Product Testing

The LRC evaluates and tests lighting technologies, products, and systems to provide accurate, objective, third-party performance information. These evaluations - with support from government agencies, public benefit organizations and electric utilities - help the LRC to promote effective and energy-efficient lighting solutions, influence the market, and build industry consensus.

Concern over potential legal repercussions, expense, and technical burdens of product testing often prevent organizations from testing products and reporting brand-name information. As a result, such groups have funded LRC programs such as NLPIP (National Lighting Product Information Program) in an effort to disseminate objective, accurate, timely, manufacturer-specific information about energy-efficient lighting products.

Publications

NLPIP Specifier Reports: Low-wattage Metal Halide Lighting Systems - A detailed report on the operation of metal halide lamps of 150 watts or less on magnetic and non-dimming electronic ballasts, including product testing.

NLPIP Specifier Reports: Electronic Ballasts - This report explains performance characteristics of electronic ballasts, plus other factors such as lamp/ballast starting methods. NLPIP collected data from 12 manufacturers of non-dimming electronic ballasts and independently evaluated 74 of the ballasts from the manufacturers for this report.

NLPIP Specifier Reports: Screwbase Compact Fluorescent Lamp Products - This issue of Specifier Reports contains performance data for compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) rated at or above 13 watts. The report includes NLPIP test data and manufacturers' data on both self-ballasted CFLs and modular CFL products that are sold with ballast and lamp packaged as a single unit.

NLPIP Lighting Answers : Full-Spectrum Light Sources - This report addresses questions about full-spectrum light sources: What are full-spectrum light sources? How valid are the claimed benefits? Are these products worth the extra cost? This report also proposes a convenient definition for full-spectrum light sources that can be used to quantify the extent to which a given light source deviates from a full-spectrum light source.

Field Test DELTA Snapshots: Photovoltaic Lighting Retrofit Kit for Bus Shelters - A field test of a photovoltaic lighting retrofit kit for bus shelters on Long Island, N.Y. The test evaluated the system's performance over an extended period and gauged public reaction to the system at night.

NVLAP Reaccredits LRC Lamp Testing Facility - The LRC's testing laboratory is one of only six non-manufacturer NVLAP-accredited labs for lighting in the United States, making it one of the few independent resources for testing lamps.

NLPIP at a Crossroads: 15th Anniversary Retrospective - NLPIP has changed the way lighting products are marketed and what information is reported, and program sponsors are considering new ways to enhance NLPIP, so it can continue to serve a changing industry.

View more NLPIP publications

View more DELTA publications

Related Programs

• NLPIP - Product testing
• DELTA - Energy efficiency case studies
• PEARL - Testing of ENERGY STAR® lighting products
• Solid-State Lighting - Improving, using LEDs