What LED products for general illumination are available?

What LED products for illuminating an indoor area or surface are available in retail stores? To answer this question, National Lighting Product Information Program (NLPIP) staff visited a variety of stores in the Albany, New York, area where people would typically buy lamps (commonly referred to as light bulbs) and luminaires for their homes. These stores are shown in Table 1. NLPIP did not survey any lighting showrooms or electrical distributors, nor did NLPIP examine products available on the Internet.

NLPIP researchers looked for products that met these criteria:

• For indoor illumination
• Connect to line voltage
• Provide white light
• For residential applications

These criteria excluded decorative, outdoor, and battery- or solar-powered lights. For example, LED battery-powered puck lights, rope lights intended for decorative trim, task lights powered exclusively by rechargeable batteries, and PV-powered path lights were excluded from the survey.

Two surveys were conducted at stores in the Albany, New York, region. The first was conducted from May 23 through June 4, 2009, and the second was conducted from September 25 through 29, 2009. Products were found in six categories: track lights, power failure lights, task lights, replacement lamps, night-lights, and under-cabinet luminaires. The products found are listed by category below, in alphabetical order based on brand. The accuracy of the information found under "Manufacturer’s data on package" was not verified by NLPIP.

Power failure lights. These units charge a battery when grid electricity is available and then turn on during a power outage. These lights often combine power failure light, flashlight, and night-light functions.

Task lights. These luminaires illuminate a specific task, such as a work area on a desk. Examples include desk and clip-on lamps.

Replacement lamps. NLPIP found LED lamps (commonly referred to as light bulbs) that are intended to replace many types of lamps.

Night-lights. Night-lights provide a small amount of illumination in an otherwise dark room or hallway. Sixty-eight LED products were identified. A table of these models is not provided here because all of the products used little energy to operate, so there is little need to differentiate them from an energy-savings perspective; of those that specified power, most models used energy at a rate less than 0.50 W and none at a rate more than 0.75 W.  Most had the form of traditional night-lights that attach to a wall-plug receptacle, with prices ranging from $2.88 to $14.99.

Under-cabinet and under-shelf luminaires. Under-cabinet and under-shelf luminaires are mounted to the underside of upper cabinets in order to provide counter-top illumination or are mounted under bookshelves and in display cases. These luminaires have either linear or puck forms, as illustrated in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Undercabinet luminaires.

A linear luminaire is at the top and a puck luminaire is at the bottom.

Please refer to Lighting Answers: LED Residential Under-cabinet Luminaires for more information.

Track lights. Track lights are typically ceiling-mounted and provide flexibility in aiming and positioning directional fixture heads to provide general and accent lighting.  NLPIP found one complete LED track light luminaire during this survey: the Hampton Bay 839-899 available at The Home Depot for $169. This luminaire has three track heads and a 44” track. The manufacturer’s data on the package indicates “up to 100,000 hours” of life.  Note that some of the replacement lamps listed in Table 4 are suitable for use in existing track light luminaires.

Summary. During the spring 2009 store survey, a total of 45 models of consumer LED, general-lighting products were found in the Albany, New York, area. During the fall 2009 store survey, this grew to 140 products, over three times as many, showing that LED products are a rapidly growing segment of the lighting market. (Four of the products available in the spring were no longer available in the fall, so there were 101 new products.) Figure 2 shows the number of models within each product category. Most of the increase was in the replacement lamp and night-light categories.

Figure 2. Number of models of consumer LED general lighting products found at retail stores in the Albany, New York region.