Product Testing

The LRC evaluates and tests lighting technologies, products, and systems to provide accurate, objective, third-party performance information. These evaluations - with support from government agencies, public benefit organizations and electric utilities - help the LRC to promote effective and energy-efficient lighting solutions, influence the market, and build industry consensus.

Concern over potential legal repercussions, expense, and technical burdens of product testing often prevent organizations from testing products and reporting brand-name information. As a result, such groups have funded LRC programs such as NLPIP (National Lighting Product Information Program) in an effort to disseminate objective, accurate, timely, manufacturer-specific information about energy-efficient lighting products.

Publications

Field Test DELTA Snapshots: LED Street Lighting - This report investigates claimed benefits of LEDs in street lighting applications, such as long life, improved uniformity, reduced maintenance, promotion of vision at low light levels, and energy savings.

NLPIP Specifier Reports: Low-wattage Metal Halide Lighting Systems - A detailed report on the operation of metal halide lamps of 150 watts or less on magnetic and non-dimming electronic ballasts, including product testing.

NLPIP Specifier Reports: Electronic Ballasts - This report explains performance characteristics of electronic ballasts, plus other factors such as lamp/ballast starting methods. NLPIP collected data from 12 manufacturers of non-dimming electronic ballasts and independently evaluated 74 of the ballasts from the manufacturers for this report.

NLPIP Specifier Reports: Screwbase Compact Fluorescent Lamp Products - This issue of Specifier Reports contains performance data for compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) rated at or above 13 watts. The report includes NLPIP test data and manufacturers' data on both self-ballasted CFLs and modular CFL products that are sold with ballast and lamp packaged as a single unit.

View more NLPIP publications

View more DELTA publications

Related Programs

NLPIP - Product testing
DELTA - Energy efficiency case studies
PEARL - Testing of ENERGY STAR® lighting products
Solid-State Lighting - Improving, using LEDs

Projects

Energy Star® Durability Testing - A study of the continued functioning of the lamp/ballast system several years after installation.

Integrated Skylight Luminaire - This project studied how prototypes of an integrated skylight luminaire were installed in a working warehouse and analyzed for energy savings and lighting quality.

Benchmarking High-Flux LEDs: A life test - The objective of this study was to evaluate currently available LED devices to develop a benchmark specification for state-of-the-art LED technology.

Lamp/Ballast Combination Testing for Dimming Impact - A long-term project to understand the effects of dimming on fluorescent lighting systems.

Screwbase Compact Fluorescent Lamps (Manufacturer-Reported Information - A searchable database that contains performance data for compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) rated above 13 watts.