Angryhorse has hit the nail on the head! Every year the photoelectric performance of LED lamps and fully integrated LED luminaires gets better - but at the same time cost pressures mean that the lifetime, reliability and general quality seems to get much worse. Some manufacturers are finding it’s not unusual for as many as 10%-20% of LED products to fail within the first year or two of service, and the warranty claim costs can totally wipe out the company’s profits. Some of those who continue to offer bad quality products look for caveats to get out of honouring such claims.
It is extremely unhelpful for the customer because now there are certain kinds of fixtures for which it is completely almost impossible to find any LED retrofit lamp via retail channels that will deliver satisfactory service. Some manufacturers seem to expect the customer to learn that by experience, and throw away the existing closed fixtures in favour of larger or more open or fully integrated LED fixtures. The resulting ecological problem from electrical waste generation is becoming huge.
Even in the fixtures world this is becoming a big problem. At a time when we have to insulate buildings better to reduce energy costs, a very common logo found on the technical datasheets of ceiling recessed fixtures, panels, downlights etc is that it’s not allowed to cover them with insulation any more! Otherwise they overheat and burn out quickly. Few customers realise at the time of purchase that they have to cut big holes in their roof insulation, even up to eg 20cm all around the perimeter of the fixture.
Another increasingly common trick on ceiling fixtures, track spots etc is to state “max ambient temperature 25C”. To most people that sounds OK since typical rooms are cooler. But heat rises, and at the ceiling height or in ceiling voids the usual temperature is closer to 30C and in summer even higher. I know of many fixtures from formerly big brands where even safety can be compromised - for instance plastic or electronic components or wiring insulation might be running actually at the maximum safe operating temperatures declared on their datasheets, at ambient 25C. However at ceiling temperatures they know this will be exceeded, but claim immunity by stating that the customer is not allowed to use at higher and even typical or expected ambient temperatures. The laws on “expected use conditions” are not especially robust and open to interpretation, and many choose to ignore what is to me an obvious safety or reliability risk.
In Europe it’s now compulsory to state the actual maximum allowed operating temperature (unless that is only 25C, in which, ironically, no marking is required). A few of the better companies allow significant headroom - for mine we invariably state that the fixture is safe for use at up to eg 45 or 50C, and driver life calculations are made not only at 25C, but also at the maximum rated ambient temperature.
This ensures far more reliable products - but also slightly more expensive, and it is not always an easy sell to persuade customers of the value of selecting fixtures with adequate thermal headroom. Slowly though the market seems to be learning. But I consider it unhelpful when certain far bigger companies are so desperate for immediate sales, in an effort to halt their financial failings, that they continue to push the cheapest products that are bound to fail quickly (usually alongside a professional range for the few customers that know how to identify quality products). The only hope is that over time the irresponsible companies will damage their reputations by such frequent failures that customers begin to look for the better brands. In professional channels I expect the situation to regulate itself, but for retail sales and home lighting, the LED lamp and fixture market has become a minefield of horrendously unreliable products with no way for the end consumer to identify the good products from bad (other than slow experience by brand name).
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