The Wild West returns!
LED technology is arguably the biggest change to affect the lighting industry since the days of Messrs Edison and Swan. Its potential for saving energy is certainly staggering. LED lighting’s long life, high efficiency and compact size make it a potential saviour to anyone facing steep energy bills and stringent carbon reduction targets. Yet all is not rosy in the LED industry – and it’s well-meaning, energy-conscious customers that are losing out.
All the LED industry needs is to import a few ‘ten gallon’ hats, a medicine man, and some Colt 45s to complete its image as the new Wild West. With little regard for regulation, an alarming number of newly formed ‘lighting’ companies are now promoting LEDs. At best, through lack of knowledge, at worst, knowingly, these companies are boasting misleading energy-savings figures and lifespans. And there’s a strong chance customers could be left with lighting that’s simply unfit for purpose.
This new Wild West actually has its roots in the East. The Chinese government’s subsidies for LEDs and mass manufacturing have made it the centre of the LED universe. China is, of course, a vital part of the manufacturing supply chain for some of the most reputable lighting companies in the world. But it has also become a pit-stop for any individual or newly-formed company with an eye for a quick profit. More than 20 UK-based LED companies have simply appeared out of thin air in the last two years.”
The benefits of LED lighting have been so well-publicised that there’s a strong, built-in demand for it. With a 2011 McKinsey report suggesting the LED lighting market will grow at 30 per cent per annum for the forthcoming years, it’s no wonder those outside the lighting industry are now wanting a piece of the pie.
The problem is: this free-for-all is filling the LED market with new businesses that either don’t know the proper routes and regulations for lighting supply or simply don’t bother with them. Some new companies are even misrepresenting their credentials, claiming years of experience that they simply don’t have.
Yet you may still be wondering what all the fuss is about. After all, aren’t all LEDs basically the same? What’s the worst that can happen if you buy from an unscrupulous supplier?
In fact, LEDs can vary dramatically when it comes to light quality. An ideal light source mimics daylight in terms of warmth and colour. It also reproduces colours accurately, so reds look red, blues look blue, and yellows look yellow. And good lighting should be completely glare-free, creating a pleasant indoor environment. Yet poor-quality LEDs typically fail on all counts.
“A poor-quality LED with a Colour Rendering Index (CRI) of less than 85 will make some colours look great and some colours look terrible,” advises Tamlite’s Simon Shenton “And an LED on the extreme blue end of the visible light spectrum (in scientific terms: 6000+ Kelvin) will feel Arctic. Poor-quality products will also have no glare-control, creating laser-like beams of light that can dazzle you. None of this is ideal if you have products you want to show off to their best advantage, or if you wish to create a pleasant working environment!”
Here’s the rub: the poorer the CRI and the higher the colour temperature (i.e. the poorer the light quality), the better the energy efficiency! So an LED product that’s sold just in terms of efficiency figures is a recipe for disaster.
What’s more, the energy-saving potential of poor-quality LED lighting may not be as spectacular as the efficiency figures quoted by the supplier. Many new players in the LED market are not bothering to carry out testing on their products to find out the LEDs’ efficiency and lifespan, so their quoted figures are mere guesswork.
Other companies are misrepresenting the efficiency of the LED, by quoting the efficiency of just the bare LED, rather than the efficiency of the whole unit, including the luminaire. (Since, when you slot an LED into a luminaire, you naturally lose some of the efficiency, this makes the energy-savings figures look better than they really are.)
Reputable lighting companies will only ever quote LED lifespans of 50,000 hours, with a caveat concerning drop-off in light output. Needless to say, a 10-year warranty extended by a brand-new, untested LED company is scarcely worth the paper it’s written on.
Though some of the ‘Wild West’ activity concerning LED sales within the B2B sector is technically misrepresentation, in reality, little is being done to combat it within government or the lighting industry, unless a company wishes to take out a commercial law suit against its supplier. This means that the burden falls on the purchaser to ensure they’re buying good-quality lighting.
Indeed, much of the hype is true: LED lighting can be an excellent way to achieve long-lasting, low-carbon lighting. And there’s no reason why a few cowboys should devalue such an important, game-changing piece of technology.
Joseph Smith is Head of Sustainability at Tamlite Lighting
