The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has just released its Draft 2 of a program specification aimed to combine the individual specs for LED and CFL light bulbs (lamps).
The ambitious project began last October, when the EPA issued a first attempt at a technology-neutral specification for a wide range of general lighting lamps, including directional, omnidirectional, semidirectional, and decorative lamp types. Excluded are lamps with external ballasts, lamps with non-ANSI bases, Zhaga compliant light engines, and LED lamps intended to replace linear fluorescent or high-intensity discharge lamps.
While some requirements (i.e. luminous efficacy, correlated color temperature (CCT)) were easy to merge together, others (i.e. minimum lifetime requirements, power factor) have proven difficult to get agreement on from LED and CFL manufacturers, resulting in different minimum levels of performance. Meanwhile, some requirements, including LED lamp operational frequency and dimming requirements for all lamps, are listed as TBD, suggesting that there will be at least one more draft before a final one is issued.
At a stakeholder meeting last year, the EPA proposed reducing the lifetime requirement of LED lamps from ≥25,000 hours to ≥10,000 hours if that would significantly lower LED lamp manufacturing cost, resulting in lower consumer prices and an accelerated market transformation (see Mr. Green blog: Can a Product Last Too Long?). The EPA recently concluded that “while reducing the minimum life requirement for LED lamps to 10,000 hours could present new opportunities for less expensive products brought more quickly to market, among other benefits, the associated cost reductions are largely unknown and may not be compelling”. The decision was made to keep the minimum lifetime at 25,000 hours for non-decorative LED lamps.
The tables below highlight some of the proposed spec requirements. For a copy of the complete Draft 2 specification, see the link at the end of the blog.
| Lamp Type | ENERGY STAR® Requirements | |
|---|---|---|
| Lamp space shall meet the applicable requirement in the table below. | ||
| Lamp Input Power (watts) | Minimum lamp Efficacy (initial lm/W) | |
| Omnidirectional and Semidirectional | <10 | 55 |
| ≥10 | 60 | |
| Directional | <10 | 40 |
| ≥10 | 45 | |
| Decorative | <10 | 45 |
| ≥10 | 50 | |
Table 1. Luminous Efficacy Requirements: All Lamps (Source: ENERGY STAR Lamp Program V1, D2)
| Lamp Type | ENERGY STAR Correlated Color Temperature Requirements |
|---|---|
| All | Lamp light output shall correlate to one of the following nominal CCTs: 2700K, 3000K, 3500K, 4000/4100K, 5000K, 6500K |
Table 2. CCT Requirements (Source: ENERGY STAR Lamp Program V1, D2)
| Lamp Type | ENERGY STAR Requirements |
|---|---|
| Compact Fluorescent | Lamp shall have a rated life ≥ 10,000 hours.At 40% of rated life or 6,000 hours, whichever point occurs first, all tested units shall be operational (≥ 90% of the tested units if coincident). At the second point, ≥ 90% of the tested units shall be operational≥ 50% of the tested units shall be operational at rated life. |
| Solid State | Decorative lamps shall have a rated life ≥ 15,000 hours. All other lamps shall have a rated life of ≥ 25,000 hours. Lamps to be marketed as commercial grade shall have a rated life ≥ 35,000 hours.All tested units shall be operational at 3,000 hours.≥ 90% of the tested units shall be operational at 6,000 hours. |
Table 3. Rated Life Requirements (Source: ENERGY STAR Lamp Program V1, D2)
| Lamp Type | ENERGY STAR Requirements |
|---|---|
| Compact Fluorescent | Lamp shall have a power factor ≥ 0.5 for residential applications, or ≥ 0.9 if marketed as commercial grade. |
| Solid State | Lamp shall have a power factor ≥ 0.7 for residential applications, or ≥ 0.9 if marketed as commercial grade. |
Table 4. Power Factor Requirements: All Lamps > 5 W (Source: ENERGY STAR Lamp Program V1, D2)
The EPA will hold a webinar on August 8 to discuss Draft 2′s proposed changes. Advanced registration for the webinar is required. To register, send your name, company name, phone number and email address to: lamps@energystar.gov (be sure to include “Lamps Draft 2 Webinar” in the subject line of the email).
For more information. Stakeholders are encouraged to submit comments on the program specifications no later than August 24th.
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