Total power supplied to the fixture from a residential voltage (120 V) AC power source was 13 watts. The fixture efficiency equaled approximately 54 lumens per watt of warm white light.
Tony van de Ven, LLF's managing director, claims that the latest development "breaks the final performance barrier required to move LEDs into general illumination applications."
LLF's chief technology officer, Gerry Negley, explains that LEDs have historically been inefficient in the warm white spectrum. "Our proprietary system delivers the efficacy and light quality required for general lighting," he says.
LLF was formed last year by several ex-employees of LED maker Cree and in January of this year announced a recessed-can fixture providing 753 lm of white light with an AC power input of only 15.9 watts, or 47 lm/W efficiency (see Related Stories, right).
Further progress is expected. "We now envision recessed-can fixtures that will use only 6 watts to produce the same amount of warm white light as those utilizing 65 watt incandescent bulbs," says van de Ven.
LLF will begin manufacturing the new light fixtures by the end of this year, and believes that consumers may begin to see this remarkable new technology in commercial and residential construction. However, because the new products are designed to look like traditional lighting fixtures, the user will not likely notice a difference.
Accurate numbers
LLF says that it takes great care in insuring that its measurements give a true representation of fixture performance. The company provides certified, independent third-party verification of its numbers – in this case, CSA International's Atlanta Lighting Laboratory. CSA International is accredited by the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) as a Nationally Recognized Testing Laboratory (NRTL).
Negley says that the LED industry has a great deal to learn about general lighting systems. "We've witnessed a number of significant disparities in the industry between published data and actual performance. True performance measurements must be taken at steady state conditions after achieving thermal equilibrium.
"Total power consumption should be stated from the AC wall-plug thereby looking at the overall system performance including all optical (lenses) and electrical (driver) losses. Consumers need to know that they can rely on published performance figures."
