Summary of LED down light testing and its implications

LED lighting technology is advancing at fast pace, LED lighting products in the market show a wide range of performance characteristics. This work explains the need for trustworthy, fair product performance information to promote the market for LED lighting products. In this work more than 120 LED down lights were tested using industry-approved test procedures and summary of the results is presented in this report. This work has exposed a broad range of performance, from poor to exceptional. Some LED lighting products tested deliver lumen output and luminous efficacies that exceed all expectations others perform badly and do not produce enough luminous flux output for their intended application. Some manufacturers are publishing trustworthy values for luminous flux output and luminous efficacy, there is often broad gap between performance claims in marketing literature and actual tested LED lighting product performance. Test results indicate that there is urgent need to implement strict regulations to curb misleading product literature from representing LED lighting product information. The work aims to discourage cheap low-quality LED lighting products and exaggerated claims, but also serves as useful source of information for government agencies and end-users to make informed decisions. Lighting product distributors, retailers, lighting designers, government agencies, and other stakeholders can draw inferences from this study and know the current state of the LED lighting market and its course.