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110 labs in world’s largest interlaboratory comparison of LED test labs – improving testing competency to support market transformation

Panel: 8. Monitoring and evaluation: building confidence and enhancing practices

This is a peer-reviewed paper.

Authors:
Yoshi Ohno, CLASP, United Kingdom
Peter Bennich, Swedish Energy Agency / IEA 4E SSL Annex Management Committee Chair, Sweden
Michael Scholand, IEA 4E SSL Annex c/o N14 Energy Limited, USA
Koichi Nara, International Standards Promotion Division; National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) / SSL Annex Task 3 Leader, Japan
Nils Borg, IEA 4E SSL Annex (Operating Agent), Sweden

Abstract

Performance testing of regulated or labelled products is the most fundamental requirement of any regulatory or endorsement programme. Reliable and repeatable testing of products is the corner stone on which policy makers are able to construct market transformational initiatives to push and pull the market towards more environmentally responsible products. When new technologies are introduced to a market, there can be periods of uncertainty and issues arising around measurement, putting consumers and markets at risk. Light Emitting Diode (LED) technology has been gaining significant market share in general illumination applications around the world, but reliable measurement of the performance of LED lamps and luminaires has been challenging. The IEA 4E SSL Annex therefore initiated a programme starting in 2011 to address this gap amongst testing laboratories. The 2013 Interlaboratory Comparison (IC 2013) brought together and compared test results of 110 laboratories around the world on their ability to measure photometric, colorimetric, and electrical quantities of a sample of different LED lamps and luminaires. This sample of products took into account the most important products in the different regional markets – but all test samples included LED retrofit lamps and luminaires. The comparison looked at the measured values of luminous flux, luminous efficacy, active power, RMS current, power factor, chromaticity x and y, correlated colour temperature, and colour rendering index. While most of the laboratories were within the expected levels of agreement, a few extreme outliers were observed which must have been caused by problems at the labs in meeting the requirements in the test method. Identification of these large deviations by a small group of laboratories demonstrates the importance of proficiency testing, as these laboratories would not have been aware of their particular problems without having participated in IC 2013. Overall, this large-scale interlaboratory comparison will help governments and manufacturers around the world ensure that new LED products sold to consumers and companies are of high quality and meet the claimed performance.

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