The U.S. Department of Energy’s LED Lighting Facts® program has released a Snapshot Report on indoor ambient lighting, which utilizes the program’s extensive database of more than 7,000 products to help industry stakeholders understand the current state and trajectory of the market for LED downlights, troffers, and T8/T5/T12 lamps.
Among the key findings:
Since 2011, LED troffers have seen an especially fast increase in the number of listed products, and their efficacy is also increasing faster than the overall LED Lighting Facts average.
When adjusted for in-situ performance, LED linear lamps are not as efficacious, on average, as dedicated LED troffers. They also have the highest percentage of products falling outside the color quality range typically specified for high-quality interior environments.
The listed downlights differ noticeably in performance from the troffers and linear lamps. Downlights appear to be intended as halogen replacements, and thus have lower correlated color temperatures. As a consequence of having smaller apertures and increased optical control for reducing glare, downlights are less efficacious – which may be acceptable, because their conventional counterparts face the same challenges.
Within each product category, performance is highly variable. Specifiers must diligently evaluate the performance of each product across many different metrics.
