French R&D program to test LED lighting for indoor illumination

Feb. 19, 2009
The CITADEL program will develop measurement protocols and benchmarking analyses of LEDs, and methods to assess the aging and life expectancy of LED lighting products.

The CITADEL program - an R&D initiative led by the CSTB (the French Center for Building Science and Technology), major French academic lighting laboratories and the French branch of Philips Lighting – has recently been formed to research and promote the optimal use of LEDs in buildings.

The program’s goal is to fully characterize LED lighting products, as they apply to the specific needs of buildings and tenants. The program hopes to define new measures of visual comfort and color rendering specific to LEDs, said Christophe Martinsons, head of the Lighting, Electricity and Electromagnetism Division of the CSTB.

The three-year project (started Feb. 9) has a budget of 1.5 M Euro and is funded by the French Environmental Agency (ADEME). The project was partly inspired by the US DoE CALIPER initiative.

“Like its American counterpart, CITADEL is intended to provide physical measurement protocols and benchmarking analyses. However, the scope of the CITADEL program goes beyond,” said Martinsons.

The program will determine aging methods (climatic and endurance) to assess the real-life expectancy of LED lighting products. Durability will be studied together with life-cycle analyses and total cost-of-ownership.

Lab measurements will be carried out using several types of metrology, microanalysis and aging setups. The project also includes numerical simulations, focus groups, economic calculations, as well as a complete environmental analysis.

The program’s consortium consists of the CSTB; CEA-LETI; LNE (the equivalent of NIST in the US); the Engineering School in Construction and Public Works; LAPLACE, a large electrical engineering lab(University of Toulouse and CNRS); and Philips Lighting.

The CITADEL is part of the innovation program of the “Cluster Lumière,” the French lighting cluster based in Lyon.

Consortium:
Leader: CSTB (French Center for Building Science and Technology) based in Paris, Grenoble and Nantes
CEA-LETI: One of the major European laboratory in micro and nanotechnologies for microelectronics (based in Grenoble, MINATEC)
LNE: National Standards and Metrology Laboratory (equivalent of NIST in the US)
ENTPE: Engineering School in Construction and Public Works (Lyon)
LAPLACE: Largest Electrical Engineering Laboratory in France (University of Toulouse and CNRS).
PHILIPS LIGHTING: Miribel Center, near Lyon

Key parameters:
Project budget: 1.5 million Euros
Project funded by ADEME (French Environmental Agency)
Start date: 9 Feb 2009
Duration: 3 years