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ELECTRICAL, LIGHTING, ACOUSTICS AND CONTROL SYSTEMS EXPERT PACK
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LED LIGHTING
A review of the current market and future developments
Lighting is an essential part of everyday life in the developed world and is one
of the largest single users of energy, being responsible for between 15% and
22% of all electricity use in buildings. Good lighting is considered essential to
health, well-being and productivity, but the efficiency of common light sources
can vary widely.
With demands from the UK government and international agreements to
reduce carbon emissions, building designers, owners and occupiers are looking
at the energy efficiency of their lighting. Not since the late 1970s has there
been such a focus on energy management in lighting.
Light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are a proven technology that offers enormous
possibilities for providing highly energy-efficient and good-quality lighting. This
BRE Trust Report summarises the current LED market and various advantages of
LEDs, and outlines the challenges and barriers to widespread adoption of the
technology.














LED LIGHTING
A review of the current market and future
developments
Hilary Graves and Cosmin Ticleanu



LED LIGHTING
A review of the current market and future
developments
Hilary Graves and Cosmin Ticleanu














ii
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Trust can take no responsibility for the subsequent use of
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with
a higher level of innovative practice.
A further aim of BRE Trust is to stimulate debate on
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FB 40
Copyright BRE 2011
First published 2011
ISBN 978-1-84806-191-0
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors of this report would like to thank the
following BRE colleagues for their contributions:
Matt Blaikie
Paul Littlefair
Chloe Murphy
Andrew Thorne
Sam Woods
PUBLISHERS NOTE
All URLs accessed 9 September 2011. The publisher
accepts no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy
of URLs referred to in this publication, and does not
guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will
remain, accurate or appropriate.
Cover images:
Main: LED lighting with good colour rendering for
medical purposes
Top right: LEDs for automotive applications (courtesy of
Osram)
Middle right: LED lamp with heat sink
Bottom right: Adjustable LED for accent lighting (courtesy
of Osram)
























CONTENTS iii
CONTENTS
Executive summary iv
1 INTRODUCTION 1
2 BACKGROUND 2
2.1 LED light engines 2
2.2 LED manufacture 2
2.3 LED lighting applications 3
3 THE SUPPLY CHAIN 6
3.1 Market projections 7
4 STANDARDS AND REGULATORY ISSUES 8
4.1 Light quality metrics 8
4.2 Labelling programmes 9
4.3 Regulations 9
4.4 Testing 10
4.5 Performance specification 10
5 ADVANTAGES AND BENEFITS OF LEDs 12
5.1 Costs 12
5.2 Support and funding 13
5.3 Research and development 14
5.4 Functionality 14
5.5 Driver requirements 15
6 CHALLENGES AND BARRIERS TO ADOPTION 16
7 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 17
8 REFERENCES 18
Glossary of terms and abbreviations 20


iv EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Lighting is an essential part of everyday life in the
developed world and is one of the largest single users of
energy, being responsible for between 15% and 22% of
all electricity use in buildings. Good lighting is considered
essential to health, well-being and productivity, but the
efficiency of common light sources can vary widely.
With demands from the UK government and
international agreements to reduce carbon emissions,
building designers, owners and occupiers are looking
at the energy efficiency of their lighting. Not since
the late 1970s has there been such a focus on energy
management in lighting.
Light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are a proven technology
that offers enormous possibilities for providing highly
energy-efficient and good-quality lighting. This BRE Trust
Report summarises the current LED market and various
advantages of LEDs, and outlines the challenges and
barriers to widespread adoption of the technology.
(Courtesy of Switch Lighting)


1 1 INTRODUCTION
1 INTRODUCTION
Lighting is an essential part of everyday life in the
developed world and is one of the largest single users of
energy, being responsible for between 15% and 22% of
all electricity use in buildings. Good lighting is considered
essential to health, well-being and productivity, but the
efficiency of common light sources can vary widely.
With demands from the UK government and
international agreements to reduce carbon emissions,
building designers, owners and occupiers are looking
at the energy efficiency of their lighting. Not since
the late 1970s has there been such a focus on energy
management in lighting.
Light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are a proven technology
that offers enormous possibilities for providing highly
energy-efficient and good-quality lighting. The technology
was initially developed in 1907 but the first white LED
was not produced until 1996. Since then, considerable
effort has been, and continues to be, made to improve
the efficacy of both LED and organic LED (OLED) lighting
and to reduce the costs of manufacture so that LED
light engines can be developed as commercially viable
alternatives to conventional light sources.
If LED lighting achieves its expected levels of efficiency,
then with high levels of uptake the energy consumption
of domestic and commercial lighting could potentially
be reduced by up to 70% by 2050. It could realistically
achieve a 37% saving in lighting energy use by 2030
[1]
.
A great deal of fundamental research and development
of new components is ongoing, including development
of new LED materials, especially in the green/yellow part
of the spectrum, and development of all forms of OLED.
The feasibility of the technology has been demonstrated,
but LED products still need to be developed further
before they can give energy savings comparable to those
of competing types of lighting, and fully meet customer
requirements for light output, colour and reliability.




2 LED LIGHTING
2 BACKGROUND
2.1 LED LIGHT ENGINES
An LED light engine is a combination of one or more LED
devices or arrays, a driver, heat sink and electrical and
mechanical connections. It is intended to be mounted in
a luminaire (ie a light fixture or fitting). The LED itself is a
semiconductor material protected by an encapsulant that
allows light to emerge. A schematic of a typical LED light
engine is shown in Figure 1.
LEDs require a driver to convert mains power into the
current and voltage required by the semiconductor. The
driver may also sense and correct for changes in intensity
and colour during operation.
A self-ballasted LED is a unit that cannot be dismantled
without being permanently damaged. It is provided with
a standardised lamp cap and incorporates an LED light
source and any additional elements necessary for the
start-up and stable operation of the light source.
Because the output and lifetime of LEDs are adversely
affected by heat, a heat sink is usually provided. High-
power LEDs that emit a large amount of heat are usually
also placed in a special luminaire. Figure 2 shows LED
lamps with different types of heat sink.
Cover
Reflector
LED on
substrate
Lens
Phosphor
disc
Heat sink slug
Pins connect to electrical supply
Driver circuit
Heat
sink fins
Figure 1: Schematic of a typical light engine
2.2 LED MANUFACTURE
LEDs are manufactured by a process known as epitaxy,
in which crystalline films of semiconductor material are
deposited onto a substrate. OLED devices made with
small organic molecules are usually produced by vacuum
deposition onto a substrate, generally glass. Polymer
OLEDs (P-OLEDs) can be deposited by inkjet printing
onto glass or a mechanically flexible substrate such as a
polymer film. Addressable OLEDs, which allow individual
pixels of material to be switched on separately, can also
be fabricated in the laboratory in this way. These can be
used for signage or screens
[2]
.
General lighting devices can be based on a single LED,
or alternatively several LEDs can be packaged together on
a common substrate or wiring board to form an LED array.
This may be done to increase total light output or modify
the spectrum (eg using red, green and blue LEDs together
to produce white light).
Figure 2: Two LED lamps showing different heat sinks




























3 2 BACKGROUND
2.3 LED LIGHTING APPLICATIONS
LEDs are currently mainly used in niche applications, such
as coloured decorative lighting; addressable picture walls;
emergency lighting, automotive and aviation lighting;
low-power display lighting; and LCD backlighting. Since
LEDs are point sources they are capable of providing
the kind of sparkle often desired by lighting designers
for leisure and retail commercial applications. Table 1
summarises the typical applications of the various types of
lighting, while Figure 3 shows a breakdown of end uses
for LED lighting.
Other
12%
LCD displays
40%
Automotive
18%
Signs
23%
Signals
2%
Illumination
5%
Figure 3: Market breakdown of LED use
Table 1: Lightsourcesandtypicalcurrentapplications
Light source Applications
Tungsten filament General domestic lighting
Small-scale commercial
Residential (hotels, residential care homes)
Leisure (restaurants, pubs, clubs)
Specialist
Automotive and aviation
Traffic signals
Tungsten halogen General domestic lighting
Small-scale commercial (downlighting and spotlighting)
Display lighting in all types of building (especially retail and leisure sectors)
Specialist
Automotive
Tubular fluorescent General commercial lighting
Public sector (including schools and hospitals)
Industrial and storage
Communications and transport
Domestic (kitchens and garages)
Compact fluorescent General domestic lighting
Commercial (smaller spaces, some general lighting)
Public sector (including schools and hospitals)
Communications and transport
Low-pressure sodium
Street lighting
High-pressure sodium Street lighting
Other external lighting including floodlighting
Industrial and storage
Some retail lighting
Metal halide Retail lighting (displays or general lighting)
General lighting in industrial and storage buildings
Floodlighting
Induction lamps
Used where access is difficult, in some external lighting (tunnels, precincts) and large internal spaces
like atria
Sulfur lamps
Large-scale industrial
LEDs Coloured decorative lighting
Addressable picture walls
Emergency lighting
Automotive and aviation lighting
Low-power display lighting
LCD display backlighting
OLEDs Mobile phone displays
Other small-display applications

















4 LED LIGHTING
Recent applications of LEDs include vehicle headlights
(Figure 4), traffic signals, downlights (primarily for
commercial accent and display applications), emergency
lighting and decorative outdoor lighting, particularly in
conjunction with small-scale solar panels.
Compared with other forms of lighting, LEDs tend to
have lower light output and lower wattage: typically a
few watts with currents in the order of milliamps or tens
of milliamps. Since the light output of individual LEDs is
small compared with that of conventional lamps, multiple
LEDs are often used together to create high-power LEDs,
which, due to their higher lumen output, can be used
to replace other lamps. High-power LEDs can be driven
at currents from hundreds of milliamps to more than an
ampere and have significantly higher lumen output.
The best-performing commercially available warm
white LED fittings have an efficacy of 5060 lumens
per watt (lm/W). Sometimes low-wattage LEDs are
marketed as suitable replacements for halogen lamps.
However, at the above efficacies a 1214 W LED would
be needed to provide the equivalent output of a basic
50 W halogen lamp, so lamps rated at a few watts
provide correspondingly lower levels of light output.
Some examples of the different types of LED alternative to
halogen lamps are shown in Figure 5.
Figure 4: LED headlights
(Courtesy of Audi UK)
Within a few years, it is expected that the efficacies of
LED lamps will rise to 100 lm/W or above (the highest-
efficiency high-power white LED already achieves
115 lm/W), so lower-wattage lamps may then be able to
provide the required amounts of light.
The spectrum of a light source will affect its colour
appearance and colour rendering. LEDs and OLEDs are
made from a variety of semiconductor materials in order
that a range of colours or white light can be emitted
(Table 2). LEDs are available but their colour qualities may
differ from those of other lamp types (see Table 3 and
Section 4 of this publication).
White LEDs with good colour rendering can be made
by combining red, green and blue LEDs, but they are
less energy-efficient. More efficient white LEDs can be
made by coating a blue LED with a phosphor, but this has
reduced colour-rendering capabilities. Work is continuing
on improving the efficacy of multiphosphor coatings,
which have better colour-rendering qualities. Where
research is seeking to develop more efficient white light,
the focus is on improving the energy efficiency and colour
rendering of gallium nitride-based white LEDs.
LEDs normally last much longer than other forms of
lighting 50,000 hours compared with 10,000 hours for
compact fluorescents. This and other comparisons are
set out in Table 3. Further explanation of terms such as
correlated colour temperature is given in Section 4 and
in the glossary of terms and abbreviations.
Figure 5: Different types of LED alternative to halogen lamps
From left to right: LED fixed downlight (3145 lm/W);
350 mA self-contained cool white LED downlight
(5470 lm/W); GU10 white LED bulb (60 lm/W); and
adjustable LED downlight (47 lm/W)





5 2 BACKGROUND
Table 2: ExamplesofsemiconductormaterialsusedinthemanufactureofLEDs
LED colour LED material
Infrared Gallium arsenide
Red Gallium arsenide phosphide
Orange Aluminium gallium indium phosphide
Yellow Gallium arsenide phosphide
Green Gallium phosphide, aluminium gallium phosphide
Blue Gallium nitride; silicon carbide and sapphire as a substrate
Ultraviolet Aluminium gallium indium nitride
Incandescent white Gallium nitride
Cool white Gallium nitride
Table 3: Comparisonof2007commercialLEDsandconventionallightsources*
[3]
Light source Typical Typical wattage Typical Correlated colour Colour Typical lifetime
luminous (W) luminous temperature/ rendering (hours)
output efficacy (lm/W) dominant index
(lm unless wavelength
indicated (K unless indicated
otherwise) otherwise)
LEDs
Red LED 42 0.3 58 625 nm N/A 50,000
Amber LED 42 0.81 50 590 nm N/A 50,000
Green LED 53 1 53 530 nm N/A 50,000
Blue LED 21 1.2 18 470 nm N/A 50,000
White LED 220 4 55 4000 70 50,000
Warm white LED 180 4 45 3000 90 50,000
SM-OLED 1000 cd/m
2
46
[4]
~3000 80 5000
P-OLED 1000 cd/m
2
6.5 (white) 5900
Conventional
Tungsten halogen 4050,000 42000 1125 2700 100 15005000
Compact fluorescent
(integral ballast)
1005600 380 3374 27006500 8082 600015,000
Compact fluorescent
(non-integral ballast)
2509000 5120 5088 27006500 8090 800020,000
Linear fluorescent 1208850 6120 20105 27007500 5098 800028,000
High-pressure
sodium
330056,500 50400 70140 2000 25 28,50060,000
White high-pressure
sodium
18005000 45115 4050 2500 83 60009000
Ceramic metal
halide
170041,000 20400 83110 30004400 7893 600018,000
* LEDs are manufactured in a wide range of sizes and types; luminous efficacy and lifetime will vary with size and type.
Typical examples of LEDs (as of September 2011) were chosen here.
This is the lifetime to L
70
, ie the mean time to diminish to 70% of the initial light output, at which point output is no longer
acceptable.
Lifetime increases to 32,000 hours at 400 cd/m
2
but light output not sufficient for general lighting applications. Presentation
to the Cambridge Enterprise and Technology Club (CETC), April 2008.
cd candelas. K kelvin. lm lumens. nm nanometre. N/A not applicable. W watts.











6 LED LIGHTING
3 THE SUPPLY CHAIN
LED luminaire manufacturers currently supply a relatively
small range of products for niche applications, often
where lamp replacement is difficult or costly. It is likely
to be some time before LEDs enter the mainstream
wholesale market and the wide-scale replacement of
general fluorescent lighting is implemented, as quality
LED products are currently too expensive to bear the
required levels of mark-up applied within the lighting
industry. Consequently, cheap, poor-quality imports
from the Far East have tended to give LED lighting a bad
reputation in the wholesale market.
The solid-state lighting supply chain typically comprises
the following:
1. Semiconductor materials, substrate and
encapsulation: raw materials suppliers provide the
semiconductor materials, substrates (such as sapphire
or silicon carbide), encapsulants (ie clear materials to
protect the chip and improve the light output) and
phosphors (typically to convert blue light into white
light). These materials have to be of high quality and
may require special manufacturing processes.
2. LED chips and devices: an LED device manufacturer
produces the LED chip from the raw materials,
encapsulates it and adds a phosphor if required.
Electrodes are mounted onto the material. This forms
a basic LED device
[5]
. Alternatively, several LED chips
may be packaged together to form an LED array.
Production of the LED devices is a sophisticated
manufacturing process requiring expensive
semiconductor production plant. Nearly all of this
manufacture is carried out outside the UK by large
semiconductor manufacturers.
3. LED drivers: an electronics manufacturer produces
the driver, an electronic device that converts
the power supply into the required voltage and
current for the LED. Drivers can be produced using
standard electronics production plant by a large
number of traditional semiconductor integrated chip
manufacturers.
4. LED light engines: an LED lighting manufacturer
produces the light engine (ie a combination of one or
more LED devices or arrays), a driver, heat sink and
electrical and mechanical connections. Light engines
are intended to be mounted in a luminaire.
5.Luminaires: a luminaire manufacturer puts the LED
light engine in a protective casing, which may also
include optical components to change the distribution
of light, and mechanical components to allow the
luminaire to be mounted, positioned and aimed.
Often the luminaire could be produced by a general
lighting manufacturer buying in lamp and driver
components, or a complete LED light engine.
6.Wholesalers: a wholesaler or importer sells the light
fitting. They may keep the original manufacturers
name on it or rebadge it. There are a wide range of
firms in this area ranging from the UK sales offices of
foreign manufacturers through large wholesalers and
down to very small firms of importers or suppliers.
Currently most white light products are sold directly by
manufacturers to end users or via specifiers.
7.Specification and design: a lighting designer specifies
the light fitting and how it is to be used in the lighting
scheme. Lighting designers may work independently or
in small firms.
8. Installation: an electrician installs the light fitting.
9.Maintenance and replacement: staff replace the LED
or complete luminaire if it is faulty or if its output has
dropped below acceptable levels.
Some manufacturers combine various elements of the
supply chain, eg combining stages 6 and 7 to operate
a design and supply service. Alternatively some omit
stage 7 altogether, especially in domestic or small-scale
commercial buildings.
As LEDs are both an electronics product and a
lighting product, the supply chain is currently divided
into two parallel streams based around electronics and
lighting. Historically electronics manufacturers have been
dominant, but now more and more lighting companies
are becoming involved, and the solid-state lighting market
is becoming increasingly integrated into the mainstream
lighting market.
Costs per unit drop substantially with larger-scale
production, especially if manufacture is outsourced to
the Far East or Eastern Europe. Often the early stages of
manufacture will be UK based, but later stages may be
outsourced abroad.






7 3 THE SUPPLY CHAIN
3.1 MARKET PROJECTIONS
Projections of the LED and OLED market suggest that
by 2020 UK firms could have solid-state lighting sales of
around 270 million, rising to 610 million by 2030 and
790 million by 2050. Profits are estimated to rise from
13 million in 2020 up to 36 million by 2030. (Profits
are expected to plateau after 2030, despite the increasing
market, because of competition from abroad and lower
margins.)
OLEDs are expected to rise in efficacy from current
values of 35 lm/W to 150 lm/W by 2014, then to stay at
roughly this level. Unit costs of LEDs (in per light output)
are expected to rival those of conventional lamps by
2015. OLEDs are expected to reach this level by 2020.
































8 LED LIGHTING
commonly used for those lamps. The peak intensity is
quoted, in candelas per m
2
, together with a beam angle
diagram showing the lux levels at various distances from
the lamp. In some cases a polar diagram may also be
given, which shows the proportion of the light emitted at
various angles (Figure 6).
The colour (whiteness) of the LED is usually quoted in
terms of correlated colour temperature (CCT). Products
range from warm, yellowish whites with CCT of ~2700 K
(which imitate tungsten filament bulbs and are popular
for domestic use), through neutral whites in the 3000
3500 K range (which are popular for non-domestic use),
to blueish whites with CCT of ~6500 K (which imitate
daylight). As blueish white LEDs tend to be more efficient,
many of the early products were of very high colour
temperature (60007000 K). This colour is acceptable
for exterior lighting but not very suitable for domestic
applications. Using a warmer colour temperature will
restrict the efficacy of the product as additional red
phosphors are required, which are not as efficient at
converting the blue light output of the LED chip as the
yellow phosphors used in the more efficient lamps.
Another metric frequently quoted for lighting products
is the colour rendering index (CRI). The CRI is intended
to tell the consumer how accurately the light source will
reproduce colours. Lamps with excellent colour rendering
properties have a CRI between 90 and 100, and are often
specified in situations where accurate colour judgement
is required, such as in shops. The warmer white LEDs that
have additional red phosphors to increase the warmth
4.1 LIGHT QUALITY METRICS
LED integral ballast (self-ballasted) lamps tend to be
quantified by the metric appropriate for the conventional
lamp type that they are designed to replace. Therefore,
for non-directional lamps designed to replace tungsten
filament or fluorescent lamps, LED lamps are characterised
by their total light output (luminous flux in all directions),
measured in lumens, and the power consumed by
the lamp as a whole, measured in watts. The energy
efficiency of the lamp is sometimes also characterised by
the luminous efficacy, which is simply the lumen output
divided by the lamp power, given in lumens per watt. The
higher the luminous efficacy, the more energy-efficient the
lamp is. LED luminaires are often characterised in a similar
way, but the lumen output is measured for the whole
fitting and the power consumed is measured for the whole
unit including the driver.
A few manufacturers quote chip efficiency, which
can be misleading. Chip efficiency is the instantaneous
lumen output of the LED chip divided by the power
consumption measured without all the packing and/
or luminaire needed to make the LED a useful lighting
product, and is not indicative of the performance that
could be expected over sustained use. Such a figure is at
least 80% higher than the useful luminous efficacy and
is not a metric to predict the performance of the actual
lamp or luminaire.
Directional LED lamps and luminaires designed to
replace reflector tungsten halogen lamps will sometimes
quantify their performance using the metrics that are
4 STANDARDS AND REGULATORY ISSUES
400
600
800
30
45
0 15 15 30
45
105
90
75
60
105
90
75
60
Height Illuminance, lux (centre beam) Beam diameter (m)
0.5 2800 0.58
3.0 79 3.46
2.5 112 2.89
2.0 175 2.31
1.5 311 1.73
1.0 700 1.15
Beam angle: 60.
Figure 6: Polar diagram and beam angle diagram for a typical directional lamp/luminaire



















9 4 STANDARDS AND REGULATORY ISSUES
of the light usually have higher CRI values of more
than 80. This puts them on par with light sources such
as compact fluorescent lamps and tri-phosphor linear
fluorescent lamps with regard to colour rendition. A few
LED lamps will have colour rendering indices above
90; this excellent colour rendering is essential for some
applications such as medical examinations and critical
colour comparisons. However, the most efficient LEDs
often have only fair CRI values (6070) and will not show
all colours well.
US researchers
[6]
have suggested that the CRI is not
entirely suitable for LED spectra, and have proposed an
alternative colour quality scale (CQS)
[7]
. An experiment
was set up at BRE in 2009 to determine preferences for
different LED lamp colours
[8]
. The experiment involved
two sets of two booths containing everyday coloured
objects, lit by different lamps (Figure 7). One pair of
booths contained lamps equivalent in illuminance to
35 W halogen, and the other pair of booths contained
lamps equivalent to 50 W halogen. Thirty-six subjects
were invited to compare the brightness of each pair of
booths, colour of the light and correctness or familiarity of
the colours of the items.
One of the 50 W equivalents was a tuneable LED that
had been specially set up to have a higher CQS rating
(87) compared with its CRI (77). The colour of this lamp
and the items lit by it were preferred to that of another
LED lamp with a CQS rating of 83 and a CRI of 84. The
difference in preference was statistically significant. The
tuneable LED was even preferred to a tungsten halogen
lamp with a CQS rating of 96 and a measured CRI of 99.
The results suggested that for some LED lamps the CRI
can be a poor indicator of colour preference.
4.2 LABELLING PROGRAMMES
LED luminaires are not currently subject to any specific
labelling requirements. As the European Lamp Labelling
Directive was introduced in 1998
[9]
, before LED lighting
was considered as a means of providing general lighting, it
is not clear whether LED lamps are included in its scope.
The wording of the scope is This Directive shall apply to
household electric lamps supplied directly from the mains
(filament and integral compact fluorescent lamps), and
to household fluorescent lamps (including linear, and non-
integral compact fluorescent lamps), even when marketed
for non-household use. This indicates the difficulty of
writing these directives in a technology-neutral fashion
while still being clear about which lamps are affected.
What is clear is that lamps of input power less than
4 W are not included. The Lamp Labelling Directive is
currently being reviewed by the European Commission
and these problems of interpretation should be removed.
In the meantime many manufacturers may choose to
label their LED lamps to show that they have an energy
efficiency rating of EU class A.
4.3 REGULATIONS
Non-directional lamps for household illumination
are regulated by the European Commission
Regulation 244/2009
[10]
. LED self-ballasted lamps
designed to replace ordinary tungsten filament light bulbs
are included within this legislation.
As the majority of these lamps will have an opal
diffuser to disguise the individual LED modules and to
distribute the light more evenly, they are categorised as
Figure 7: One pair of the experimental BRE test booths lit by lamps of different colour temperatures





































10 LED LIGHTING
non-clear lamps (Figure 8). In effect, this means that all
such non-directional lamps sold in Europe must be of an
efficacy equivalent to an energy efficiency rating of EU
class A
[9]
where the lamp rated power must be lower than
a maximum value related to luminous flux.
This regulation does mean that all LED lamps being
sold as non-directional household bulbs should be at least
as efficient as a compact fluorescent lamp, which should
prevent a proliferation of poor-quality lamps on the
European market. However, it also acts as something of a
barrier as lamps must use very good quality LED chips in
order to achieve this performance level, which means that
they are very expensive.
4.4 TESTING
There are no measurement standards specific to LED
luminaires at present. Instead, the measurement standard
for lamps and luminaires, BS EN 13032-1:2004
[11]
, is used
as a de facto standard for the testing of LED luminaires by
most UK test houses. This standard does include some detail
about measurement of luminous flux but also refers back to
CIE 84
[12]
, a publication that is more than 20 years old.
In North America, the Illuminating Engineering Society
(IES) has published an approved method for measuring the
electrical and photometric properties, IES LM-79-08
[13]
. This
approved method allows the use of either an integrating
sphere or a goniophotometer for the measurement of
luminous flux.
Both these methods have common ground and both
documents are approved by the Enhanced Capital
Allowances (ECA) scheme
[14]
as suitable test procedures.
Measuring lumen maintenance after 6000 hours
is a pragmatic approach to providing an indication of
performance over what can be very long lifetimes for
LED products. Six-thousand hours still represents over
nine months of testing time, but very long-lived LED
products will scarcely show any measurable reduction
in luminous flux over that period. As LED light sources
tend to diminish in light output with time rather than to
fail catastrophically like conventional light sources, the
lumen maintenance is often quoted in terms of an L
70
value, ie the mean time to diminish to 70% of the initial
light output. When the light output falls below 70% of its
initial value the lamp is unlikely to be providing sufficient
illumination for the required task. Many LED products
are quoted as having L
70
lifetimes of 35,00050,000
hours (or more), which equates to losses of 5% and
3.6% over 6000 hours, respectively (assuming linear
degradation). As the measurement uncertainty is in the
order of 5%, these losses are barely discernible even after
6000 hours.
IES has also published an approved method for the
determination of LED lumen maintenance (lifetime),
IES LM-80-08
[15]
. This publication also suggests testing
for a minimum of 6000 hours with 1000-hour intervals,
although it recommends 10,000 hours of testing for more
reliable prediction of future performance. It suggests that
rated lumen maintenance life can be quoted either to
70% (L
70
) or 50% (L
50
) lumen maintenance. However, a
50% reduction in light output would be very noticeable
and almost certainly would be unacceptable for general
lighting purposes.
4.5 PERFORMANCE SPECIFICATION
There are currently two specifications for LED
performance being used in the UK: the Energy Saving
Trust Recommended (ESTR) criteria
[16, 17]
and the
Enhanced Capital Allowances (ECA) criteria
[14]
.
The ESTR scheme has been developed for domestic
applications. The criteria apply to LED lamps and external
luminaires. The latest version of the criteria (version 2.0)
for LED lamps gives eligibility criteria for all types of LED
lamp and provides best-practice levels for lamps intended
for the domestic lighting market, such as those used in
wall fittings (Figure 9).
The ECA scheme enables buyers of energy-efficient
equipment to claim the cost against tax in the year of
purchase. Criteria have been developed by the Carbon
Trust to represent a best-practice standard for commercial
applications. The scheme currently covers white LED
lighting units for amenity, accent and display purposes, as
well as white LED units for general interior lighting and
for exterior area lighting and exterior floodlighting (as of
September 2011).
Figure 8: Miniature LED lamps with different diffusers










4 STANDARDS AND REGULATORY ISSUES 11
Figure 9: An LED wall light fitting
Individual standards for LED lamps are listed in a
Lighting Industry Federation Technical Statement
[18]
. These
standards either specialise in one particular aspect of LED
performance or safety, or they are general standards that
apply to all lamps, not just LEDs.
If the LED lamp or fitting is CE marked, it should
comply with all the relevant safety standards. Some
aspects of LED luminaire performance will be covered
by the general luminaire performance standards, ie the
relevant part of BS EN 60598
[19]
. Safety specifications for
LED modules are covered by BS EN 62031:2008
[20]
.
A performance standard is being developed for
self-ballasted LEDs, IEC/PAS 62612:2009
[21]
. This has
reached the stage of being a Publicly Available Standard
but is incomplete and still subject to change before it is
fully adopted. For photometric measurements it refers
to CIE 84
[12]
, although it does warn that CIE 84 is not
optimised for LED lamps. It defines tolerances on various
measurements including colour temperature and CRI and
suggests a category system for rating lumen maintenance
after a maximum of 6000 hours.
In IEC/PAS 62612:2009
[21]
, Category A lumen
maintenance lamps (ie the best category) must have a
measured flux after 6000 hours that has decreased by not
more than 10% of rated flux. This equates to a minimum
L
70
value of 18,000 hours.
Drivers for LEDs are covered by two standards:
BS EN 62384:2006
[22]
, which covers performance
requirements, and BS EN 61347-2-13:2006
[23]
. In some
cases the driver would also be covered by the standard
for plug-in transformers, BS EN 61558-1:2005
[24]
.









12 LED LIGHTING
5 ADVANTAGES AND BENEFITS OF LEDS
LEDs offer enormous possibilities for providing highly
energy-efficient and good-quality lighting. Their properties
can vary greatly from one manufacturer to another in
terms of light output and colour quality. However, careful
specification will ensure that LED lighting meets the
requirements of the particular application.
5.1 COSTS
LED costs have dropped dramatically since their
conception and are expected to continue to fall as
improvements in technologies such as automation and
large-scale manufacturing increase LED output and
efficacy. The capital cost of LEDs is currently around seven
times that of compact fluorescent lamps, but lifetime
costs are already comparable to those of incandescent
and halogen lamps owing to the much lower power
consumption and longer life of LEDs.
Considerable effort is being made to improve the
overall luminous efficacy of LED chips to achieve efficacy
improvements in line with the projections published
yearly by the US Department of Energy (DOE)
[25]
, so that
lamps and luminaires using the latest technology will
always be sold at a premium price and products using
older technology will quickly reduce in price.
(
%
)

2009 2010 2012 2015 2020
100
80
60
40
20
0
Outputs from a US DOE workshop held in April 2010
set out the anticipated reductions in manufacturing costs
of LED luminaires to 2020
[5]
. The 2009 cost was taken
as a benchmark figure and a consensus reached as to
how this cost was split across the manufacturing process.
The outcomes highlight an anticipated reduction in
manufacturing costs of 78% over the 2009 benchmark
by 2020, with the LED packages no longer making up
the largest portion of the costs; to be taken over by the
mechanical/thermal element of the luminaire. These
values are extrapolated in Figure 10 below.
The cost of the mechanical/thermal part of the
luminaire is the most difficult to reduce. It includes both
the physical components comprising the complete
luminaire fixture and means for mounting the LED(s),
driver and optical components and the thermal
components, which are required to remove the heat
produced within the fixture. As the thermal components
are always likely to include a substantial amount of
metal
[26]
, and as the cost of metals is unlikely to decline
in the future, this could be one limiting factor in reducing
cost. The US DOE suggests that steps need to be taken
to actively address cost-reduction strategies for this part
of the luminaire
[5]
. New materials such as phase-change
materials may provide an alternative to large volumes of
metal for thermal management.
Optics
Assembly
Driver
Mechanical/thermal
LED packages
Figure 10: Anticipated relative reductions in manufacturing costs of LED luminaires to 2020 (2009 benchmark = 100)














5 ADVANTAGES AND BENEFITS OF LEDS 13
An analysis was also carried out on the relative
manufacturing costs of the LED package alone. Again
2009 was taken as the benchmark and a consensus
reached as to how the costs are split according to the
individual parts of the LED package. The outcomes
highlight an anticipated reduction in the cost of the LED
package by 89% over the 2009 benchmark by 2020.
Throughout this period packaging remains the largest
portion of the costs, which all reduce in approximately
the same ratio (Figure 11).
According to the US DOE, Though not reflected in
the cost projection, improvements in an earlier part of
the manufacturing process, such as improved uniformity
in the epitaxial process, will have a lever effect and
can greatly impact the final device cost and selling price
through improved binning yields
[5]
.
At present, the best-quality LED products use
sapphire substrate discs of relatively small sizes (typically
50100 mm). They are expensive to produce due to their
sensitivity to deformation, which can occur more readily
than on other substrates, and therefore represent the
main cost of LED packages. Bulk cheap solid-state devices
are usually produced on larger (150 mm or 200 mm)
silicon or silicon carbide wafers; producing good-quality
LEDs on this substrate is a technical challenge. Larger
sapphire (150 mm) discs
[27]
and silicon discs (150
200 mm)
[28]
have been produced very recently and will
help to bring down the cost of the LED packages.
5.2 SUPPORT AND FUNDING
There are currently two main types of subsidy or incentive
applicable to lighting: one for domestic lighting products
and one for non-domestic products.
100
80
60
40
20
0
(
%
)

2009 2010 2012 2015 2020
5.2.1 Subsidies for domestic lighting
products
The most efficient LED lamps and luminaires, ie
those conforming to ESTR
[16]
criteria, are eligible to
be considered by public energy supply companies for
subsidising under the Carbon Emissions Reduction Target
(CERT)
[29]
scheme (20082011). This scheme has been
very successful in reducing the market cost of compact
fluorescent lights but it is unclear how much (if any)
impact it will have on helping to bring down LED lamp
prices. The difficulty is that LED lamps can no longer
be compared with tungsten filament lamps as these are
being removed from the market. Very few LED products
have yet received ESTR accreditation to allow them to be
eligible for consideration by CERT.
5.2.2 Incentives for non-domestic lighting
products
The most efficient LED luminaires are eligible under the
ECA scheme to receive a tax incentive. In 2010 eligibility
was extended from amenity, accent and display lighting
to include general lighting applications. The luminous
efficacy requirements for eligible luminaires are high:
46 lm/W for amenity, accent and display lighting and
60 lm/W for general lighting. ECAs allow companies
to offset the full cost (plus installation and transport) of
energy-efficient products against their corporation or
income tax liabilities in the first year rather than having to
write it off over 10 years. This provides a cash flow boost
of more than 20p for every 1 invested.
5.2.3 Research grants
The UK government supplies research grants through
the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
(EPSRC) and the Technology Strategy Board (TSB); these
grants are potentially available for future development of
LED lighting technologies. Building regulations and future
restrictions on available lamp types via the Energy-Using
Products Directive
[30]
may also enhance the uptake of
LEDs in future.
Phosphor
Epitaxy
Substrate
Water processing
Packaging
Figure 11: Anticipated relative reductions in manufacturing costs of LED packages to 2020 (2009 benchmark = 100)










14 LED LIGHTING
5.3 RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
The UK is well endowed with expertise throughout
the solid-state lighting supply chain, including leading
research groups at a number of universities. Current
research and development efforts are mainly focusing
on the material properties of the basic LED devices
themselves and also on reducing the cost of LEDs through
new manufacturing techniques, improving phosphors for
white LEDs, getting all the available light out of the LED
module and encapsulating OLEDs to protect them from
moisture. However, these devices are nearly all made
abroad; UK manufacturing expertise is concentrated
further down the supply chain, in producing LED light
engines and luminaires.
The University of Sheffield carries out state-of-the-
art semiconductor epitaxy and device fabrication using
III-V semiconductors. It also carries out research into
advanced technologies for device fabrication, and custom
optoelectronic and electronic devices. Most of this
research is with academic groups, supported by grants
from the EPSRC, Biotechnology and Biological Science
Research Council (BBSRC), Ministry of Defence (MOD),
TSB, and EU and industrial collaborations.
The Wide Band Gap Semiconductors Group at the
University of Bath is interested in many aspects of the
physics and technology of wide band gap materials and
especially the group III nitrides, and recently received a
TSB grant for a project, Novel LEDs for efficient lighting
systems.
Research at the University of Cambridge has focused
on gallium nitride as an LED material. The Cambridge
Centre for Gallium Nitride has strong academic
collaborations with Manchester University, the University
of Oxford and Sheffield Hallam University, and strong
industry collaborations with Thomas Swan, AIXTRON,
Forge Europa and QinetiQ.
The University of Nottinghams Nitrides Research
Group was formed in 1991, and established what is
still the only plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy
growth facility in UK academia for the complete range of
group III nitrides.
The University of Strathclydes Institute of Photonics
has been active in gallium nitride growth and
optoelectronic device fabrication for the past 10 years.
The Phosphor Group at Brunel University was
established in 1970 and is the only academic group
in Europe or the US that has carried out research on
phosphors over this period.
In terms of future research and development, a US
DOE workshop identified a number of manufacturing
research and development priority tasks (Table 4). In
addition to the areas identified in Table 4, under the EU
Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive
[31]
there is a responsibility to recycle LEDs. LEDs contain
small quantities of rare elements like gold, silver, indium
and gallium. Most of them also contain larger quantities
of aluminium in heat sinks, and copper wiring. However,
LEDs are not generally easy to disassemble and large-scale
recycling facilities have yet to be developed. This is likely
to become a more important issue in the future as the
LED market grows and LEDs start to reach their end of
life.
5.4 FUNCTIONALITY
Most LEDs can operate using conventional analogue
(110 V) or digital (eg DALI, ESB, DSI) control systems.
Depending on the type of LED, they can be entirely free
from flicker, automatically switched, dimmed and in some
cases the colour can be changed. This last possibility has
already been used extensively in decorative exterior and
theatre lighting and in mood lighting in clubs, pubs and
retail outlets, as well as in some homes.
Controllable LEDs open up the possibility of smart
environments, where monitoring and home automation
help extend the time that the elderly can stay in their
home while maintaining their normal lifestyle
[32]
. A large
component of the smart home environment is lighting,
and the potential of LEDs far exceeds that of other
technologies to meet the needs of the ageing population.
Circadian lighting (to match patterns within the bodys
daily cycle) is an obvious place where LEDs by being
able to give a unique spectral prescription of light can
help normalise the sleep patterns of older adults, increase
their sense of well-being and be able to reduce the
symptoms of Alzheimers disease. Research at the Lighting
Research Centre of Rensselaer Polytechnic University
[33]
Table 4: LEDmanufacturingR&Dprioritytasks
[5]
Task Description
Luminaire/module manufacturing Automation, manufacturing or design tools to demonstrate high-quality, flexible
manufacturing at low cost
Driver manufacturing Improved design for manufacture for flexibility, reduced parts count and cost, while
maintaining performance
Test and inspection equipment High-speed, non-destructive and standardised equipment for all manufacturing steps
Tools for epitaxial growth Tools, processes and precursors to lower cost of ownership and improve uniformity
Wafer-processing equipment Tailored tools to improve LED wafer processing
LED packages Improved back-end processes and tools to optimise quality and consistency and to lower
cost
Phosphor manufacturing and High-volume phosphor manufacture and efficient materials application
application





































suggests that not just elderly people but all segments of
society especially in the era of deep-core offices can
benefit from appropriately-timed doses of light.
LEDs require a fixed voltage in order to operate
correctly; therefore dimming can only be achieved by
cutting the mains supply. High-quality thyristor dimmers
use an electronic circuit to cut the mains supply. This
means that the power is applied 100 times per second,
for a period between 0 and 1/100th of a second, as set
by the control
[34]
. This kind of dimmer is compatible
with dimmable lighting transformers for low-voltage
alternating current (AC) systems. Because full power is
applied to the lamp for part of the time, these dimmers
will work with some kinds of LED product. Those where
the power is applied directly to the chain of LEDs, such
as 230 V ropelight, will also usually respond to this style
of dimming. When the dimming gets below 50% the
remaining AC cycle being applied to the lamp will not
be sufficient to power it and it will quickly turn off. LED
products where the power is further conditioned will not
be affected by these dimmers; this is usually the case with
230 V and 12 V bulbs.
Another dimming method frequently used is pulse
width modulation. The full direct current (DC) voltage is
applied to the product for a very short time, thousands of
times per second. The LEDs effectively flash, too quickly
for the eye to see. The resultant brightness depends
on the time the power is applied. This kind of dimmer
should successfully dim all the way from full to off
most LED products designed to operate directly from DC
voltages. Again, if there is further power conditioning
included within the product then this is likely to negate
the dimming effect. Pulse width modulation is inherently
incompatible with AC products, although thyristor
dimmers offer a similar solution for AC products.
Most high-power LEDs are designed to operate from
constant current sources. The supply will apply the voltage
necessary to achieve the required current. If this current
can be varied the supply can be used as a dimmer.
5.5 DRIVER REQUIREMENTS
Drivers can be produced using standard electronics
production plant although a key issue is the size of the
driver: very small drivers are more attractive where
luminaire size is limited. Recent advances in driver-
integrated circuits will allow many companies to design
their own intelligent drivers with optimised feature sets
such as dimming, colour control and sensors.
A US DOE manufacturing workshop
[5]
identified the
need for drivers with improved design for manufacturing,
integration, and flexibility within the luminaire [which]
could include the disaggregation of driver functionality
into sub-modules to allow luminaire integrators to mix
and match functions while maintaining high efficiency
and reliability.
5 ADVANTAGES AND BENEFITS OF LEDS 15
The size and form factor (ie shape) of drivers is also
important, especially for integration into lamps or small
luminaires. Driver performance can be affected by the
load placed on them and by thermal conditions. The
quality of components is vital to avoid the driver being
the limiting factor in LED luminaire lifetime. For instance,
electrolytic capacitors can easily fail significantly before
the LED chip has reached the end of its useful life.
LEDs can change in colour over their lifetime,
particularly if they are made up by mixing red, green and
blue sources. Some LED light engines have special drivers
that sense departures in colour and rebalance the light
output of the different coloured sources. Such tuneable
LEDs can also be used for special effects, creating a wide
range of different colours for display and entertainment
applications. Figure 12 shows LED lighting being used
for medical purposes due to its good colour rendering
properties.
The US DOE workshop also identified a need for
standardised information on driver performance to
facilitate driver integration into LED-based luminaires.
Proposed driver information comprised:
Compatibility with ambient light sensors
Compatibility with specific dimming protocols
Efficiency with respect to power, load and temperature
Harmonic distortion in power supply
Input voltage and output voltage variation
Maximum output power
Off-state power
Operating temperature range
Output current variation with temperature, voltage,
etc.
Power factor correction
Power overshoot
Power-to-light time
Transient and overvoltage protection specifications
Figure 12: LED lighting with good colour rendering for
medical purposes


16 LED LIGHTING
6 CHALLENGES AND BARRIERS TO ADOPTION
Evidence suggests that the UK market may be receptive
to new light sources provided these sources meet
customer requirements in terms of cost, size, colour
and perceived brightness. Longer-term barriers could
include a lack of fabrication capacity worldwide and a
shortage of raw materials such as gallium. There are also
issues surrounding the credibility of new technologies,
compatibility with existing fittings and reluctance of
traditional manufacturers to accelerate uptake.
Traditionally manufacturers have tended to produce
a standard range of types of luminaire, sometimes using
interchangeable lamps. For example, the same luminaire
might be available in tungsten or metal halide or compact
fluorescent types; only the lamp and control gear are
different. This type of approach tends not to work well
with many applications of LED because of the intrinsically
directional properties of the light source and the need for
thermal control, conducting heat away from the device.
Uniformity of LED chip production has been
challenging and the colour temperature of chips has
varied over a single substrate disc. This has led to the
need to sort the chips into colour bins, which is a costly
and time-consuming process. Specifying chips from a
narrow bin width will give greater uniformity of colour,
but this advantage needs to be offset against the higher
cost of a tight bin specification. Uniformity has been
improved somewhat by a variety of new techniques,
including (i) the use of a reflective bucket containing an
encapsulant into which the chip is mounted, which keeps
the phosphor layer remote from the chip; and (ii) the
use of a controlled phosphor disc that is matched and
mounted in close contact to a thinned sapphire substrate,
which becomes the top of the chip with the electrical
contacts attached below.
In addition to the challenges surrounding their
manufacture, each LED will also ultimately require
disposal. Large-scale recycling facilities have yet to be
developed to support their effective disposal and enable
the recovery of copper and aluminium together with the
smaller quantities of rare elements (eg gold, silver, indium,
gallium) to be recovered. This is likely to become a more
important issue in the future as the LED market grows and
LEDs start to reach their end of life.
At the current time, OLEDs have a similar problem to
LEDs in producing stable white light and high efficacy and
are also very sensitive to moisture. Unlike LEDs, the green
emission of OLEDs can be considerably more efficient
than for either red or blue emission. Although efficacy of
OLEDs is good, they currently have too short a lifetime to
be considered suitable for general lighting applications.
They are currently used commercially in the displays of
mobile phones and similar devices.










7 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 17
7 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Whereas lighting is responsible for between 15%
and 22% of all electricity use in buildings, LEDs offer
enormous potential as compact, low-energy sources
for providing highly energy-efficient and good-quality
lighting.
Since the production of the first white LED in 1996,
considerable effort has been made to improve the efficacy
of LED and OLED lighting and to reduce the costs of
manufacture. If LED lighting achieves its expected levels
of efficiency, then with high levels of uptake the energy
consumption of domestic and commercial lighting could
potentially be reduced by up to 70% by 2050. It could
realistically achieve a 37% saving in lighting energy use by
2030.
LEDs are currently mainly used in niche applications,
such as: coloured decorative lighting; addressable
picture walls; emergency lighting, automotive and
aviation lighting; low-power display lighting; and LCD
backlighting. Recent applications of LEDs include vehicle
headlights, traffic signals, downlights (primarily for
commercial accent and display applications), emergency
lighting and decorative outdoor lighting, particularly in
conjunction with small-scale solar panels.
Projections of the LED and OLED market suggest that
by 2020 UK firms could have solid-state lighting sales of
around 270 million, rising to 610 million by 2030 and
790 million by 2050. Profits are estimated to rise from
13 million in 2020 up to 36 million by 2030.
Compared with other forms of lighting, LEDs tend
to have lower light output and lower wattage: typically
a few watts with currents in the order of milliamps or
tens of milliamps. The best-performing commercially
available warm white LED fittings have an efficacy of
5060 lm/W. Within a few years, it is expected that the
efficacies of LED lamps will rise to 100 lm/W or above
(the highest-efficiency high-power white LED already
achieves 115 lm/W), so lower-wattage lamps may then
be able to provide the required amounts of light. OLEDs
are expected to rise in efficacy from current values of
35 lm/W to 150 lm/W by 2014.
Although LED luminaires are not currently subject to
any specific labelling requirements, many manufacturers
may choose to label their LED lamps to show that they
reach an energy efficiency rating of EU class A. However,
European Commission Regulation 244/2009 regarding
non-directional lamps for household illumination covers
LED self-ballasted lamps designed to replace ordinary
tungsten filament light bulbs and requires that all such
LED lamps sold in Europe must reach the EU class A
energy efficiency rating.
Besides luminous efficacy, the other LED properties
vary considerably, so careful specification is required. This
needs to cover the amount and direction of the output
light, glare, lifetime and colour quality (including colour
appearance, colour rendering and colour constancy
between batches and over time). LEDs tend to perform
poorly at high temperatures, so their fittings require heat
sinks or ventilation to keep the LEDs cool.


















































































18 LED LIGHTING
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main.asp?sitepages=Tech-Dimming-LEDs.


20 LED LIGHTING
GLOSSARY OF TERMS AND ABBREVIATIONS
addressable OLED an organic LED that allows individual pixels of material to be switched separately
candela the SI unit for luminous intensity, which is the power emitted by a light source in a
particular direction
colour quality scale
(CQS)
a quantitative measure of the ability of a light source to reproduce colours of illuminate
objects
colour rendering index
(CRI)
a quantitative measure of the ability of a light source to reproduce colours of various
objects in comparison with an ideal or natural light source
compact fluorescent a type of fluorescent lamp, designed to replace incandescent lamps, which uses less power
and has a longer rated life
controllable LED an LED connected to a dimmable driver, which is able to vary the output current; LED
colour changes are made possible by dimming separately three different channels of red-,
green- and blue-coloured LEDs
correlated colour
temperature (CCT)
a quantitative measure that defines a colour as the temperature in degrees Kelvin (K) that a
black body source must reach in order to produce that same colour
directional lamp a lamp that contains reflectors that direct and control the light
efficacy/luminous
efficacy
the amount of light (luminous flux) produced by a lamp, usually measured in lumens (lm),
as a ratio of the amount of power consumed, usually measured in watts (W), to produce it;
the ratio is usually expressed in lm/W
epitaxy the method for depositing a monocrystalline film onto a monocrystalline substrate
goniophotometry the technique used for measuring the angular distribution of light scattered from a surface
high-power LED an LED that can be driven at currents from hundreds of milliamps to more than an
ampere, compared with the tens of milliamps for other LEDs
incandescent lamp a lamp that makes light by heating a metal filament wire to a high temperature until it
glows
induction lamp an electrodeless lamp, where an induced electromagnetic field, generated by induction
coils, excites the mercury atoms in the glass tube, causing them to emit UV radiation that is
converted to visible light by the phosphor coating on the inside of the tube
LED a light-emitting diode; a semiconductor light source
LED array an arrangement of multiple LEDs to form a lamp with higher light output and/or with
colour-changing possibilities
LED chip a slice of semiconducting material doped with impurities to create the pn junction, where
energy in the form of photons is emitted by electrons falling into lower energy levels after
meeting holes
LED device an LED that converts electrical energy into light
LED light engine the light-producing portion of a light fixture, containing an array of individual LEDs
mounted in configuration to disperse light in a designed pattern
LED package the plastic body surrounding the LED
low-pressure sodium
lamp
a type of lamp, commonly used in street lights, that produces a bright yellow light by
causing the sodium metal within the tube to vaporise
GLOSSARY OF TERMS AND ABBREVIATIONS 21
lumen maintenance
lumen
lumens per watt (lm/W)
luminaire
luminous flux
metal halide
narrow bin width
non-directional lamp
OLED
opal diffuser
optoelectronic device
fabrication
phase-change material
photometry
point source
P-OLED
pulse width modulator
self-ballasted lamp
SM-OLED
solid-state lighting
sulfur lamp
thyristor dimmer
tubular fluorescent lamp
tuneable LED
tungsten filament lamp
tungsten halogen lamp
wide band gap material
the amount of light emitted from a source at any given time relative to the light output
when the source was first measured; this is usually expressed as a percentage
the unit used to quantify the amount of light produced by a lamp (luminous flux)
the unit used to quantify the efficacy of a lamp
a light fixture or fitting; an electrical device used to create artificial light and/or
illumination, by use of an electric lamp
the amount of light produced by a lamp, usually measured in lumens (lm)
a type of high-intensity discharge lamp that produces light by means of an electric arc
between tungsten electrodes
a reduced, sharper extent in which parameters of different LED lamps are specified, in
order to minimise differences in the same parameter between different lamps and to
increase uniformity
a lamp not having at least 80% light output within a solid angle of sr (corresponding to a
cone with an angle of 120)
an organic LED in which the emissive electroluminescent layer is a film of organic
compounds that emit light in response to electric current
a device used for diffusing or spreading light to create soft light
the process of manufacturing electronic devices that generate, detect and use in their
operation visible light and invisible forms of radiation such as gamma rays, X-rays,
ultraviolet and infrared
a substance with a high heat of fusion, which, melting and solidifying at a certain
temperature, is capable of storing and releasing large amounts of heat
the science of measuring visible light in terms of its perceived brightness to human vision
a single identifiable localised source of light having negligible size relative to other length
scales
an OLED in which electroluminescent conductive polymers emit light when connected to
an external voltage
an electronic device using the pulse width modulation technique to dim LEDs
a lamp of the arc-discharge type, which incorporates a current-limiting device
a small-molecule OLED, where the emissive electroluminescent layer is made of
materials with low molecular weight such as organometallic chelates, fluorescent and
phosphorescent dyes and conjugated dendrimers
a type of lighting that uses semiconductor LEDs, OLEDs or P-OLEDs as sources of
illumination rather than electrical filaments, plasma or gas
a highly efficient full-spectrum light that is generated by sulfur plasma that has been
excited by microwave radiation
a type of dimmer that uses switching techniques, which results in almost instantaneous
dimming
a fluorescent lamp in a tubular form; light is produced when electricity excites mercury
vapour, which in turn produces short-wave ultraviolet light that causes a phosphor to
fluoresce, producing visible light
an LED lamp capable of varying the colour of the emitted light
an incandescent lamp with a tungsten filament that emits light when the filament is heated
an incandescent lamp with a tungsten filament contained within an inert gas and a small
amount of halogen; the tungsten and halogen cause a chemical reaction that increases the
lifetime of the lamp and prevents darkening seen in tungsten filament lamps
a type of semiconductor that has electronic band gaps (energy range in a solid in which no
electron states can exist) larger than one or two electronvolts (eV)













































































22 LED LIGHTING
Other reports from BRE Trust
Subsidence damage to domestic buildings: lessons learned
and questions remaining. September 2000. FB 1
Potential implications of climate change in the built
environment. December 2000. FB 2
Behaviour of concrete repair patches under propped and
unpropped conditions: critical review of current knowledge
and practices. March 2000. FB 3
Construction site security and safety: the forgotten costs!
December 2002. FB 4
New fire design method for steel frames with composite
floor slabs. January 2003. FB 5
Lessons from UK PFI and real estate partnerships: drivers,
barriers and critical success factors. November 2003. FB 6
An audit of UK social housing innovation. February 2004. FB 7
Effective use of fibre reinforced polymer materials in
construction. March 2004. FB 8
Summertime solar performance of windows with shading
devices. February 2005. FB 9
Putting a price on sustainability. BRE Centre for Sustainable
Construction and Cyril Sweett. May 2005 FB 10
Modern methods of house construction: a surveyors guide.
June 2005. FB 11
Crime opportunity profiling of streets (COPS): a quick crime
analysis rapid implementation approach. November 2005,
FB 12
Subsidence damage to domestic buildings: a guide to good
technical practice. June 2007. FB 13
Sustainable refurbishment of Victorian housing: guidance,
assessment method and case studies. September 2006. FB 14
Putting a price on sustainable schools.
May 2008. FB 15
Knock it down or do it up? June 2008. FB 16
Micro-wind turbines in urban environments: an assessment.
December 2007. FB 17
Siting micro-wind turbines on house roofs. May 2008. FB 18
Automatic fire sprinkler systems: a guide to good practice.
June 2009. FB 19
Complying with the Code for Sustainable Homes: lessons
learnt on the BRE Innovation Park.
November 2009. FB 20
The move to low-carbon design: are designers taking the
needs of building users into account?
December 2009. FB 21
Building-mounted micro-wind turbines on high-rise and
commercial buildings. March 2010. FB 22
The real cost of poor housing. February 2010. FB 23
A guide to the Simplified Building Energy Model (SBEM): what
it does and how it works. April 2010. FB 24
Vacant dwellings in England: the challenges and costs of
bringing them back into use. April 2010. FB 25
Energy efficiency in new and existing buildings: comparative
costs and CO
2
savings. September 2010. FB 26
Health and productivity benefits of sustainable schools: a
review. September 2010. FB 27
Integrating BREEAM throughout the design process: a guide
to achieving higher BREEAM and Code for Sustainable Homes
ratings through incorporation with the RIBA Outline Plan of
Work and other procurement routes. November 2010. FB 28
Design fires for use in fire safety engineering.
December 2010. FB 29
Ventilation for healthy buildings: reducing the impact of
urban pollution. January 2011. FB 30
Financing UK carbon reduction projects. February 2011. FB 31
The cost of poor housing in Wales. April 2011. FB 32
Dynamic comfort criteria for structures: a review of UK
standards, codes and advisory documents. April 2011. FB 33
Water mist fire protection in offices: experimental testing
and development of a test protocol. June 2011. FB 34
Airtightness in commercial and public buildings. June 2011.
FB 35
Biomass energy. September 2011. FB 36
Environmental impact of insulation. October 2011. FB 37
Environmental impact of vertical cladding.
October 2011. FB 38
Environmental impact of floor finishes.
November 2011. FB 39
Hilary Graves and Cosmin Ticleanu
LED LIGHTING
A review of the current market and future
developments














LED LIGHTING
A review of the current market and future developments
Lighting is an essential part of everyday life in the developed world and is one
of the largest single users of energy, being responsible for between 15% and
22% of all electricity use in buildings. Good lighting is considered essential to
health, well-being and productivity, but the efficiency of common light sources
can vary widely.
With demands from the UK government and international agreements to
reduce carbon emissions, building designers, owners and occupiers are looking
at the energy efficiency of their lighting. Not since the late 1970s has there
been such a focus on energy management in lighting.
Light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are a proven technology that offers enormous
possibilities for providing highly energy-efficient and good-quality lighting. This
BRE Trust Report summarises the current LED market and various advantages of
LEDs, and outlines the challenges and barriers to widespread adoption of the
technology.
RELATED TITLES FROM IHS BRE PRESS
OFFICE LIGHTING
BR 415
DESIGNING WITH INNOVATIVE LIGHTING
BR 305
SPECIFYING LED LIGHTING
IP 15/10
ELECTRICAL, LIGHTING, ACOUSTICS AND CONTROL SYSTEMS EXPERT PACK
AP 257
ISBN 978-1-84806-191-0
IHS BRE Press, Willoughby Road
Bracknell, Berkshire RG12 8FB
www.brebookshop.com
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