Tags: California Edison LED, CTAC, LED bulb lifetime, LED Testing
California Edison's Lighting Technology Center
Just paid a visit to California Edison over here in Southern California. They’re one of the few utility companies who are taking an ACTIVE role, in LED technology and have an LED testing lab that has been testing LED MR16 bulbs from about 60 different LED manufacturers for about 6 months now. They’re just about finished and we’ll be getting a copy of the report and we’ll be sure to share the results here on the blog!
I was able to dig a little bit and find out some VERY interesting things they’ve learned so far from the past 6 months:
- The range of quality of bulbs varied WIDELY
- “Warm White” can look very different from one manufacturer to the next
- About 60% of the bulbs purchased have either DIED or been removed from the test (because their light output dropped to less than 70%)
- Some manufacturers offered NO warranty *SCARY*
Overall, it seems that many fly-by-night manufacturers are cropping up (mostly in China), but only a handful are creating quality products - as the saying goes - you get what you pay for…
Image Source: http://www.sce.com
My company also makes LED lamps and to say truth a lot of our customers at least have 1 bad memory with their previous leds. When I first recommend LED lamps to them they react coldly. I think some low quality LED lamps on market is threating the future of giant LED market. I recommend to buyers to avoid too cheap power LED lamps, request warranty.
I will send our goods to an undependant test organisation too.
We supply technicians and mechanics with LED lighting tools and have been doing so for over 3 years. Most of our products feature a single, high performance LED from manufacturers such as Luxeon, Seoul Semiconductor and Cree and have outputs to almost 200 lumens. We have NEVER had an LED failure in any of our products, and have sold thousands of units.
BTW this new product may not be the world’s brightest flashlight, but it is claimed to be the World’s Brightest Penlight
Yea there definitely is a stigma over LEDs in general. We are in the solar lighting industry (and now commercial LED lighting) and it is a widely shared opinion within the solar lighting industry that many of the lighting systems out of Asia are far inferior in quality, but they do cost less. It only took a couple years for this opinion to grow. I feel it is the same with the LED products. Many of the LEDs lights are out of the Asia markets and there are new LED suppliers everyday over there. This stigma has definitely been apparent when taking out new ALT (commercial LED troffer) to market. But we offer a 5 year warranty are know that even if our lights were run 24 hours a day they will last much longer. Also we have come up with chipsets and drivers that will get from 3,280 to 7,200 lumens and run over 30% more efficient than standard fluorescent fixtures.
Here is our ALT Page for more info.
My two cents,
Chris
Hey,
A bit of a sports nut here, and someone who is happy that many of the stadiums (like Yankee Stadium and Dallas Cowboys Stadium in, you guessed it, Dallas), are using the latest in LED tech to power and enhance their scoreboards. They’ve become entertainment in themselves. The incredible clarity and color and special features — like messaging — heighten my interest in what’s going on on the field as well as on the scoreboard.
Second reason I’m captivated by the new generation of scoreboards is that they’re energy efficient because they’re using LED tech — and they have a rated life of 100,000 hours–and energy consumption of less than a third of traditional incandescent bulbs.
And the third reason: this industry supports U.S. jobs. There’s a company down in Georgia, electro-mech.com, that’s making these football scoreboards, baseball scoreboards, hockey scoreboards (you name the sport, they make a scoreboard for it) for high schools all over the South. Glad to see Americans making this stuff.
Regarding the limited life of Asian LED bulbs; I heard that many manufacturers of products that use this technology guarantee replacement if light ceases.
Whatever the case, aren’t LED scoreboards a big improvement over incandescent-powered scoreboards?!
a little sad with this news. we are a led display&lights supplier from China. most suppliers guarantee 1 years for their lamps. there are some trial LED lighting programs here, such as 100,000 LED street lamp, it’s a govenmental programe, result turn to be not as good as expect, all lights decay very fast.
some tech problem need to be settled. but why so many buyers go to China, two reasons, objectly
1. there are some good suppliers here, they can provide you hi quality products.
2. there are many suppliers here, they can provide you “suitable”products here, never forget-you are business many.
let me give a example
some 10 days ago, an American buyer bought 500 pcs MR-16 from a supplier here, this buyer need Semileds LEDs for lighting source, copper base, with a low price. finally, the buyer was not satified with the quality. i understand the reason till i know the price. every one wanna get good quality products with a low price, but….
if i were the supplier, i will show the buyer, for example, 10USD is A, 15 USD is B, and 20 USD is C, you have the choice. suppliers here always make a promise before they get the order, that’s the key.
Being a solid-state physicist and a founder of a light measurement company, I have to say that inaccurate reporting of photometric quantities of LEDs and SSL is my pet peeve. LEDs are fundamentally different from conventional (incandescent, CFL) lighting, which in turn requires a fundamentally different approach to quantifying the output and color qualities of SSL.
The importance of using “spectral” data is absolutely critical for accurate reporting, and yet the majority of the manufacturers continue using single-channel radiometers, lux meters, and filter based color temperature meters, routinely yielding reporting errors from 30% to 300%. This is sad, because it undermines consumer confidence in what is otherwise a great technology.
My message? Get proper instrumentation, properly trained staff, or farm out the measurements to those who know what they are doing (yes, someone like LightTest Labs
Thanks for the commet LightTest Labs. I agree. The “antiquated” ways of measuring light are simply not suitable from CRI, to lumens - it’s just not a good way to compare LEDs to traditional light sources further compounding the misinformation that is out there!
[...] manufacturers and promoters trying to jump on the LED bandwagon, the question is what % of them are complete garbage?. We’ve taken the time to contact a number of manufacturers and tested their products thoroughly, [...]
Thanks for a great blog post. SCE’s CTAC facility is doing a great job sortiong the good from the bad in the wild world of SSL products.
As posters Shawn and LighT Test Labs indicate, the products available in the marketplace today vary widely, and current testing lab criteria may not completely account for the various properties and conditions related to real-worl applications. Green Energy Lighting is importing market-ready SSL products from both China and Japan, as well as creating our own ‘Value-Added’ SSL products here using Japanese LED emitters and US made control circuits and heatsinks. We are deeply involved in these markets, and will continue to be as long as the market shows signs of moving in that direction. With DOE placing almost all it’s eggs in the SSL ‘basket’ over competing technologies, this is the place to be for high-profile high-visibility installations for the forseeeable future.
Promoting Solid-State Lighting products to penetrate a mature market such as the MR16 market, where buyers of incandescent halogen MR16 lamps have been conditioned to expect bulletproof performance over a wide range of operating conditions (Enclosed, recessed, dimming circuits, indoor, outdoor, etc…) is a daunting task. As with any product, niches have developed where LED’s are better suited than incandescent counterparts. I was at a presentation just last night where the promotion was LED outdoor lighting, but the bulk of the products presented were still Halogen MR16, with LED’s introduced at the end and with little emphasis. This approximates the state of the market in LED lighting, with many OEM’s wanting to offer ‘mee-too’ type LED’s integrated into their existing product lines for a positive halo effect, but still promoting and selling 50-1 halogen over LED when it comes to fixtures sold and installed…….
Also, solid-state lighting is following the same path as semicionductors did in the 90’s. Applying Moore’s Law to the Solid-State lighting market indicates the potential for dramatic increases in light output, light quality, and longevitiy over the next few years. Early adopters who buy in with an expected ROI (pre-rebate) measured in years may find soon themselves saddled with and paying for a ‘286′ lighting system while newer technologies are offering lighting systems with ‘Pentium’ performance at a fraction of the cost. Rebates may defray the initial cost and reduce ROI time horizons, but still won’t compensate for poor light output, bad CRI, and early burnouts.
At Green Energy Lighting, we have always been a strong proponents of newer technologies, and offer LED emitters at a variety of price/performance points for OEM, consumer and commercial users. Our long history of experience in the semiconductor industry allows us to objectively evaluate and recommend products to our clients that are performance oriented and cost-effective over the long run, as opposed to distributors who are oriented towards ‘hit-n-run’ sales tactics.
As such,w e are completely behind SCE’s testing and benchmarking efforts, and look forward to the reults.
Best regards,
Clemens @ Green Energy Light . com
Just what I needed to take the edge off after a stressful day. Very good article that really gets the point across. Thank you for taking the time.
[...] trying to jump on the LED bandwagon, and make LED light bulbs. The question is what % of them are complete garbage?. We’ve taken the time to contact a number of manufacturers and tested their products [...]
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Seriously if that is the case (60% being dead or useless) then what hope do we have for LED lighting? I thought the main benefits were their long lasting life and their superior luminosity? Obviously these facts will have a serious dent on the LED lighting industry, but I guess it all depends on the types and styles of light, right?