that certain aesthetic. Enhanced gimbal models also spin and tilt more effectively, allowing end-users to easily focus the light where they want it.”
Higher light output: Roos pointed to 4-inch downlight options delivering up to 8,000 lumens, 6-inch 15,000 lumens, and 8-inch 20,000 lumens. This light output is delivered with high efficacy. For example, a 4-inch CFL downlight delivers about 25 lumens/W and a 6- or 8-inch compact fluorescent downlight 35-40 lumens/W. In contrast, a 4-inch LED downlight can deliver as high as 130 lumens/W while maintaining low aperture brightness.
“Today’s higher-performance LED downlights equal or exceed the lumen output and efficacy of both fluorescent and LED troffers,” Roos said. “The historical 20-30+ percent efficacy tradeoff to achieve the more upscale look of downlights, versus the more utilitarian look of 2×2 and 2×4 troffers, no longer exists.”
More optical options: “It is now possible to produce a wider range of beam angles and choose from either smooth, feathered distributions for uniform illumination or tighter distributions with high center beam punch with minimal spill outside the main beam to achieve high-contrast, non-uniform downlighting and accent lighting,” Roos said. “LED recessed wallwashers are available that provide unprecedented top-to-bottom and side-to-side uniformity from apertures as small as 2-inch.”
Control: LED downlights and retrofit kits are commonly available with 0-10VDC and phase-control inputs. For phase control, compatibility and performance is improving, though it still pays to confirm dimmer-downlight compatibility.
DMX drivers are available for downlighting in applications such as theaters and auditoriums, enabling integration with theatrical lighting systems. And networked cabled plug-and-play and wireless interfaces are also available, which provide benefits such as individual luminaire control and software-based zoning.
Technological development in LED lighting has also given us a new dimension in control, which is color control. Manufacturers are increasingly offering dim-to-warm options for customers wanting the downlight to transition to a warmer correlated color temperature (CCT) during dimming. This matches the expectations of customers accustomed to incandescent dimming. Some products offer tunable-white control, which enables users to change white-light CCT for different times or events, while some products deliver full color tuning, allowing saturated colors.
“Distributors are presented with a myriad of product choices,” Siegel said. “To best serve their customers, they need to focus on products that meet or exceed ENERGY STAR and/or DLC [DesignLights Consortium] requirements, are compliant to UL standards, meet local or state building codes, and come from companies with a long history of providing strong service and support.”
Final word
“LED has revolutionized the electrical distribution business by offering more choices but also more complexity with a wide range of providers flooding the market,” LaSpina said. “Feel confident in meeting your customers’ needs by offering LED downlights that are backed by excellent warranty, meet the most stringent testing and quality standards, and are offered in a variety of apertures, color temperatures, and lumen packages.”
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