To ensure the long-term success and widespread market adoption of LED lamps, the lighting industry late last month asked the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) ENERGY STAR program to address light quality, specifically color rendering (CRI), in its new lamp specification.
EdisonReport says that a number of prominent North American lighting designers all filed formal comments to the EPA on their ENERGY STAR program product specification for LED lamps in support of higher color rendering criteria.
“Many consumers will make their first LED lamp purchases in the next few years, and the market is entering a critical window for making a positive impact on consumers’ first impressions of LED technology,” said Eric Kim, CEO of Soraa. “However, for LED lamps to achieve significant market share, consumers must be confident that these lamps can give them the light quality they need and want.”
McKinsey’s 2011 Lighting the Way report suggests that consumer and commercial lighting purchase decisions are driven as much by light quality, as they are by the cost of the light bulb. Twenty percent of the residential respondents in the McKinsey report rated light quality as the most important decision criterion for lamp installation – which is on par with the 22 percent who rated purchase price as the most important factor.
“The slow market adoption of CFLs over the last 20 years demonstrates that simply because a product produces enough light, saves energy and is cost-effective, broad market adoption of that technology is not ensured," said Carlos Alonso-Niemeyer, Energy Efficiency Program Manager of NSTAR a Northeast Utilities Company. "To persuade consumers to purchase LEDs instead of incandescent lamps, LED lamps must be seen as high-quality products worth the initial higher price differential."
In their latest draft lamp specification, the EPA reported that lack of LED lamp color quality is a potential barrier to broader consumer adoption of energy efficient lighting. However, EPA went on to say that it will continue to monitor the market and explore opportunities for improving color quality and consistency of lamps in the future.