EPA issues directive on LED and legacy lamp verification testing for Energy Star
Guidance for Energy Star verification testing to the Lamps V1.0 and V1.1 specifications directs certification bodies on mandatory tests along with optional randomly-selected tests.
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued a guidance document intended to instruct certification bodies (CBs) in their implementation of verification testing of lamps, including LED-based products, that are certified to the Energy Star lamps V1.0 and V1.1 specifications. The guidance covers mandatory and randomly-selected tests and defines limited cases in which verification testing can differ from the original certification testing.
The EPA spent the summer and early fall finalizing the Lamps V1.1 specification. That document includes slight changes from the Lamps V1.0 specification published in the fall of 2013. For now, lamps can be tested to either document while the agency works on the next lamps specification.
The Energy Star process requires that a product first past certification testing. Subsequently, CBs are required to selectively perform verification tests on certified lamps at annual intervals.
The EPA has stated that certification testing should include applicable core performance tests including:
- Efficacy
- Light output or center beam intensity (verify for equivalency claim)
- Light output ratio (Directional lamps only)
- Luminous intensity distribution (Omnidirectional and Decorative LED lamps only)
- Correlated color temperature
- Color rendering index
- Color maintenance (LED lamps only)
- Color angular uniformity (Directional LED lamps only)
- Lumen maintenance (1000 hours for CFLs, 3000 hours for LED lamps)
- Rated life (observation of operational units after 4000 hours of operation)
- Run up time (covered CFLs only)
- Rapid cycle stress test
- In-situ temperature test (LED lamps that utilized early certification only)
In addition, CBs are required to randomly select two additional tests from the following list:
- Frequency
- Transient protection*
- Start time*
- Run up time* (bare CFLs only)
- Power factor*
- Dimensional requirements
Generally, CBs should perform verification testing in the same manner as the certification testing was handled. But the EPA did note some exceptions. Lumen maintenance testing can take place at a shorter 4000-hour point but 90% of the tested products must pass the test. The guidance spells out a procedure for establishing the test temperature for lifetime and lumen maintenance tests. And CBs are allowed to test a single sample for the random group of tests that are marked with an asterisk here.
Maury Wright | Editor in Chief
Maury Wright is an electronics engineer turned technology journalist, who has focused specifically on the LED & Lighting industry for the past decade. Wright first wrote for LEDs Magazine as a contractor in 2010, and took over as Editor-in-Chief in 2012. He has broad experience in technology areas ranging from microprocessors to digital media to wireless networks that he gained over 30 years in the trade press. Wright has experience running global editorial operations, such as during his tenure as worldwide editorial director of EDN Magazine, and has been instrumental in launching publication websites going back to the earliest days of the Internet. Wright has won numerous industry awards, including multiple ASBPE national awards for B2B journalism excellence, and has received finalist recognition for LEDs Magazine in the FOLIO Eddie Awards. He received a BS in electrical engineering from Auburn University.