California Energy Commission Drops Portable Luminaires From Title 20 Regs

One week ago, on March 14^th, the California Energy Commission (CEC) voted to repeal portable luminaires from the scope of Title 20 appliance efficiency regulations. Portable luminaires include floor lamps, table lamps, desk lampand other luminaires with a wall plug rather than a hardwired power source.

Although CA Title 20 provided a number of paths to comply with the portable luminaire regulations, most manufacturers chose the path known in the industry as “bulb-in-the-box.” This allowed manufacturers to include energy-efficient LED lamps (or CFLs) either in the portable luminaire box or otherwise provide them with the luminaire. The logic was that most consumers would use the energy-efficient lamps provided with the luminaire.

Today, there are California and U.S. Federal regulations banning the sale of almost all inefficient incandescent and halogen lamps / bulbs (aka general service lamps or GSL in regulatory language). The CEC’s elimination of portable luminaires from the Title 20 regulations is an acknowledgment that the GSL market is fully transformed to highly efficient LED lamps, and portable luminaire regulations no longer result in any energy savings.

Additional background on CEC’s move to eliminate portable luminaires from CA Title 20 is available here. Effective date information for the repeal has not yet been provided by the CEC. LightNOW plans to share that effective date information once it is publicly available.

David Shiller

David Shiller is the Publisher of LightNOW, and Senior Business Development Consultant at Capacity Consulting, a North American consulting firm providing business development services to advanced lighting manufacturers. The ALA awarded David the Pillar of the Industry Award. David has been co-chair of the ALA’s Engineering Committee since 2010. David established MaxLite’s OEM component sales into a multi-million dollar division. He invented GU24 lamps while leading ENERGY STAR lighting programs for the US EPA. David has been published in leading lighting publications, including LD+A, enLIGHTenment Magazine, LEDs Magazine, and more.

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