Can you trust LED efficiency descriptions?

There can be little question that light-emitting diode (LED) bulbs are the future of the lighting industry. Indeed, LEDs are being used for an ever-increasing variety of applications, from architectural lighting right through to illumination of the home. There are several reasons behind the success of LEDs – let's take a look at a few of them.

LED-ing the way

Perhaps the biggest advantage of LEDs over traditional halogen bulbs is lifespan – they can last up to 80,000 hours as opposed to the latter's 2,000 to 6,000. LEDs are also highly efficient, with 80 per cent of the energy they consume manifesting itself as actual light. In a halogen bulb, just 10 per cent of that energy is used for light, with the rest given off as heat, which is why those old-fashioned bulbs become very hot to touch once they have been left on for a while. 

Even though LEDs look set to dominate the lighting market for years to come, this has not stopped some manufacturers overstating just how efficient and effective the bulbs are, as a recent German court case has demonstrated. Though the vast majority of LED bulbs perform exactly as their packaging specifies, independent testing on certain models has shown that not all do so.

Austrian lighting company Planlicht was found guilty by a German court of misleading its customers over the performance of its LED fixtures. It was decided by the court that lighting manufacturers can no longer advertise 'LED luminaires with lumen values that refer to the LED itself and not to the luminaire'.

Additionally, the court stated that only luminaires that achieve a Unified Glare Rating of less than 19 can be advertised in the description as such. What's more, it was mentioned that if other luminaries in the same family failed to make this criteria, they were not allowed to be advertised in this manner.

Case for the defence

"On the fast-improving LED market, Planlicht decided to switch to net figures of luminous flux and power consumption of lighting systems and invested in our own light laboratory. This all happened long before the court decision in Frankfurt, which was based on a two-year old catalogue. So it had no effect on Planlicht; there was no penalty, just the order not to use the old catalogue," said Planlicht CEO Felicitas Kohler in a defending statement. 

Even so, we at Aesthetic Lighting Solutions believe that it is of paramount importance to accurately relay lighting performance to our customers. Should you have any queries regarding the efficiency and effectiveness of our range of lights, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us – we'll be happy to talk things through with you.

An Austrian lighting company has been found guilty of misleading customers over the efficiency of its lamps.